I am on the Senior Steering Committee, and am on the particular sub-committee where I will help choose the Class Gift. I am passionately advocating a “green gift” of some kind. Despite my bias toward environmentally friendly choices (predictable given this blog’s subject matter), I believe that something "green" speaks more to our time, as the Class of 2008. Convincing others to make sustainable choices requires choosing your battles; this committee has been my chosen sphere of advocation and action.
The first sustainable gift idea I Iproposed was an arborsmithed bench (see above image or see here). I think that a special bench such as this would be utilized because it would give a unique sense of place and artfulness to wherever it is put. Others raised concerns about vandalism, but with thoughtful consideration for its location (i.e. not by fraternity houses and instead outside the art building or library) it could add a sustainable and aesthetic marker in our outdoor campus space. This idea was the first I proposed to counter the groupthink that was going on in the committee, and it was not taken up with much excitement—instead it became more of an exemplar that there are other ideas out there beside the one that was proposed early on for a large metal mascot sculpture.The metal mascot is kitschy, antiquated and most importantly: not sustainable. (My concern was also that the committee was taking the path of least resistance by silently settling for the metal statue to not have to do further research.) The voice behind the mascot (pun intended: mask-ot) seemed determined to derail anything I proposed; his authorship to the idea was clearly paramount.
The next idea I researched and proposed was a “green fund” of some sort, and in particular I was hoping to get it to pay for the LEED certification of the next green building on campus. This was met with curious animosity from some (financially oriented) staff members. I pressed the issue, but was quite discouraged to hear that the school’s system may not be able to accommodate such a small (aim: $10,000) fund, as it presents a risk. The risk was partially that the school may not choose to “build green” in the future, and then the fund would go unused.
With this news, I called to the head manager of our facilities about the next building renovation’s lack of an environmental agenda (scheduled to break ground in Summer 2008). He explained that they were taking what opportunities they could for incorporating sustainable practices. With the new building’s construction we will lose (inevitably) about six white oaks. With this fact, I began thinking about how we could take these and keep the wood locally; thus the idea of carved chairs or a carved mascot was born. As of now, we are still in the process of getting votes from an online poll of the senior class, which will determine our next move.
It has been an uphill battle and I have been at the forefront of it--daring to dream of making this campus sustainable and I have been taking the heat for it from the opposition. The case for sustainability can be helped only by teamwork at this point; if the senior class votes for the green fund and if others speak up, (as some of my peers have begun to at my request for some vocal support) then incorporating sustainability could become a reality in some small facet. A univocal campaign does not get far, no matter how many people tell you that you are “fighting the good fight.” In this experience I have learned how resistant some can be to sustainability, and I have learned how to deal with such conflicts in a professional manner.
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