Alexander P. Lee, '97
Christopher McGrory Klyza
Steven C. Rockefeller, Chair
The Publications Subcommittee has reviewed the Middlebury College Catalog and Middlebury College Handbook to determine whether these publications adequately represent the College's commitment to Environmental Studies and environmental awareness and responsibility. The Committee recommends the following changes and additions:
1. The opening statement, "To Choose and Be Chosen," which is found on pages 7-8, could mention environmental studies in the third paragraph by rewriting the last sentence. In the proposed revision below, the new wording is in boldface type and deleted wording is in italic type.
For some this transcendence may come through the study of other peoples and other tongues or through environmental studies; for others it will come through inquiry in the fields of the hard study that brings an understanding of physics or philosophy, mathematics or music.
This revision balances the reference to the study of people and of language with a reference to the study of nature and the relations of people and nature.
2. On pages 12-13, there is a section entitled "The Curriculum of Middlebury College," which does not describe the curriculum and which is unnecessarily repetitive. We suggest giving the section a new title that reflects its actual content and rewriting the first paragraph, making it shorter and more focused and eliminating repetitious statements as well as ideas repeated in the second paragraph. The second paragraph is the heart of the section, and it should include references to environmental studies and related issues.
The Goals of A Middlebury Education
The Middlebury College faculty is composed of outstanding dedicated teachers who are also accomplished scholars. Students are provided opportunities for close working relations with their teachers, and intellectual exchange with the faculty goes on outside as well as inside the classroom. The liberal arts education offered by the College is designed to enable students to lead rewarding lives of ongoing intellectual and spiritual growth and to prepare them to meet the challenges of responsible citizenship in a complex changing world.
Helvetius wrote: "L'education nous faisait ce que nous sommes" ("Education made us what we are"), wrote Helvetius. We have an ideal of the kind of person a Middlebury education should help to make. It is a person who can think logically; who can write not only with accuracy and clarity, but also with style and an individual voice; who can appreciate the visual and performing arts and participate in their creation; who can reason with numbers and symbols and apply rigorous analytic techniques of analysis in seeking answers; who knows how to read--analytically critically and imaginatively--literature and philosophy from around the world; who is capable of wide sympathy and of making intelligent value judgments; who has an informed sense of the varied, eventful path humanity has taken to reach the present; who is aware that the frontiers of understanding and knowledge are always shifting and expanding; who understands the principles and methods of the natural sciences and knows what it is to experience the excitement of scientific discovery; who has a sense of the interaction between people and society in the United States and in other countries; who has an understanding of the relations between humans and the environment; who is mindful of the responsibilities present generations have to future generations and of the need for long-term thinking; who can understand, read and speak a foreign language and thereby has the access to foreign cultures that only such proficiency can bring; who knows how to discipline the body as well as the mind.
Even Expecting students to seek such an ideal is asking much, but we believe each Middlebury student is capable of approaching it. The faculty and staff at Middlebury College have dedicated their talents and their efforts to making such achievements possible.
Note: Some of the ideas in the first two sentences of the revised first paragraph are reiterated in the "Middlebury College Catalog" eight pages later in the second paragraph of the section on "The Middlebury Community." One could address this problem by eliminating the second sentence of this second paragraph on page 20, which reads: "Middlebury's faculty is composed of an exceptional group of dedicated teacher-scholars." However, the repetition of this statement may be desirable.
3. On pages 20-24 one finds a section on "The Middlebury Community," which includes subsections on "Student Life," "Athletics," and "The Middlebury Student." We recommend adding a new subsection on "Environmental Awareness" at the end of this section on page 24.
Environmental Awareness
Respect and care for the environment are a central concern of Middlebury College. A high priority is given to integrating environmental awareness into the day to day operations and life of the institution. In this way, the College encourages all students, faculty, and staff to be mindful regarding the effect of their actions on the local and global environment, and it challenges them to help the institution pursue its goal of environmental responsibility.
