Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
EN-3: Student Life

GROW is a student-run club that is focused on sustainability. Current projects include putting educational signs up, hosting environmental challenges, helping reduce waste, writing articles in the newspaper, recovering food, replacing grass with native plants, and working to divest Olin's resources from fossil fuel companies.
We also have OPEN, whose mission is to support a safe environment for LGBTQ people and allies as well as to raise awareness of LGBTQ related issues in the larger Olin culture.
PInT (Public Interest Technology) is a student-run group which specializes in teaching engineers how to use their technical skills to create positive change in the world. PInT contains subteams such as Civic Engagement, Assistive Technology, Hydroponics, and Open Source, and each summer, the group provides stipends for 3-5 students to complete unpaid internships in the public interest tech industry.

There is a community garden on campus that is currently in the process of expanding in order to eventually produce enough vegetables to have a weekly garden bar, in collaboration with the dining hall. Students, staff, and faculty have all worked together to maintain the garden.

SERV is a student-run organization representing student community service. Students have worked through SERV at the following organizations: The Daily Table, Cique, Charles River Center, Newton Food Pantry, The Food Project, Big Brother Big Sister College Campus Program, and an American Red Cross Blood Drive.

The mission of the Revolving Green Fund is to reduce Olin’s impact on the environment while engaging and educating the community. The Fund will help promote Olin’s commitment to sustainability and encourage community members to pursue creative ideas and explore emerging technologies in the sustainability realm. As the fund grows in size, it will provide a financial mechanism for Olin College to explore sustainability projects with higher capital costs and a longer payback time frame than is currently possible within existing budgets.

In order to keep the Fund financially viable, three levels of projects will be considered: projects with a capital cost of $2,500 or less and no payback period, projects with a payback period of less than five years and projects with a payback period of greater than or equal to five years. All projects must also:

-Reduce environmental impact, such as lowered energy or water usage, reduced waste, or reduced greenhouse gas emissions
-Have educational aspects, such as signage or programming to educate the larger community on environmental concerns

The summer of 2019 Olin summer reading book was climate change focused. It was called "A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist's Bicycle Journey Across the United States" by David Goodrich. After reading the book, the school had a group discussion in the fall.

In the fall of 2019, students attended a climate strike in Boston and took pictures which were then printed out and formed a mural on the mezzanine of Milas Hall. The audience was students, faculty and staff. Professor Donis-Keller saved these pictures and will display them again sometime.

In the fall of 2020 (while remote) the students in Bio1299 did a climate change project as a mini project and the audience was other students in the class.

In the spring of 2021 (while remote) students in the Intersection of Biology, Art, and Technology did a climate change mini-project. A few projects were websites and others were slide presentations. A final project in the class was open and several students made personal projects with a sustainability theme. The audience was other students in the class although others were invited to the presentations.

In fall 2021, the Digital Photography class did a team or individual project on climate change mitigation. The results of the photoessays were displayed in Milas Hall on the mezzanine and in the Miller Academic Center 3rd floor.

Olin's Outing club facilitates Olin student enjoyment of the great outdoors through organizing camping and hiking trips, as well as providing a stock of gear for Olin students to borrow and use.

Climate Action Semester took place in the spring of 2019. The semester involved screenings of climate change focused documentaries, a climate change and sustainability focused faculty and staff gathering that highlighted current projects at Olin, conversations on dialogue, awareness and climate change, introduction of meatless meals in the dining hall, and climate change and sustainability focused speakers, workshops and activities.

The summer of 2019 Olin summer reading book was also climate change focused. It was called "A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist's Bicycle Journey Across the United States" by David Goodrich.

HOPES program: https://www.olin.edu/admission/costs/financial-wellness/
College students are just beginning to learn how to become self-sufficient and navigate independence in many areas of their lives, including financial wellness. Olin is committed to offering support for this growth. The Office of Admission and Financial Aid aims to go beyond making Olin affordable to students. We also strive to help them develop lifelong financial skills. Our HOPES (Helping Oliners Plan Economic Success) financial wellness program is designed to:
- Increase students’ comfort and confidence in talking about, dealing with, and taking ownership of their finances
- Give students tangible financial tools for the real world
- Help students develop an accurate financial vocabulary, make informed choices, and identify areas to watch out for
- Empower students to navigate their financial landscape when they don’t know what to do
- Help seniors know what to expect financially after they graduate and how to plan ahead
In summer 2020, HOPES (Helping Oliners Plan Economic Success) and OSC (Olin Staff Connections) hosted a series of events exploring the connection between financial wellness and our food. Each year, American households lose around 1/3 of the food they purchase (and $1,866) to food waste. As many people began cooking at home and watching their budgets even more than usual, staff members shared practical tips for saving money, reducing food waste, and growing your own produce in a fun, judgment-free learning environment.

Facilities offers a sustainability internship with the energy manager at Olin, Claire Rodgers, over the summer. This is focused on investigating ways to improve sustainability at Olin through outreach, purchasing, or energy projects. This work will focus on both technical and economic analysis to identify the best tradeoffs between cost and improved sustainability. Both the baseline data and recommended projects will be summarized in a public report for the Olin community. The position also entails initial design of a sustainability platform for Olin’s website to share all of the data, ideas and progress.
Furthermore, each Eco-Reps position (detailed in EN-1) is an hourly paid position.

Claire Rodgers, Associate Energy Engineer
Helen Donis-Keller, Professor of Biology and Art