Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day and to celebrate, the College hosted its own day-long, environmentally friendly festival on Saturday on the University Center Terrace.
It was sponsored by the Student Environmental Action Coalition and other environmentally focused clubs and organizations from the College and the Williamsburg community and offered free music, food and a gamut of ideas for sustainable alternatives in everyday life.
The organizations at the festival included the Outdoors Club, Campus Kitchen, Campus Garden Campaign, Botany Club, Students for Fair Trade and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Many of the approximately 20 tables surrounding the terrace offered a fundraiser or service in support of the College’s pursuit of sustainability.
Campus Kitchen offered free, reusable shopping bags as an alternative to the plastic or paper bags used at supermarkets; Ukrops donated the bags to promote preventing food waste. SEAC provided complementary organic foods while the Rainforest Earring Campaign sold student-made earrings in support of the Nature Conservancy to protect rainforests in Costa Rica.
The festival not only focused on encouraging healthier and greener lifestyles, but also advocated the College’s sustainability campaign. Ever since the College received a near-failing grade for sustainability, various students, faculty and administration have publicly supported changes in College policy, such as the creation of an Office of Sustainability and endowments directed toward sustainable facilities and research projects.
With the introduction of "green fees," an additional $30 added per year to each student’s general fees, which was passed by the Student Assembly and approved in a recent survey by 85 percent of the student body, the sustainability campaign took its first large step in its environmental pursuit. Around $250,000 will be raised annually for sustainable measures from the fees. The most recent debate has focused on the allocation of the money.
Shortly after noon, Interim President W. Taylor Reveley III addressed the Earth Day crowd, unveiling the College’s current plans for sustainability and the allocation of the green fees.
Reveley emphasized his “steely confidence” in the green fees and the likelihood that the Board of Visitors would adopt them. A special Committee of Sustainability, comprised of students, faculty, staff and administrators, will soon be formed for the purpose of allocating the money.
Reveley stated that although the majority of the fees will go to facilities upgrades, some will be spent on research projects and $40,000 will be allocated annually to a “green endowment.” Although the endowment would take time to accrue, he called it an “important symbolic statement” for the College.
The first facilities upgrades at the College would center on electricity and heating and cooling meters. Eventually, when the endowment matures, the College may focus on green roofs and solar installations.
SEAC also addressed the College’s involvement in the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment at the festival. This is an effort to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions on college campuses and to include sustainability as a focus at these institutions. Despite SEAC’s avid support for the commitment during former President Nichol's tenure, the College recently decided not to sign it.
The SEAC energy campaign offered several energy-saving tips for the campus. To “green your dorm,” they suggest the use of compact fluorescent lights, as well as taking shorter showers, turning off lights and recycling.
Finally, the College’s Sustainability Seminar revealed the top five proposals for the greening of the College. The seminar, consisting of 122 students, created over 70 different proposals and, after the deliberation of the seminar’s faculty leaders, the five best ideas received acknowledgment.
These five proposals will be submitted to the administration for consideration.
“Our proposal was for an office of on sustainability on campus,” Tyler Koontz (’10) said.
Koontz was a member of the seminar and co-author of a selected proposal entitled, “Sustaining Excellence: A Proposal for Institutionalizing Environmental Sustainability at the College of William & Mary.”
He said, “I think that having an office is an important role and it should be the responsibility of ensuring that sustainability efforts are taught. Being selected was definitely an honor after all of the hard work put into the seminar.”
The Earth Day festival concluded by advocating a self-sustaining campus, one that relies on the efforts of both the student body and administration.
Reveley stressed the importance of students’ role in sustainability.
“Just how long does that wonderful, hot shower have to be in the morning?” Reveley said. “[We must] put our bodies where our mouths are.”