Trinity College (CT)
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Trinity students created a "student activism toolkit" to help students become better social activists. They surveyed Trinity students to learn more about current campus activism and one of the students even created a student club called Trinity Against Gun Violence. "Paid Sick Days Campaign and Toolkit for College Activism with CWEALF" by Caitlin Doherty, Emily Fox et al. (trincoll.edu)

"In the Liberal Arts Action Lab, Hartford community partners propose semester-long research projects to pursue in collaboration with student and faculty teams from Trinity College and Capital Community College. For example: To act on the issues of fossil fuel dependency, energy efficiency, and propagation of clean energy, the Connecticut chapter of Sierra Club proposed the Liberal Arts Action Lab research Energy Burden in North Hartford’s Upper Albany area. Energy burden is a concept that has been used to analyze energy consumption more widely, but current research is more focused on efficiency and social implications related to the topic.

This project focused on the Upper Albany neighborhood as it represents a community that experiences elevated levels of energy burden. Statistics indicate average energy burden in this neighborhood is almost eight percent, compared to six percent in Hartford and only three percent statewide. An essential component of this research was to gain an understanding of the contributing factors to an individual’s Energy Burden and how the burden impacts their daily lives. Along with this neighborhood concentration it is important to note that Upper Albany is a self-identified Black neighborhood of mostly renters, hence the disproportionate effect of Energy Burden along racial lines. Further evidence of the racialized effect of Energy Burden becomes evident when we analyze the history of redlining in the country.

Findings show that red lined neighborhoods, such as Upper Albany, are far more susceptible to Energy Burden due to the compounding effects of aged housing stock, low owner occupancy, and higher rates of poverty. This trend exists in Connecticut as well which has a statewide renter occupancy rate of thirty three percent, compared to seventy eight percent in Upper Albany. Through our investigation of the neighborhood, we attempted to get a more individualized perspective if the struggles associated with Energy Burden to understand the sacrifices residents make to survive. Other issues correlated to poverty such as food insecurity and poor health were found to be worsened by the effects of Energy Burden as well. On a neighborhood level, poverty and the struggles of Energy Burden are seen as city wide issue and worsened by the impending gentrification of the neighborhood. This is an issue with lasting effects that should be investigated by all those concerned with issues of equity, environmentalism, and efficient energy consumption. https://action-lab.org/energyburdenhtfd/summary/"

The community garden at Trinfo.Café brings together Hartford and Trinity community members as gardeners, supporting one of Trinfo’s core programmatic themes of building relationships between Trinity and its Hartford neighbors. The garden serves as a space for student learning and engagement, while also supporting urban farming to expand access to fresh produce in Hartford. Students created a group called the Garden Groupies who tend the gardens and the compost pile. The garden is also used as a workshop and outdoor classroom. https://www.trincoll.edu/cher/trinfo-cafe/trinfo-cafe-community-garden/

A sample lab: Trinity’s campus is home to a registered arboretum. This means that our campus is home to a significant diversity of planted trees from all over the world. As we have discussed in class, most ‘trees’ are lignophytes, or the group including gymnosperms and angiosperms.

Part 1: Angiosperms
1) Visit 5 angiosperm arboretum trees from this map. List the species you found, and take a picture of each, including one picture of a leaf and one picture of a flower or inflorescence. Submit the picture as part of this lab. In addition, for each species, describe the following:
2) Are the flowers heads, racemes, corymbs, catkins, umbels, compound umbels, or spikes?
3) Are the flowers hypogynous, perigynous, or epigynous? You may need to take a small sample and bring it back to lab in order to be sure.
4) For each flower, research what animal or animals pollinate this tree. They may also be wind pollinated. What characteristics of your flower suggest that it is well adapted to interact with its pollinator.

Part 2: Gymnosperms
1) Visit 4 gymnosperm arboretum trees from this map. List the species you found, and take a picture of each, including one picture of leaves and one picture of a cone if one is visible. Submit the picture as part of this lab. In addition, for each species, describe the following:
2) If there are male and female cones visible, what characteristics distinguish the two? List at least three distinguishing characteristics.
3) Make a cross section of at least one needle and describe what makes the needle resilient to cold and water loss.
4) Use the key for gymnosperms you developed in Lab 6 to key your gymnosperm species. Are you able to arrive at the correct genus? (e.g. pine, spruce, fir, cedar, juniper). If not, what characteristics do you think are missing from your key?"

Students in the Intro to Earth Science course investigate monitoring wells on campus to understand ground water flow beneath the college. Students in Intro to Environmental Science do macroinvertebrate sampling – comparison of the Mt Hope River in Ashford (Trinity owned land) and Park River (Hartford)

Students conduct internships and independent studies with the office of sustainability. Through their work students learn the challenges the college is facing related to sustainability and work to create possible solutions. Much of their work is focused on programing and educational campaigns.

A student's senior thesis project aimed to examine the effects of Trinity College's campus culture on the social and academic experiences of queer men on campus. In order to properly uncover a possible relationship between queerness and the historic marginalization of minority identities at Trinity College, I conducted seven one-on-one interviews with queer male students to understand their first-hand experiences. Through analysis of data from these interviews, I uncovered that Trinity College’s campus culture significantly impacts the social and academic experiences of queer men. Within the context of this culture, queer men with alternate intersections are at an increased risk of social ostracization and exclusion. In order to survive in such an environment, queer male students have paved their own way, both finding and creating safe spaces. A recent uptick in student activism for a more inclusive campus resulted in a slight shift in campus culture towards inclusion. However, other facets, such as broader societal progression and the newly rebooted Queer Resource Center have also contributed to this campuswide shift. In this thesis, I delve into each of those factors and offer recommendations for maintaining momentum while attempting to untangle centuries of oppression and marginalization of minority identities on Trinity College's campus. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/1037/