Saint Michael's College
EN-3: Student Life

1) Green Up - the student environmental club on campus. The mission of Green Up is to educate the Saint Michael's College community about pressing environmental issues and affect change through local engagement and on-campus sustainability efforts within a global context.

2) Peace & Justice Club - The Peace and Justice Club promotes the dignity of every human person, seeks to develop a justice network with other groups on campus and provides the community with events and programs about issues of peace, nonviolence, justice and equality for all people.

3) SLAM - Student Labor Action Movement. A group of students working together with a goal to work for better worker's rights, an economy that values human beings and the environment and dignity for all.

4) Social Justice League - the SJL is an ad-hoc group with representation from all the student clubs on campus that tackle environmental and social justice issues. The League works to collaborate on co-sponsored events/programming on campus.

The mission of the Organic Garden Program is: (1) To enhance the educational experience of the campus community by providing an outdoor classroom for hands-on, experiential learning opportunities as it relates to food systems and sustainable agriculture; and (2) To support existing programs on campus and carry on the Edmundite tradition of social justice and service as it relates to food issues in our surrounding community. The Garden program was established in 2008 with its original 1/4 acre plot. In 2014, a 1.7 Permaculture site was added to the program (first season began in 2016). The produce grown from the site is available via a weekly farm stand on campus, 5-days a week self-serve farm stand at the Center for Women and Gender and the remainder of the food is donated to the Intervale Food Rescue and Gleaning Program.

In addition to the college grown produce, students are able to sign-up for a semester CSA through the Intervale Food Hub which is delivered right to campus year-round.

It is the mission of the Fix It With Five organization to promote
systemic change through its annual donation to a local, national, or international community based organization with the goal of permanent sustainable change. Following the Saint Michael's College mission of social justice this student led and student funded organization will provide education and awareness to the college and surrounding community. In partnership with the chosen organization, the Fix It With Five committee will aim to alleviate a condition leading to the degradation of human dignity.

Fix it With Five is composed of an appointed student committee consisting of eight student members, two faculty members and one faculty adviser. Saint Michael’s community members are encouraged to submit nominations for non-profit groups who can benefit from the funds, and will help choose the final group which the funds will be allocated to.

Lecture/Speaker Series: Green Up Earth Week Speaker Series, Sutherland Lecture
Series, and other Academic Department speaker series.

The college hosts numerous speaker series and events related to sustainability with students as the intended audience (but also welcome faculty and staff to attend as well). One of the major events in which a speaker comes to campus to discuss various sustainability related topics occurs during the spring Earth Week Keynote Address event. Past speakers have included Maude Barlow, Bill McKibben, Grace Gershuny, Tom Goldtooth, Jim Merkel and many others.

As part of the Sutherland Lecture Series, topics of social justice and sustainability are covered. For the Fall 2016 speaker, Jane Davidson gave a talk titled "Dream Green: Creating the Next Generation of Doers and Change Makers."

Art projects and installations from Prof. Collier's class (AR 332: Eco & Environmental Arts) are intended to model the myriad ways art can be used to raise awareness about environmental issues, model alternative ways to manage outdoor spaces, utilize resources in more sustainable ways and create some long lasting functional sites that have small scale ecological benefits. The student projects are displayed throughout campus for all community members to learn from and enjoy.

The SMC Adventure Sports Center (formerly known as the Wilderness Program) focuses on creating opportunities for students (As well as faculty and staff) to challenge themselves in new ways while exploring and respecting the natural world.

All first year students in the Residence Halls participate in TLCs (Themed Living Community). Four themes (Approaches to Transition; Leadership; Service; Wellness) will serve as umbrella themes of the first year housing experience. Once students arrive in the fall, students, with the guidance of the Resident Assistant on the floor, will develop a plan to carry out their theme. Leadership and Service often focus on various aspects of sustainability and RAs have worked with the Office of Sustainability to identify sustainability projects on campus and off for their residents to engage in.

Each Spring, the Office of Sustainability runs the annual Electricity Competition among all students living in apartment style units. The competition is a 3-week long event in which students in each living area are challenged too see which unit will have the smallest per capita kWh total at the end of 3 weeks. Each week, all the students are emailed an excel spreadsheet that gives them their weekly kWh consumption (each unit is individually metered for electricity), what their monthly electricity bill would be based on that week's total and how much money they would save (or not save) based on their habits to reduce their electricity consumption. Due to behavior changes, the competition saves up to 40,000 kWh in just 3 weeks!

Other workshops/programs aimed at teaching students sustainable life skills are put on my the student environmental Club Green Up and the Garden Program. Such workshops have included: fermentation, how to build a raised garden bed, various garden-related workshops, self-sufficiency workshops, etc.

Students are able to apply for work study positions in the Office of
Sustainability. Positions include:
-Food System Educator
-Zero-Waste Coordinator
-Campus Sustainability Assessment and Education Coordinator
-Sustainable Campus Grounds Coordinator (Bee Campus Certification and Tree Campus Certification)
-Garden Program and Permaculture Site Crew positions

The Center for Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) specifically seeks and supports close partnerships between faculty, students, and community members to make that better world a reality through an emphasis on integrating experiential service-learning, community-based research, or advocacy projects into academic coursework across the disciplines.