Smith College
EN-3: Student Life

The Green Team is a coalition of faculty, staff and students dedicated to fostering sustainability at Smith by educating and supporting the campus community in efficient use of finite natural resources, attaining the greatest possible efficiencies and preventing pollution. The Green Team works with many areas of Smith's operations, including construction, transportation, purchasing, materials use, energy use and waste management in seeking to transform the college's practices. The Smith Chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World was founded in 2005 and has since worked on projects both on campus, in the surrounding community, and in Haiti. We seek to bring together students from different backgrounds and majors to work on projects that can make a positive difference and raise environmental awareness in the surrounding community and on Smith campus.

The Smith College Organic Garden, known as the Community Garden, is run by a group of students and faculty mobilizing to start a vegetable garden at Smith College. The mission of the garden is to be a practical academic tool, to engage the Smith community, and to serve as a model of sustainability. With this garden, the group will revive the historical tradition of students growing victory gardens. The aim of the garden will be to be an educational experiment that will allow students to practice the college's standards of sustainability. The garden will be an educational tool for a variety of departments on campus, including Environmental Science and Policy, Landscape Studies, Studio Art, Biology, Engineering, Geology, Sociology, and History. The garden provides an arena for Smith community engagement. A wide range of faculty, students, and staff are involved in the project. The garden is a space that celebrates nature, physical work, and healthy eating.

Smithrift is a student run philanthropic organization at Smith College in Northampton MA. Their mission is to support sustainability and organizations that provide assistance to women and children. The fashion, business, and charity aspects of the group are a great way for Smith students to get involved, have fun, and serve a great cause. Each year, SmiTHrift holds a few bargain clothing sales, Cage Frenzy (pay an entry fee and have a set time period to grab whatever you can!), donation drives, clothing sortings, and of course, the spring fashion show. Women and Financial Independence took the lead in developing a plan for SmiTHrift in 2004. It provides a unique and powerful opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience in entrepreneurship – planning, starting and running a retail business to serve the Smith and Northampton communities – and philanthropy. SmiTHrift works to facilitate an environmentally (and budget) friendly shopping experience for the Smith community. All proceeds from clothing sales go to a local charity which benefits women and children in Northampton and the Pioneer Valley. SmiThrift is comprised of a group of student volunteers committed to creating a viable business plan and locating space on the campus to open a retail outlet. Student volunteers will meet weekly to sort through the many donations from faculty, staff and students.

Smith College holds several major events related to sustainability each year. These events can be found on the Smith College Green web page calendar. One such event was on Earth Day, 2011. On this day, the Green Team presented the Smith College Earth Day Festival. Another example is a lecture by Kert Davies on "The BP Gulf Oil Disaster: One year later, what have we learned?". A continual list of events with a focus on sustainability and its economic, social and environmental components are continually listed on the website. The Campus Center hosts a list of events throughout the year related to sustainability as well. Most recently, the Campus Center hosted a Free-Cycle Event, allowing for offices to trade or share any new or gently used office supplies with other offices on campus. The Million Monitor Drive, also called the "Sleep is Good" campaign, was hosted by the Green Team, Facilities Management, and ITS to encourage students, faculty, and staff to set their computer so that monitors turn off when not in use. Nearly 900 students signed the pledge to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions through this sleep mode on their computers. Residential houses then participated in competitions among each other for the highest rate of participation in pledges.

The Smith Outdoor Adventure Program's mission is to get outdoors, have fun, and learn valuable skills in the process! They offer a wide range of outdoor recreation trips throughout the school year as well as maintaining an open gear room, climbing wall and Boathouse hours available to all Smith students. The program also works closely with students, teaching outdoor skills clinics and training student outdoor leaders to run events.

All new students are required to participate in a summer reading project prior to joining us in the fall during orientation; new students will participate in discussion groups and other activities involving the reading, often including a presentation by the author. The Smith College summer reading selection for 2009 was "The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems" by Van Jones. This reading was centered around the theme of sustainability.

The Bicycle Kitchen’s most direct mission is to provide Smith Collegewith bicycle rentals and bike maintenance education. More broadly, we see the Bicycle Kitchen as a forum for providing a form of environmentally friendly transportation and promoting bike love in all aspects. The Bicycle Kitchen is located in the basement of the gym, past the pool entrance.

Sustianability facilitarors are hired and funded thtrough the Office of Environmental Sustianability

Students for Social Justice and Institutional Change is a non-hierarchical umbrella social justice organization at Smith with working groups for a variety of social justice issues. Working groups for previous years include: Queers and Allies, Economic Justice, Free Thinkers (Secular/Non-religious student alliance), the School of Americas Watch, White Students Confronting Racism, and Environmental Justice/Mountaintop Removal. People are always welcome to join existing working groups or propose new ones. Global Action Against Poverty Everywhere (GAAPE) raises awareness throughout the campus and community on the topic of extreme global poverty and the many subsequent issues which arise from the examination of poverty in a holistic manner. These include health issues, access to clean water and sanitation, education, women's empowerment, etc. We also raise funds for various nonprofit organizations working toward a more developed world.