Environmental Council
Minutes of December 8
Old Chapel 401
Attending: Nan Jenks-Jay (Chair), Connie Leach Bisson (Vice-Chair), Jeff Munroe, Steve Trombulak, Anne Knowles, Brenda Ellis, Charlotte Tate, Olivia Katz, Kelly Blynn, David Wright, Sara Dewey, Dalal Al-Abdulazzak, Clare O'Reilly
Missing: Diane Munroe, Whitney Creed, Sharai Lewis-Gruss, Makely Lyon, Louis Paolella, John Reed
Guest: Franci Farnsworth
- Announcements
Clare reported that the Thanksgiving break shuttle services had been successful and SGA would be offering them again in February. They filled a 36 passenger bus to Boston and a 56 passenger bus to NYC. Clare will check on results of ride boards and coordinated shuttles offered by the Commons, too.
Charlotte asked if it would be possible to have someone come to Environmental Council to provide an update on the proposal for a woodchip burning plant. She noted that there is dialogue within the college community about this proposal and it might be good to understand the current status of the project so this community discussion does not get out of hand. Nan noted that she and Helen Young had met with Bob Huth and there would be a meeting to reconvene the CRI Working Group and provide them with a status report in the near future. The woodchip boiler project might be presented to the Trustees in February.
Connie announced the Concert for Clean Energy that was being held on Saturday night in Pearson's Lounge sponsored by the Climate Campaign, Cook Commons, and Middlebury's Energy Team. She also announced the showing of the movie "Monumental" in Dana on Sunday at 3 p.m., focused on David Brower.
The Alternative Gift Fair (AGF) will be Thursday night from 5-7 at Ross Dining Hall. About ten organizations would be represented. Student Andrew Dines '05 designed a graphic that will be used on a gift card for the event and Char Carlson will be playing her fiddle during the AGF.
- Minutes of November 22
The minutes of November 22, 2004 were unanimously approved as written.
Environmental Grants
On behalf of the Environmental Grants subcommittee (Kelly Blynn, Sara Dewey, Sharai Lewis-Gruss, Diane Munroe, Olivia Katz, Charlotte Tate, Franci Farnsworth, Connie Leach Bisson), Connie noted that only two grant proposals had been submitted. The first was a request for $50 to support promotion of the Dishwashing Project. The Dishwashing Project coordinator planned to solicit volunteers (sports teams, clubs, first-year seminars, etc.) to commit to one night of dishwashing. Connie read the following section of the grant proposal referencing the applicant's thoughts on why this project enhances campus sustainability.
First, and more obviously, it deals with food waste, which we have a whole lot of here on campus. While weigh the waste is somewhat effective, I've found it often puts people on the defensive because there is a moralizing tone to the whole process. Dishwashing is a much more first-hand, memorable raiser of awareness, and puts the volunteer in the position of complaining about others' waste instead of being embarrassed about their own.
Second,MiddleburyCollegeis our environment, and dishwashing causes people to think about how they interact with both the people and infrastructure of the College. Too often there is a total lack of disrespect for facilities and dining staff and for the buildings and objects that we all occupy. By dishwashing, volunteers meet the real live people behind the tray conveyor belt and learn about what they do everyday, which carries over into a more amiable, respectful relationship between all people in our environment. Additionally, the physical act of cleaning up after oneself provokes a sense of ownership for the place and a desire to care for it. After a night in the dishroom, hopefully volunteers will think twice before taking a cup from the dining hall or leaving a mess in the bathroom.
The Grants Subcommittee is recommending that more funding be directed to this project if the applicant is willing to develop a more sustainable plan for continuing the Dishwashing Project so that it becomes institutionalized. For instance, members of the subcommittee suggested the development of a short handbook on how to run the project, creating a nice reusable banner, developing a logo and nicer signage for soliciting volunteers. The Subcommittee asked for authority to dedicate up to $300 of environmental grant funds for this project.
The second grant proposal was submitted by Dining Services, requesting $1500 to update the local purchasing posters in the dining halls. Again, the subcommittee desires to use the proposal as a dialogue starting point, suggesting that it might behoove Dining Services to expand their thinking to a grander educational display. This would likely mean more funding is required and might constitute hiring a consultant or graphic designer. Might it be something designed to be housed in Atwater or be replicated in all dining halls? The display should be designed to be updatable by in-house staff. The subcommittee supports committing up to $1500 for this project if the concept of the educational display is expanded beyond the current design of framed, posters. Otherwise, they feel the award should be substantially reduced.
After brief discussion about each proposal, Nan authorized members of the subcommittee to have conversations with both parties for a revised proposal, basing awards at no more than $300 for the Dishwashing Project and no more than $1500 for the Local Foods Display project. If either project changes significantly, it should be brought back to the Environmental Council for further discussion.