In its stewardship of land, the College endeavors to preserve biodiversity, conserve natural resources, and maintain the beauty of the landscape. In all its operations, including the management of student residence halls, the College works to increase energy efficiency, conserve water, minimize waste, and recycle. When making financial investments, purchasing supplies, and designing new buildings or renovating old ones, the College considers environmental impact. The President of Middlebury was an early signer of the Talloires Declaration on the environment issued by University Presidents for a Sustainable Future.
Through Environmental Quality (EQ), the Mountain Club, Middlebury Outdoor Orientation, the Otter Creek Journal, Students Organizing for Animal Rights (SOAR), Weybridge House (an environmental interest residence hall), and the Environmental Council, students exercise significant environmental leadership in the College community. There is a lively debate on campus about our knowledge of the environment and its implications and about how to improve the CollegeÕs environmental policies. It is also widely recognized that many measures that are good for the environment are also good for the College budget, generating significant savings.
With its many environmental initiatives as well as a wide range of academic courses in the field of environmental studies, Middlebury seeks to ensure that its graduates will have the knowledge, skills, and values to be leaders in the world wide endeavor to restore and protect the environment.
1. General Regulations. On pages 32 and 33 there is a section on General Regulations which includes subsections on A. Respect for Persons and Property, B. Respect for the Educational Function of the College, C. Respect for College Officials, and D. Respect for College Property. The last section deals explicitly with residence halls, institutional facilities, and other buildings. No mention is made of the out-of-door campus. We recommend that a new section E. be added entitled, Respect for the Environment, which would contain the three points stated below.
E. Respect for the Environment
Respect and care for the environment are a central concern of Middlebury College. A high priority is given to integrating environmental awareness and responsibility into the day to day operations and life of the institution.1. The Outdoor Campus. Destroying or doing physical damage to trees, shrubs, gardens, lawns, wildlife habitat, ponds, rivers, and streams on College property is a serious offense. The minimum penalty is payment of the full cost of repair and replacement and a $100 fine.
2. Wildlife. All students are expected to respect state and federal laws pertaining to animal welfare and endangered species. In addition, the unauthorized trapping or killing of wildlife or the harassment of wildlife on College property is not permitted and will result in disciplinary action.
3. Conservation and Recycling. All students are expected to cooperate with College programs designed to promote energy and water conservation and recycling. Disruption of conservation and recycling programs, including damage to equipment, is subject to disciplinary action, and those responsible for damage will be charged for repairs and the replacement of equipment.
2. Listing of Environmental Council. The Environmental Council has recommended that the Council become a standing College Council, and if this change is made, the Environmental Council should be listed in the Middlebury College Handbook as one of the College Councils (See 1994 Middlebury College Handbook, p. 66).
It is recommended in the report on Administration and Business Management that the College integrate environmental considerations into all office management practices by reducing waste, energy consumption, and the use of volatile organic compounds. The College has already taken many steps toward implementing such a policy, including the extensive use of recycled paper products. It would be helpful to formalize this policy. Therefore, in connection with the printing of College publications, it is also recommended:
1. that in purchasing paper for College publications the Vice President for Administration establish a policy of using paper that is recycled with a high percentage of post consumer waste.
2. that the College use soy-based inks in the printing of publications whenever such inks are a satisfactory alternative and that every effort be made to use printing technologies that reduce the percentage of volatile organic compounds emitted from press washes (which clean inks off the press) and fountain solutions (which are used to keep the ink on the image areas of printing plates).
Waterless printing is a new technology that eliminates fountain solutions from the printing process, and it also reduces waste. The College is encouraged to explore waterless printing as well as other new environmentally sound technologies.
College offices can reduce the volume of publications and also reduce costs and waste by more carefully determining actual need. For example, Admissions and Publications often send cases of unused College catalogs and other publications to be recycled.
The College has become a member of the Buy Recycled Business Alliance, a step which the Environmental Council supports, and as a member the College is pledged to increase each year its purchases of products made from recycled materials. The Buy Recycled Business Alliance should be used as a useful resource regarding recycled products and related purchasing policies.
Publications Subcommittee
Alexander P. Lee, '97
Christopher McGrory Klyza
Steven C. Rockefeller, Chair
Proceed to 6. Community Awareness and Education
Back up to 4. Environmental Coordinator
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