Getting on the Same PageCommunication and Cooperation at Smith CollegeEmilee MooneyEVS 300May 4, 2005Abstract:1The purpose of this project is to assess the amount of communication and cooperation that exists at Smith College with respect to environmental issues. Seven people were interviewed and 150 students were surveyed to assess people’s opinions and experiences. The students surveyed identified a very wide range of priorities, both for themselves and for the college. The people interviewed said that environmental activity is very decentralized at Smith. The Sustainability Committee, however, presents great promise for organizing environmental activities and uniting them with the mission of the college.2Table of Contents:Introduction 4Methodology 7Results 11Interviews 11Surveys 14Discussion 22Works Cited 243Introduction:The goal of this project is to assess the level of communication and cooperation that exists at Smith College with respect to environmental issues. It aims to do this on several levels. First, are environmental leaders on campus in agreement on what Smith’s environmental priorities are, what they should be, and the general state of environmental involvement at Smith? Second, are leaders making these priorities clear, and can studentsidentify them? Third, are students unified in their environmental concern, or are they interested in many unrelated issues? Fourth, do students support the College’s environmental priorities, or do they think they should be different? Some of these questions were answered more successfully than others, but one thing is clear: while environmental efforts at Smith are still somewhat decentralized, the Sustainability Committee is well on its way to better organizing Smith College’s efforts towards environmental sustainability.This project was born out of my own personal experiences during the fall of 2002.I was the chapter co-chair of MassPIRG, a state-wide environmental group with a Smith chapter. MassPIRG’s unique funding structure1 must be re-approved by the student body every other fall, and I was very much involved in the campaign. In the course of my work, I tried to gain student support by gathering endorsements from groups that shared our goals. Older MassPIRG members warned me about Gaia. Apparently the two groupshistorically had a stormy relationship, due to an attitude of “there’s not room in this town for the both of us.” That year we did work more extensively with Gaia than we had in thepast, culminating in a jointly-sponsored Earth Day fair. From those beginnings, some dedicated and involved students formed the Smith Environmental Coalition to bridge the 1 MassPIRG is funded through a waivable fee that appears on the spring tuition bill. It cannot be funded through the student activities fee because of its relationship to a state-wide advocacy group.4gap between various environmental groups on campus. I was curious about the extent to which environmental groups on campus cooperate today, and about their relationship with the administration.In the fall of 2002, Richard White wrote a report about Smith and sustainability for a conference on “Greening the Valley’s Ivory Towers.” That report provides an excellent baseline of where Smith was two and a half years ago, so that we may begin to assess the progress that has been made. White identified several problems, notably that Smith’s environmental efforts were quite decentralized. “Efforts toward sustainability at Smith are highly decentralized. No one opposes them, but they have not become central to the institutional identity of the College; neither, for the majority of us, have they become central to our personal identities” (White, 2002, p. 7). At the time of the report’s writing, the Campus Planning Committee was in the process of forming a subcommittee on sustainability (White, 2002, p. 5). Provost Susan Bourque had “articulated the goal of placing such a committee in a well-defined niche within the College governance structure, with clear lines of communication for proposals to receive serious consideration” by various decision making bodies (White, 2002, p. 6).From those beginnings came the Smith College Sustainability Committee. Eliza LaRocca, a student member of the Committee, provided me with its official mandate: The Committee on Sustainability shall be concerned with the best long-term use of finite natural resources and with the College's impact on the local, regional, and global environment. It shall identify, implement, and evaluate approaches for increasing Smith's commitment to sustainability in all areas of the campus, including (but not limited to) construction, transportation, materials and energy use, waste management, purchasing, investment, and the campus curriculum.The Committee is supposedly endowed with the ability to “implement” projects to improve sustainability at Smith, but they do not really have the power to do so. In order 5for Smith to have a unified vision for sustainability, and a logical plan to achieve that vision, the Sustainability Committee must be given a stronger policymaking role.6Methodology:Interviews:I conducted seven interviews with various members of the Smith community. Since each person spoke about different issues, I did not follow any particular interview format. Below is a list of the people I interviewed and the general theme of questions that I asked them:- Richard Korzeniowski, Physical Plant: He is the Health and Safety Coordinator at Physical Plant. I asked him about Smith’s place in the regulatory environment. We spoke on the phone for approximately 20 minutes on April 11.- Marea Wexler, Office of Advancement: She meets with alumnae regarding “major gifts,” and as such has one-on-one contact with them regarding their priorities. We met for approximately 30 minutes on April 11.- Don Baumer, Government Department and Sustainability Committee: He is the current chair of the Sustainability Committee, and I met with him to ask about their work and priorities. We met for approximately 30 minutes on April 12.- Richard Myers, Director of Budget and Financial Planning: I met with him toask about the financial aspects of sustainability at Smith, and about what prioritieshis department may have. We met for approximately 30 minutes on April 13. - Thomas Litwin, Director of the Science Center: He is the designated leader on the