Every year, the department of Environmental Studies offers ENVS 50, Environmental Problem Analysis and Policy Formation, in which a group of students identify and research a local environmental problem and develop a solution that can be integrated into existing policy. In Spring 2004, students in this class were given the following mission: “Identify the most effective environmental choices that Dartmouth College should make right now.” In the resulting 226-page report, the students described Dartmouth as embodying a “social paradigm” of “inappropriate” reliance on fossil fuels and stated that switching from this image of an ignorant, wasteful follower to that of a progressive leader in environmental awareness and responsibility should be a top priority for the college.

Is Dartmouth successfully making this transition? In recent years, there have been some improvements, including the hiring this past summer of Sustainability Coordinator James Merkel, several green building initiatives, and the successful alternative-energy project known as the Big Green Bus. Of course, there are also a variety of student groups on campus with environmentally oriented mission statements, several of which this article will highlight. Despite these efforts, however, the college still has a long way to go to combat the “social paradigm” and to embrace a paradigm of sustainability, energy efficiency, and reduced waste.

The desire to build environmental awareness and consciousness on the Dartmouth campus is by no means a contemporary student movement. In 1969, prior to the first national Earth Day, concerned Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) members formed Environmental Students at Dartmouth (ESD, also sometimes referred to as the Environmental Studies Division) within the DOC. The purpose of this group, as described in its mission statement, is to “educate the Dartmouth community, and ourselves, on environmental issues at our College and in the global community at large. As environmentalists, it is our hope that with knowledge of these issues, the community will participate in activism that will improve the situation of our Earth and move towards a change in lifestyle to help mitigate our own detrimental effect on the land.” The group grew quickly, allowing it to plan, organize, and execute successful educational and action-oriented activities such as Dartmouth’s first Earth Day celebration, trash clean-ups, workshops and seminars on environmental and nature-related topics, discussion groups, and field trips.

ESD played a crucial role in some of the college’s most progressive environmental initiatives. The group’s first victory was undoubtedly its most pervasive. In the face of increasing demand from students, set against the greater backdrop of environmentalism sweeping the country in the early 70s, the college created the nation’s first Environmental Studies Department and major program. Over time, similar student pressure led to the creation of the Dartmouth Organic Farm, the introduction of composting at DDS, and, most recently, the creation of the Sustainability Coordinator position.

Of course, in the true spirit of student activism, some of ESD’s actions have gone through channels that were decidedly less official. The most famous of these was in 1992, when members of ESD, in conjunction with a number of other like-minded student groups, were successful in prompting the Trustees to divest from Hydro-Quebec, a damming project in James Bay that many believed to be severely damaging both to the area’s and environment and to its indigenous culture. One of the highlights of this student initiative was undoubtedly the sensationalist guerilla tactic of scaling the smokestack of the Dartmouth Power Plant during the night and draping an enormous banner reading “Divest HQ!” from the top.

Another highlight of student involvement was the publication Sense of Place, a predecessor to The Green Magazine. Published entirely online, it employed unique graphics and sound effects and was occasionally assigned as required reading in some environmental science and computer science courses. In fact, Sense of Place achieved such notoriety that the New York Times wrote an article about the publication’s popularity and novelty. Although few people on campus may remember it, Sense of Place was undoubtedly a major contributor to Dartmouth’s reputation as one of the most technologically savvy colleges in the country.

Looking back at over 30 years of student activism, one can’t help but draw two conclusions: First, that environmental interest has always been inherently cyclical, usually corresponding closely with trends in America at large; second, that Dartmouth students can accomplish some amazing things against all odds when they are motivated and united.

Today, there are roughly a dozen campus groups with environmentalism as their centrallystated goal. Some of these groups include the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), the Dartmouth Organic Farm, the Big Green Bus, ESD, Sustainable Dartmouth, and this publication, The Green Magazine (TGM). ECO is best known for organizing floor representatives from each dorm whose responsibilities include making sure that there are recycling bins available and that individuals develop energy-reducing living habits such as turning off lights. Besides the Save Power and Receive Cash (SPARC) inter-dorm competition this February, ECO co-leader Ritchie King ‘06 outlined four other current projects: “Surveying the current recycling infrastructure in dorms, including a census of the receptacles; establishing a program with residential life that ensures favorable (single occupant) housing for upper class dorm reps; hosting an environmentally themed film series, hopefully resulting in discussion; and encouraging the use of SIPs funding for dorm events.”

The Dartmouth Organic Farm, founded in 1994, just became an official branch of the DOC. Hannah Rossman ‘08, current Farm co-chair, outlined the purpose of the farm: “Responsible agriculture is a gigantic part of maintaining, or improving, the environment. Dartmouth’s Organic Farm acts as an exploration ground for experimentation in responsible and sustainable living.” Every term the farm hosts a seasonal festival that includes nature activities, field work, live music, and a giant potluck dinner. The Dartmouth Organic Farm is always looking for energetic volunteers that don’t mind “playing in the dirt or being outside.” The farm also conducts internships, and students can apply to live there.

