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View a list of Spring 2009 House Contacts Read more about our Inside Jobs Investigate the SLC Wiki Our Core Values We recognize there is a need for students, faculty and other community members to learn the practical skills involved with living a more sustainable lifestyle. To address this expressed and growing student need and to uphold the institution’s commitment to environmental awareness and stewardship, we propose that Dartmouth establish a Sustainable Living Center. The SLC will necessarily be: * Focused on education: The SLC is designed to further the education of students and other community members in ways that are not currently being offered. It will therefore be strongly linked to a diverse range of academic programs at Dartmouth. * On campus: It must be readily accessible to all students and faculty as part of its inclusive and educational values. * Self-reliant: It must be a free-standing building that is not dependant on outside sources of energy and minimizes the output of waste products. The mechanisms for minimizing inputs and outputs will be working demonstrations of how to live more sustainably, as part of the educational purpose of the center. These will provide the hands-on experiential education that currently is unavailable to students. * Designed, developed and operated by students: As part of the educational process, academic courses and individual students will benefit by the experiences of planning and running the SLC. Researching and developing every part of the SLC is a valuable educational opportunity. * Community-oriented and community-dependent: It must be in part a residential space for at least 10 residents. An important part of sustainability is the sustainability of a community and the ability to share tasks and resources. * Highly involved with the Dartmouth community: It must be a non-exclusive space that actively seeks to serve all members of the Dartmouth community as part of its educational purpose. We envision the SLC as a household that would be a venue for experiential learning in regards to sustainability, an educational resource for the broader Dartmouth community, and a place that would allow residents to practice a lifestyle of minimal environmental impact. The SLC is very much in line with Dartmouth’s tradition and is an important way in which Dartmouth can lead the way in sustainability. Living at the SLC As a house, the SLC (North Hall) has 19 beds on coed floors for sophomores, juniors, and seniors committed to participating in and developing events and ideas for the SLC, for setting an example on the Dartmouth campus. Students are expected to take some sort of position in the house, to help with chores and Wednesday Night Dinners as well as their other interests, and to live conscientiously, self-observing and -critical. Just remember, you might have to think twice about you mini-fridge and hairdryer. We love people with lots of experience already, but we're even more excited about involving and working with people who have not yet fully put their minds to it! In order to give as many students as possible the chance to live at the SLC and to spread what we learn intimately by living there to other living spaces on campus, we do ask that students consider limiting the number of terms they spend at the SLC.
Deadline for Spring 2009: 02/02/09. The application is here. History Creating a living-learning center for sustainability at Dartmouth has been an off-and-on project since the early 1990s. At the Step It Up Rally in Spring 2007, some freshmen found evidence of this dropped project and with the guidance of Farm Manager Scott Stokoe created a new group dedicated to creating this space. The group found a temporary home under the aegis of the Outdoor Programs Office (OPO). OPO Director Andy Harvard arranged for the SLC to have a blitz account through OPO. Thayer Engineering Professor Benoit Cushman-Roisin was also an integral member of the original team. He and Scott assisted with establishing criteria by which to rank the houses under consideration by the Office of Residential Life. Throughout the 2007 Spring and Summer terms, most of the SLC activities consisted of fashioning a mission statement for the group, establishing relationships with key administrators, and beginning the search for a house to hold the facility. Although some members of the student group were more involved than others, the SLC team did not adopt an explicit hierarchy and it did not designate any club officers. Instead it encouraged everyone to grab hold of one aspect of the planning process and take charge of it. In Fall 2007 Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt expressed her support for the project and Dean of Residential Life Marty Redman offered the North Hall dormitory with the understanding that SLC students would live there starting Fall 2008 but that no major renovations or retrofits would take place until 2010. Professor Karol Kawiaka assigned her Architecture 1 students the project of designing models for a new SLC building, i.e. starting de novo rather than making retrofits. This advanced one of the group’s original goals of using the SLC as a resource for academic classes. In Winter 2008 the group decided upon the affinity house process for admitting residents into North Hall for the next fall term. The group also started to hold envirochats on a weekly basis in Robo with Scott Stokoe. The original intent was to provide reading material prior to the envirochat and use that as the launch point for discussion. It became apparent pretty quickly that the attendees rarely had time to read these selections. Instead, for SLC residents and interested participants, we will have termly book readings and discussions. In Spring 2008 the applications for living in the SLC went live. The group received 30 applicants for 18 spots. They interviewed each applicant who was on-campus in the spring. Being treated by ORL as an affinity house made the selection process straightforward, but the SLC wants more connections with the academic side of Dartmouth than is typically involved in ORL operations. Spring term also saw the strongest expression of commitment to the project from high level administrators, particularly Associate Provost Mary Gorman. This demonstrates that we have made a lot of headway in establishing ourselves on campus, in outreaching and involving everyone. Throughout Summer 2008, the group worked on programming and internal organization in preparation for opening to residents and campus in the fall, as well as investigating an appropriate dining system for residents of the SLC, which includes connections with the Dartmouth Organic Farm. Fall 2008, SLCers faced the challenge of day-to-day consciousness, continuing programming through the term in spite of exams and general Dartmouth business, and maintaining our overall goals. The SLC gained some fame and recognition, including the support (and a generous contribution!) from author Terry Tempest Williams. The weekly dinners were a huge success and popular throughout the term, and without drastic lifestyle changes, the group in North Hall used 58% less energy than the average of the previous occupants in the last five years. |