Amherst College
EN-3: Student Life

Eco-rep Program The eco-reps are a group of first-year students that focuses on sustainable living. The Eco-reps host an annual eco-fair, clothing swap, and the green games - a spring competition between dorms to save energy, reduce waste, and learn about sustainability through events on campus. Food Justice Alliance The mission of the FJA is to contribute to the struggle for a more just American food system by acknowledging and fighting against the exploitation and inequality that exists at all levels of the food system. This includes advocating for policy change and working within the Amherst community to address barriers to equal access and choice for low-income communities and communities of color. Students have hosted a phone bank to encourage students to call their representatives to protect SNAP benefits, organized a fundraiser to subsidize vegetable shares from the campus farm for lower income members of the community, and meeting with the dining hall to discuss ways to promote reducing meat intake and buying food from producers that treat the workers and land well. Green Amherst Project The GAP is a student-run group that advocates for environmental protection, awareness, and appreciation on campus, in the community, and on a national level. Recent campaigns include coal divestment, plastic water bottle reduction, creating a bike share, and a dorm energy competition. After two years of campaigning, the Green Amherst Project helped to secure a statement from the Board of Trustees pledging to pursue sustainability in regards to on-campus operations as well as investments in 2015. In 2016, GAP was able to campaign the dining facility to go trayless. The Green Athletics group focuses on engaging athletics on sustainability and making athletics more sustainable. They have worked on installing shower timers and running team competitions to reduce shower times, getting recycling on team buses, and reducing food waste in issue food ( food sent with the players to matches).

In 2013, after much campaigning by students and with substantial administrative support, Amherst College began a unique relationship with two local farmers to establish the Book and Plow farm. In addition to providing local, organic produce to the dining hall, Book and Plow farm hires students to help with their work, sponsors classes on organic agriculture, and engages with the college community in a variety of ways. In 2016, the farm became part of the college.

We often have speakers and events that focus on sustainability. Here are two more recent examples: In 2017 Professor Dorceta Taylor came to campus for a talk and several workshops on Race, Space, and Environmental Inequalities In 2019 Ysanet Batista came to speak on Food Justice and Sovereignty as a part of Food Justice Week, which was hosted by the Book and Plow campus farm.

The Beneski Museum of Natural History and the Mead Art Museum both host art and/or performances that are related to sustainability.

The First-year Outdoor Orientation Trip (FOOT) program runs backpacking, canoeing, and camping trips for incoming first years. Student leaders are all trained in Leave No Trace principles and are required to pass on those techniques to all first years on the trip. Additionally, the student-run Outing Club which organizes outdoors activities throughout the school year is led by students familiar with Leave No Trace.

Each incoming first-year class is given a book to read over the summer and the chance to hear the author lecture during orientation. The incoming class in 2013 read "Field Notes from a Catastrophe" by Elizabeth Kolbert, a book about climate change. The incoming class in 2015 read "This Changes Everything" by Naomi Klein which again focuses on climate change and other sociopolitical issues. Additionally, first-years are required to take a first-year seminar during their first semester to prepare them for the type of coursework they should expect at Amherst. A few of these courses, such as "Encounters with Nature" have a sustainability focus. For the 2016-2017 school year, the theme of the Center for Humanistic Inquiry was Conservation. The CHI hosts researchers who study the theme and has many events open to faculty, staff, and interested students

The eco-rep program incorporates life skills such as cooking demos focused on cheap and vegetarian meals.

The Office of Environmental Sustainability has employed several student interns each semester and over the summer to assist with a variety of projects and to take on work of their own. Additionally, the Book and Plow farm is a consistent employer of students both during the school year and over the summer. Students get the opportunity to learn what it takes to run an organic farm and why these farming practices are so valuable.