Colgate University
EN-3: Student Life

Students for Environmental Action is a student group that promotes green initiatives at Colgate. Their mission is to educate and energize students about recycling, waste reduction, energy consumption reduction, and greater community issues. They plan activities such as a film series. Students for Environmental Action is Colgate's oldest environmental student group, but is far from the only sustainability-focused student groups. Green Earth Gang's mission is to promote environmental awareness among children ages 8-10 in local schools through experiential and interactive activities. Green Thumbs manages and promotes the Colgate Community Garden in order to provide local, student produced, organic produce to the student community. Green Gates seeks to be volunteer service oriented through serving both the Colgate campus and the community in supporting sustainability efforts, eco-conscious actions and environmental awareness. The Clean Water Coalition adopts a section of the local Chenango Canal. The group works to sponsor campus events to inform others about water pollution and raise money to build wells in Africa. Hamilton Outdoor Group, or HOG, teaches Hamilton middle schoolers outdoor skills and an environmental ethic that will encourage a positive outdoor experience.

The Colgate Community Garden was launched in June 2010. Researched, funded, planted, and harvested by students, the garden now provides fresh vegetables and herbs to the campus dining services provider for all students to enjoy. Produce from the half-acre garden, located near the Newell student apartments, also has been donated to the local food cupboard and sold at the village of Hamilton farmers market. The idea for the garden concept came when students from the ENST 480 class completed a feasibility report as a class project in 2009.

After participating in Colgate's Thought Into Action (http://www.colgate.edu/distinctly-colgate/entrepreneurial-spirit) project, Colgate seniors Ryan Smith ’13 and Brendan Karson '13 started Eco-campus, LLC. They source and deliver sustainable office products to campus, such as paper made from recovered sugarcane fiber which would have otherwise ended up in landfills. EcoCampus is having a positive impact on the campus carbon footprint, as use of the eco-friendly paper has prevented the release of 20.59 tons of carbon emissions, the production of 155,553 gallons of waste-water, the creation of 13,363 pounds of solid waste, and the use of 2,660 gallons of oil. Gate Swap is another student endeavor that is helping with our waste reduction and educational priorities. Gate Swap is an online program that allows Colgate community members to swap items that they no longer need or want.

Erin Fett '14 and Brendan Karson '13 established a new student group that explores the opportunities for reinvesting in sustainable energy technologies (while also divesting from fossil fuels).

Colgate holds an annual Green Summit to address campus sustainability initiatives. Students, faculty and staff gather during the summit to discuss one of several topics of interest to them, and to work collectively to formulate an action plan for that initiative. At the end of the event, each group presents their work to the summit. Each year the Green Summit is an event where simple ideas transform into campus-wide efforts. For instance, the Colgate Compost initiative was officially born at the summit. It is now a full-fledged club that has achieved goals such as encouraging the composting of all post-consumer waste in the dining halls. The event provides an opportunity for communication for the differ­ent environmen­tal groups on campus, and promotion of the various sustainability activities to the broader campus. In addition, both the Office of Sustainability, the Upstate Institute, and various departments host brown bag events on issues of sustainability and bring in speakers who address sustainable themes throughout the academic year. These events are listed on Colgate's calendar at http://calendar.colgate.edu/cal/main/showMain.rdo;jsessionid=575452E3C488558392C5B92429DA34BC

The mission of Colgate's Outdoor Ed is to provide the community with experiential opportunities which emphasize safety, environmental awareness, and technical skills, while promoting personal growth and group development through rediscovery of the natural world. Wilderness Adventure (WA) is a pre-orientation program at Colgate, in which over 125 first-year students come to campus early to make friends, learn about Colgate from upper-class student leaders, and use the outdoors to help students acclimate to Colgate, central New York, and life as a college student. Living and traveling with a small group of other first-year students and two or three highly trained leaders, students work together to hike, paddle, climb, cave, bike, or sail through Upstate New York wilderness. All Wilderness Adventure students receive information about the seven Leave No Trace principles, and are instructed on how to follow the principles as they travel and camp with care. Each WA student leader participates in a Leave No Trace awareness workshop during their training year before leading a Wilderness Adventure trip.

Colgate's Green Raider Program is a student behavior change program that was developed to educate and engage students to reduce the unnecessary consumption of resources (such as energy, water, paper, etc.) and to take greater responsibility for their contribution to university-related environmental impacts. The ultimate goal is for Colgate to reach its commitment to climate neutrality by reducing our overall and individual ecological footprints associated with the behavior of our daily lives.

Colgate's sustainability office hires current students and recent graduates for internships and entry-level employment specific to the field of sustainability.

Colgate does not have a graduation pledge program.