Environmental Council
Minutes of November 8, 2004
Old Chapel 401
Attending: Nan Jenks-Jay (Chair), Connie Leach Bisson (Vice Chair), Steve Trombulak, Diane Munroe, Anne Knowles, Brenda Ellis, Clare O'Reilly, David Wright, Kelly Blynn, Sharai Lewis-Gruss, Louis Paolella, Makely Lyon, Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak, Sarah Dewey, John Reed
Missing: Lance Leduc, Jeff Munroe, Charlotte Tate, Olivia Katz
The meeting began at4:40 p.m.
I. Announcements
Clare announced that there were still seven seats on the bus at break to Boston and that all fifty-six seats (they had to enlarge this bus) to NYC were taken. SGA raised some funds to assist in subsidizing the costs of this pilot.
II. Minutes of October 25th
Unanimously accepted as submitted
III. Environmental Grants Process
Connie reported that e-mails had been sent to students and staff. She is still waiting for permission to send an announcement to faculty. The current table tent describes the grants and there will be something about the grants in MiddPoints. Connie will invite the Commons to support the Environmental Grants program, providing them with information about funding received from the Commons last year. She has requested a list of students studying abroad fall semester and will send a separate e-mail to them encouraging their submittals to the grant program. The Environmental Grants subcommittee, comprised of Kelly Blynn, Sara Dewey, Sharai Lewis-Gruss, Diane Munroe, Olivia Katz, Charlotte Tate, Connie Leach Bisson, and Franci Farnsworth, will receive copies of the grants by December 1st and an evaluation matrix to use if desired in reviewing grants. The subcommittee will meet during that week with the goal of bringing a list of recommended awards to the Environmental Council at its December 6th meeting. Grant funds should then be available for successful grantees in early January. Nan indicated she would be interested in seeing the matrix and suggested that it be sent out electronically.
IV. Update on Upcoming Events
Alternative Gift Fair (AGF)—Connie shared that she, Whitney, Dalal, Kelly and Sharai have met to begin planning the AGF. They decided the timing was better to hold the event on Thursday, December 9th and it will take place in the lounge area outside Ross Dining. Campus and local groups will be invited to offer gift options that support social and environmental causes both international and local in nature. Examples given were Habitat for Humanity, Middlebury Natural Food Co-op (offering local products), the Peace & Justice Center, Heifer International, Middlebury College Organic Garden. There was a suggestion of inviting those involved in the Angel program and having a hands-on area for making wrapping paper. If there will be material gifts available for sale, there might be a group who would like to raise money by offering a gift wrapping service.
Energy Info Night -- Facilities Management (FM) and Environmental Affairs have launched a college Energy Team as part of a ReBuild America Department of Energy grant received by the VT Dept of Public Service. About twelve students and three staff members from FM plus Connie and Liz Cunningham from the Vermont Campus Energy Group attended the first meeting though the list of students interested in being on the team is over thirty. The Energy Team was briefed on campus energy use and then brainstormed ways to reduce energy consumption. Initially the Energy Team will target students. Based on feedback from those in the room, they decided to host an Energy Info Night on Thursday, November 18th in Proctor's Woodstove Lounge to coach students on the proper use of their thermostats and educate them on the energy efficiency and appeal of compact fluorescent light options. Those attending noted that many were unclear how to effectively adjust their thermostats and three students mentioned that they did not think the CFLs distributed to First Years were being put to use. The Energy Team discussed the possibility of a survey to obtain more feedback on these energy issues.
The 72 Hours of Light campaign was mentioned and it was suggested that CFLs might be distributed at Energy Info Night if there were any left from this campaign. David Wright asked if the AC problem in Ross had been fixed. Connie said she would check on this and get back to him. Nan suggested that vignettes of how people affect change in small ways should be documented and highlighted on the webpage. She provided the example of Doug Dagan '03 who was bothered by the dripping distilled water faucets in BIH. His perseverance, including an economic analysis of the cost of the drips, resulted in an upgrading of the faulty component on the faucet.