Connie thanked Franci Farnsworth for her on-going assistance in reviewing grant proposals and the Environmental Grants program. The question of why so few grant proposals had been received had been discussed by the subcommittee. Franci summarized comments from the subcommittee:
- Pay for an ad in The Campus
- Institutionalize Deadline - e.g. always have due date as third week of the fall semester
- Timing within the semester and academic year may make it difficult for certain or all faculty, staff and students
- Coordinate more with specific ES classes (projects that would grow out of course materials or projects)
- Need to think about how to attract other departments and offices on campus beyond Dining (May have been a tough year for any projects from ITS / Library type folks this year because of move; Facilities Management and Facilities Planning may have been too stressed this year too because of new planning phase and finishing existing projects
- Need to link to general excellence / life-long learning peak
- Approach commons or other potential funding sources this spring '05, so all funding in place for Fall '05
- Target goal of $5000
General discussion included suggestions such as running an article in The Campus highlighting past grant projects as well as buying an ad. Franci suggested that with the remaining funds, we might consider a competition for $100 grants in the early spring. Nan thanked Franci and the subcommittee for their work.
- Dish Recovery dialogue update
Clare provided the EC with an update based on meetings held by the Community Council on Monday and a lunchtime open forum at Freeman on Friday. The Friday meeting included representatives from several different constituencies including CRA's, Proctor staff, two chefs, custodial and recycling, environmental council, SGA, and Asst Treasurer's office. Ideas included offering a limited supply of disposables, dining hiring monitors. Ultimately, the focus moved toward a re-education of the student body with a modification or discontinuation of the DRS. The general feeling was that the DRS has exacerbated the problem and enabled the removal of dishes so that the DRS has become over used. The plan is to provide an educational campaign through the Commons in January with the elimination of the DRS bins in February. As of February fines, as defined in the College Handbook, will be instituted, focused at the dorm level rather than the individual. Details about the fine system still need to be worked out. Recycling can identify dishes in recycling and trash at the pick up point. That will likely be one source for determining fines. Clare also noted that there was some discussion of stocking suites with place settings and a dish return amnesty program that was suggested by Tim Spears during the Community Council meeting.
[from the College Handbook…f. Dining Facilities: Removal of food, dishes, utensils, etc., from College dining facilities (including the Crest Room/Grille, Rehearsals Café, Golf Course, and Snow Bowl) may result in a $35 fine and disciplinary proceedings.]
- Pedestrian Campus
Steve reminded EC members of the three focus areas that the Pedestrian Campus subcommittee and noted that today's discussion will focus on the first part of the charge from the administration dealing with crafting language defining what a pedestrian campus is. The following draft definition was included with the meeting agenda:
Pedestrian Campus "Definition"
While specific definitions of a pedestrian campus will vary given school location and size, the foundational concepts include providing safe, comfortable, and equitable access to a variety of transportation options (other than single-occupancy vehicle); community building (increasing informal person to person interactions); improving quality of life; and improving environmental quality through decreased CO2 emissions and sustainable land use.
Planning for a pedestrian campus needs to be comprehensive, integrated, and collaborative. It needs to consider all modes of transportation in, around, to, and from campus and this will require collaboration with the Town ofMiddleburyand local transit service providers. Infrastructure improvements and incentives will be needed to facilitate the implementation of pedestrian campus concepts.
We need to diversify how we think about moving from one place to another and then provide a variety of options for how to do so. While cars are appropriate in some settings, on a pedestrian campus, equal consideration needs to be given to non-motorized and shared forms of transit.
Suggestions included adding terms such as "biking" and "walking"; replacing "improving quality of life" with "improving health and safety" (through decreased CO2 emissions and sustainable land use); replacing "We" with "Middlebury College" at the beginning of the third paragraph. There was discussion about developing a better term than "pedestrian campus". Steve felt the best strategy would be to stick with the term for the time being but embed a new term into the text to begin to recast this to something less outdated and more suitable for Middlebury that is not shrouded in multiple definitions. Steve thanked everyone for their input and would work on a revision based on this feedback.
- January meeting dates
Nan shared that President Liebowitz was available to meet on Monday, January 17th or 24th. Connie would check to see whether there would be Martin Luther King Jr. events that would conflict with a meeting on the 17th.
A full Environmental Council meeting was set for Wednesday, January 12th from 3:30-5:00. Nan requested that subcommittees plan to meet during J-Term instead of scheduling another full meeting of the Environmental Council beyond the meeting on the 12th and the discussion with President Liebowitz.