One initiative that brought national attention to Dartmouth was the Big Green Bus, whose slogan is: “Change your fuel, change the world.” This past summer, fifteen Dartmouth Ultimate Frisbee players set out to show that energy-efficiency through the use of alternative energy sources is a real and viable possibility. The Big Green Bus, run on waste vegetable oil, left Hanover in mid-June and returned successfully on August 3, having passed through sixteen states and Canada. With a new bus, a new group of people, and renewed enthusiasm, The Big Green Bus will once again journey around the country this summer, playing some great frisbee and spreading its message of reduced dependence on fossil fuels.

There is also an alumni group, the Dartmouth Environmental Network (DEN), whose mission is to “facilitate solution-oriented discussion about environmental responsibility. In doing so it intends to empower members of the Dartmouth Community to make informed decisions, on the level of the individual, community, corporation, and institution.” Over 500 alumni are involved, conducting workshops and panels as well as producing a quarterly newsletter.

At the administrative level, the Resource Working Group, Materials Management, Procurement Services, and the Sustainability Office are all involved in developing and administering programs designed to help Dartmouth become a more environmentally responsible and sustainable campus. The Resource Working Group “identifies issues that Dartmouth needs to study with regard to resource consumption, operations, and environmental education and training.” In conjunction with ECO, they have created a Model Residence Hall Room, which displays an environmentally friendly lifestyle and appliance selection, as well as an Environmentally Friendly Office presentation that highlights how individuals can help save and protect the environment. Both Materials Management and Procurement Services seek to “reduce the volume and toxicity of waste.” They work closely with many student environmental groups, graduate programs, FO&M, ORL, and other departments and staff to promote waste reduction, recycling, energy efficiency, and cost-effective property disposal and reallocation.

All of these groups are evidence that there is still huge interest in environmental conservation here at Dartmouth. Unfortunately, despite this interest, a few significant problems are currently stifling students’ ability to push for meaningful change.

The first of these should come as no surprise: continuity. Student groups at all schools must deal with the problem of keeping their mission alive between the four-year cycles of incoming and outgoing students, but at Dartmouth this problem is exacerbated by the D-Plan. Regardless of anyone’s personal feelings towards the college’s controversial solution to the housing crunch, it’s selfevident that the constant shuffling of students in and out of Hanover, student initiatives are often cut short by the loss of an important leader to an off-term.

The other problem, more specific to Dartmouth environmentalism, is that the large number of groups has resulted in a significant communication gap. Many parallel endeavors go forward that could benefit from a more coordinated approach and combined resources. In general, most of the existing efforts aimed at raising campus-wide awareness of sustainability issues would be more efficient and ultimately more effective if the individual groups pooled their work in one large campaign.

Probably the best example of both problems in action is the recurring failure of efforts to push for a college Sustainability Center. This on-campus building would epitomize alternative energy applications and have a limited ecological footprint. Students would study and live in the space, which would double as an educational tool for sustainable, green living. This idea has been suggested numerous times over the years but has always failed, largely because almost every proposal that goes forward is ignorant of the fact that a similar proposal was formulated only a few years before. Most recently, the Spring 2005 ENVS
50 class tried to address this issue by researching past attempts and created a fairly comprehensive proposal containing data on cost, potential sites, and personnel. However, the class’s suggestions were not submitted to the administration as a formal initiative.

Hoping to address these problems, college Sustainability Coordinator Jim Merkel, together with leaders of ECO, TGM, the Organic Farm, and others have started to define the mission of Sustainable Dartmouth. Formerly known as the Environmental Roundtable, Sustainable Dartmouth has provided a forum for each of the different groups to keep tabs on what the others are doing. While these meetings have met with some success, garnering student support and planning some major campus-wide events, this group cannot function alone. It is by definition a forum for leaders to meet and organize their groups and projects around one another; thus, it cannot offer very much to the majority of students who might be casually interested in sustainability and conservation.

Therefore, one common goal for all interested students should be the creation of an Environmental Student Office. This office would have the support of the administration with a consistent budget and a paid full-time employee to work specifically with students, educating and helping to coordinate their environmental efforts.

Students and administrators alike might ask if this is redundant, considering the recent addition of the Sustainability Coordinator position. The answer is “No.” The Sustainability Coordinator acts as the advisor to the administration with regard to the specific goal of reducing the college’s overall environmental impact. While that job is incredibly important, the position was designed to devote only 5-10% of its efforts to organizing students. This was not an oversight; the institutional level of the college needs guidance as much as students do. It is a mistake to assume that achieving the college’s goals of becoming an academic leader in sustainability is a one-man job - just ask Merkel.

Ultimately, in order to change Dartmouth’s “social paradigm” there must be a change in the ideology of the student body, from ignorance to awareness, from apathy to activism, and from short-sighted over-consumption to the realization that improving the health and sustainability of the environment is in everyone’s present and future interests. History tells us that this will probably happen at about the same time as the greater part of American society comes around to this way of thinking. The question that Dartmouth students and administrators alike must ask themselves is this: do they want to be the followers in this inevitable transformation, or do they want to be the leaders?