V. Subcommittee Updates
CornwallPath – October 28th they had their first meeting. Anne noted that it was great to have three people from Athletics participating, including Missy Foote. Will Jackson (main donor of consultant funds) attended the first meeting but will not likely attend others. They are currently considering whether it should be a fair weather or year round path. Their plan is to get cost estimates for all options. The subcommittee is working with Gary Fern from Otter Creek Engineering. Anne passed around a map showing their latest GPS excursion. The green line shows the most logical route (adjacent to Rte 125). It must be at least a 66' setback from the center of the road according to the Vermont Department of Transportation. The Yellow line on the map is an alternate route and the Orange line is the route they were thinking about when they did a GPS excursion last year.
Will it be bicycle friendly? That has yet to be determined. Should the subcommittee be working with town planning? Steve noted that the Administration is not comfortable with individuals or committees approaching the town without College approval. It might be good to check with Bob Huth's office to discuss how the subcommittee should proceed in communication with Middlebury and Cornwall. It will also be important to have a discussion with Weybridge since the Path will cause people to exit onto roads in Weybridge. An additional suggestion was to create bullets of things the subcommittee hopes the project will achieve to give to the consultant (e.g. least impact on agriculture; negligible impact on wetlands; get runners off the road).
Purchasing – This subcommittee will meet on Tuesday. They are working on defining priorities and selecting a few areas to focus on to make a noticeable change. Nan mentioned that she is in conversation with Joanna Underwood from INFORM who has done extensive research on cleaning products and lights with mercury in them. There might be an opportunity to bring staff from INFORM to campus to host an information session, possibly inviting custodial staff from other Vermont colleges to participate.
Pedestrian Campus – Steve and Nan met with Bob Huth and learned that he had not been given the charge of addressing the pedestrian campus concept as a whole, but had been asked to recommend a plan for the future of Old Chapel Road given the landscaping of the Front Quad, and new construction in this area (including the former Starr Library and planned additions to McCullough). The subcommittee will therefore focus on three areas:
1. What does pedestrian campus mean? How do you know when you get there? The subcommittee will provide some insight to these questions for distribution to the Trustees.
2. Development of a storyboard of possible components of the pedestrian campus. The intent here is to encourage the college community to be working from the same definition or goal.
3. Detailed work on bicycle transportation, including bicycle parking and bicycle flow
Clare and Steve are meeting with Tim Spears to begin this dialogue and encouraging thoughtful purchase and placement of new bike racks. There is a need to consider lighting, safety, theft prevention, etc.
It was noted that Luther Tenny, Assistant Director of Facilities Management has joined the Pedestrian Campus subcommittee.
Lands Committee—Nan is co-chairing this subcommittee with Andi Lloyd from Biology. The members reviewed the draft policy developed two years ago by an Environmental Council subcommittee and then discussed what has occurred since then as well as describing staff on the campus with oversight responsibility for college owned lands. A subcommittee of the Trustees is also studying college owned lands. The subcommittee will review the policy to identify things that have changed since the policy was drafted two years ago. A husband/wife team from Green Mountain College (Poultney, VT) has researched other schools' models for managing off-campus lands and this may be a useful reference. The subcommittee is in the process of scheduling a meeting with Tom Corbin (Director of Business Services) to get his recommendation of the best strategies for the subcommittee for moving the draft policy forward at this time. The subcommittee is also discussing permanent and creative ways of potentially protecting the Long Trail (which crosses college lands near the Snow Bowl).
VI. Meeting with President – Nan provided an update on plans for meeting with President Liebowitz. His schedule is quite full but she is still hoping to schedule a time, possibly a regularly schedule EC meeting time where we could talk with President Liebowitz and then have dinner together. The idea of talking from the roof of McCardell Bicentennial Hall is still appealing. Sharai mentioned that she had signed up to have lunch with the President and wondered is she should represent an issue on behalf of the Environmental Council. Nan encouraged her to lay the groundwork for the EC's meeting with the President, sharing that we are looking forward to hearing his ideas. The EC is interested in knowing the types of things he'll be looking for from this body and would appreciate his serious thought about our advisory role to him.
The meeting adjourned at5:45 p.m.