Wells College
EN-3: Student Life

The Wells Campus Greens is the environmental group at Wells College. Members believe in the tenets of activism, action, and hard labor! F.O.R.C.E.S. (Friends of Recreation, Conservation and Environmental Stewardship) is a collaboration between Wells students and the NY Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Among the activities FORCES members undertake are trail clean-up and maintenance at area state parks (Long Point State Park in Aurora and Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia) as well as campus-based outdoor conservation and stewardship activities, like invasive species pulls and campus cleanups). https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Wells%20College%20FORCES The Greenhouse Club utilizes the campus greenhouse to learn about practices for growing plants for personal and campus use.

Students developed and maintain a campus organic garden behind McGordon House, just adjacent to main campus. This organic garden also produces specialized food products for the Japanese language classes. The garden recently was expanded to include vermiculture composting of coffee grounds from the student-run Grind cafe as well as spent plant materials from the organic garden and hardwood leaves collected from campus and community lawns. The compost and mulch created through this worm composting project will be used in the organic garden.

The student-run GRIND Cafe has a focus on sustainability. They serve only locally-roasted fair trade certified coffee as well as offering fair trade certified teas and hot chocolate. Many of their other food and beverage products have sustainability attributes as well. The GRIND participates with the Center for Sustainability and the Environment to redeem GOTCHA cards, given to campus community members spotted using their reusable mug for beverages. The GRIND also offers discounted pricing for refills into reusable mugs.

We do have an investment club, but they do not maintain a separate portfolio of sustainable investments.

The Center for Sustainability and the Environment offers four different educational series, which are free and open to the public, but primarily geared toward students as the intended audience. The Sustainability Perspectives series brings in local and regional speakers on a variety of sustainability-related topics. The Sustainable Business series, a collaboration between the Center for Sustainability and the Sullivan Center for Business and Entrepreneurship, brings in business leaders from companies that focus on sustainability as part of their business practice. The Center also collaborates with the Sullivan Center for the annual "Be Your Own Boss" business idea competition, supporting keynote speakers and prizes for social impact or sustainability business ideas. The Sustainability Speaker series brings in national-level speakers to campus. The Sustainable Film series offers screenings of sustainability-related films. The film series has been held in collaboration with Wells College Campus Greens, and several of the films offered were suggested by the club. In addition, the Center for Sustainability has participated in sponsoring and supporting programming for the annual Activism Symposium. In 2015, the Center offered "Away", an interactive demonstration on the Quad of the impact of recycling in which all the collected trash and recycling from the residence halls was piled in public view and sorted properly.

The Center for Sustainability actively participates in planning and supporting the annual Peachtown Native American Festival, which offers a weeklong series of educational events. The Center arranges for a native speaker to address a relevant sustainability topic as part of the Sustainability Perspectives series during that festival week.In addition, in 2014, the Center provided educational signage to explain the daily native-inspired foods in the dining hall and to obtain quahog clams for a wampum beadmaking demonstration.

All Wells College students participate in a liberal arts foundation sequence, Sustainable Community (SC), exploring what it means to be a member of interconnected communities. Four themed seminars enhance students' ability to communicate, both orally and through writing, using relevant technology. Students also learn quantitative skills and how to reason clearly while making logical arguments; they come to appreciate what is distinctive about scientific explanations; they develop an appreciation for languages and cultures in a global context; they develop awareness of the physical body and what practices help maintain health; they engage in experiential learning; and in the senior year, they explore different perspectives on a seminal idea or theory related to sustainable community in an interdisciplinary capstone experience.

The Center for Sustainability and the Environment responds to requests to provide learning activities for floor programs in the residence halls. In Fall 2015, two RA groups offered their residents programs on proper recycling practices (using a recycling sort exercise the Center provided). In addition, students can opt to live in Mandell House, a themed residence hall in which the residents learn about social justice and sustainability.

There are paid work-study positions with the Center for Sustainability and the Environment as Sustainability Program Assistants. The number of positions available each semester depends upon available work-study funding, but ranges from 1-3 per semester. In addition, during the summer, Wells College provided funding for two paid summer positions: the Campus Gardens intern to develop new and maintain existing campus gardens, and the Aurora Farmers Market intern.