B Y TODD MARTIN
With only a few weeks left of the Spring 2010 semester here at Green Mountain College, I bet you’re wondering what the status is of Student Campus Greening Fund (SCGF) projects. Where are your tuition dollars being spent this year?
Each semester, you as a student are charged $15 on your student activity’s fee to support greening initiatives here on campus through SCGF. In the past, these projects have made the college more energy efficient, recycle and compost friendly, bike friendly, and self-sufficient. This semester, SCGF has twenty approved projects in the works including fifteen fall grant projects and five Spring rolling grant projects accounting for some $53,766.73 of student funding. As you finally start to write that term paper you’ve been putting off by watching re-runs of The Office, other students like you are working hard to ensure that their SCGF projects here on campus are completed by the end of the semester. Here is a brief progress report on the SCGF projects that your friends and fellow scholars have been working on:
Fall Grant Proposals: $49,652.96
Compost Buckets in Hubs: Mike Middleman has ordered compost bins for all the hubs on campus and they will be placed soon. Now you compost all those coffee grounds you’ve been brewing in the wee hours of the morning. This project also funded a new work-study position to collect the compost buckets on a regular basis and bring the beautiful biodegrading debris to the farm.
Recycling Bins in Hubs: Jaid Cherkis has ordered ten new recycling bins for dorm hubs so that you can recycle all your school work without looking back. They will be implemented soon.
Native Gardens: (Vegan) Steve Carpenter intends on breaking ground for a new medicinal garden on the Southeast corner of Ackley on Earth Day April 22. If you want to volunteer and get your hands dirty, email Steve at carpenters@greenmtn.edu
Mycelium Buffer: Cliff Dornbush has ordered Mycelium spores for the farm to capture E-coli from the pigpens before it reaches the Poultney River and gives you pink eye while you are swimming away from the cops who will be patrolling the river now. Cliff is waiting for the ground to thaw and to get some woodchips before implementing the mushrooms during Earth Week.
Mobile Solar Workshop: John Warfel and Cody Currier have completed the design and are seeking out storage space for the trailor. John has started to mount the solar panels onto the trailer using his photovoltaic muscles. When completed, the workshop will serve as an electric power source for REED program projects so we can cut 2 x 4’s with a solar powered ban saw. Cool right?
Wind Turbine Repairs: Kyla Jaquish is awaiting a contractor to visit campus to repair the ailing wind turbine on the farm. The turbine needs three repairs: it needs to be grounded so it doesn’t get struck by lightning, a new concrete base. The monitoring system also needs to be rewired.
Thermal Imaging Camera: Jake Robinson is considering purchasing a more expensive model and may need to delay the project until next semester when more funds can be acquired.
Thermal Efficiency Audit: Garnett Morgan had to postpone this project until next semester and will request more funds in the Fall 2010 semester. Hopefully we will be able to weatherize some drafty windows in our classrooms next semester. Earth Tub Repairs: Michelle Erhard is working with Philip Akerman-Leist to determine the feasibility of repairing the earth tubs by the maintenance building.
Green Bikes Shelter and Work Study: Todd Martin, yes I am referring to myself in the third person now, is waiting for Bill Throop to negotiate the future of the Green Bikes program. Tim Johnson who designed the new outdoor bike shelter is awaiting land use committee approval. The library no longer wants to be responsible for the program, and in order to situate the bike shelter in a convenient location, we first need to determine where the bikes will be checked in and out. Without a definite location, Tim cannot get land use approval. Therefore, both the shelter and the work-study position on are temporarily on hold. If you want to be considered for the Green Bikes manager position, email Steve Carpenter or myself.
Building Dashboard: Cody Currier is working to ensure that the new screens displaying the energy consumption of the dorms in Withey Hall will include the Biomass plants energy production.
Outdoor Classroom: Ashley Staron has completed the design and intends to break ground on the new amphitheater style outdoor classroom behind the Library and Sage on Earth Day, April 22. She is waiting for a finalized contract with an excavator to break ground. Volunteers are needed for construction on Earth Day. If interested email Ashley.
Dorm Watt Meters: Abby Nordstrom-Marx has ordered the meters and they are in Amber Gerrard’s office. She is making it possible to check out the meters from the library.
Light-bulb Swap: Charlie Weeks is planning to have a light bulb swap during Earth Week so that you can go to your dorm room, take out one incandescent light and replace it with an energy efficient CLF. He is working with the maintenance department on the project.
Spring Rolling Grant Proposals: $4,113.77
Subsidized passes for “The Bus”: Melisa Kate Thomas is awaiting on an invoice to purchase fifty bus passes that will get you ten free rides on “The Bus” which runs from Poultney to Rutland numerous times daily. They will be available to students, faculty and staff next semester.
Sustainable Refreshments for Speaker Series: Melisa Kate Thomas requested funds to purchase local food in order to cater the woman’s speaker series. SCGF has asked her to revise the application and provide a more specific timeline and list of food to be purchased.
Theater Lights: Lisa Much will purchase new energy efficiency light bulbs for the stage in Ackley so now when people break in to the theater and leave the stage lights on all night, it wont cost the school, i.e. students, one thousand dollars. The bulbs will be replaced this semester. Next semester, Lisa plans to apply for a fall grant to replace the curtain on the stage that might be laced with Asbestos. If that’s the case, I sure hope the project passes.
Bike Shop Upgrade: Aaron Strock is set to purchase some new tools and equipment for the bike shop in the basement of Dunton. Now that it’s nice out, why note get your bike tuned up at the bike shop and bike to East Poultney and go swimming at the river?
Drying Racks: Sara Hasse is planning to hold two workshops where students can build their own drying wrack for their room or dorm laundry room in order to reduce dryer usage. She is purchasing lumber and other supplies and conducting two workshops in April. Now you will be able to dry out your hemp pants without killing the planet.
