First-Ever Summit Unites Campus Leaders

Author: Tim McCahill

The first Environmental Summit for student organizations at Middlebury was held at the Robert A Jones '59 conference room last Saturday. The summit, organized by Student Government Association (SGA) Director of Environmental Affairs Michael Silberman '02.5, brought together leaders of several campus environmental organizations to discuss issues affecting the College community and to brainstorm about the direction in which environmental change on campus would head.
The idea of having a multi-organizational summit was first conceived in August by Silberman in response to recent increases in the number of environmental organizations active on campus. "With so many groups and individuals on campus leading important environmental campaigns," said Silberman, "[the SGA] realized that it was time to bring everyone together at the beginning of the year to take stock of our assets and determine how we could all work together to improve our overall effectiveness."
There were five initial goals of the summit: to provide campus environmental leaders with the opportunity to make formal contact; to introduce the SGA's interest in collaborating with environmental groups on campus on policymaking where appropriate, to identify long and shorter term goals for the environment at Middlebury, to identify clear campaign goals and objectives for the upcoming year while highlighting areas where coordination should occur and to identify ways in which environmental leaders can improve communication and collaboration amongst themselves and with the community at large.
The SGA Cabinet-level Director of Environmental Affairs position is new this year, created by SGA President Ginny Hunt '03. The position is designed to help coordinate the efforts of Middlebury's environmental organizations, serve as a policy advisor and administrative liaison to the student environmental community, to represent the interests of the environmental community to the SGA and to oversee the implementation of specific environmental initiatives sponsored by the SGA. Representatives present at the summit worked together to form a vision of how environmental awareness at Middlebury would develop.
"We are seeking," said Silberman, "to further the transition that the College has already begun through its Environmental Peak of Excellence to make Middlebury a model sustainable-living community." He continued by explaining Saturday's discussion produced three keystone themes, which hopefully would be considered when groups organize current and future campaigns: expanding environmental community at Middlebury College, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions on campus and promoting closed-loop systems, systems that reduce the amount of outside resources to maintain and sustain the College and instead draw from existing resources and material.
This summit represented a step forward for environmental groups on campus. Director of Environmental Affairs and Planning Nan Jenks-Jay remarked that the summit reflected "a goal of the Environmental Peak at Middlebury, for environmental initiatives and learning to be integrated throughout the campus."
While the summit allowed groups to share ideas and goals for environmental issues on campus, it also brought several matters of concern into the minds of the participants. "[The summit] reaffirmed my concern that the core issues of consumerism, political and environmental apathy, and wasteful use of energy resources are not being adequately addressed, even by all of the activism, programs and ideas on this campus," said Benjamin Brouwer '04, president of Environmental Quality. "I think a real revolution of environmentalism is still direly needed if this College community as a whole is going to lead in the field of environmental awareness and action. My hope is that the summit awoke a similar feeling in the other participants' minds and has left us all inspired to work harder."
"I see this step as a gradual evolution taking place at Middlebury from individual interest in the environment to independent group involvement to a more systemic approach to environmental responsibility and awareness," said Jenks-Jay of the summit.
"Frankly, this is the only way Middlebury College can succeed in becoming a more sustainable campus and in creating a more environmentally enlightened citizenry," she continued.
"I'm happy to say that we did achieve a great deal through this summit meeting," said Silberman. "We accomplished our goals of defining a long-range vision for the environment at Middlebury and, through that process, identified ways in which each group could be most effective on campus."
"By creating an image of the larger puzzle, we were able to better understand how our individual or our group's piece fit into that greater picture. The next step is to maintain the communication lines that we opened at the meeting as we pursue our different initiatives. We'll accomplish this primarily through an email forum and follow-up meetings, but we look forward to making the environmental summit a traditional gathering for Middlebury's environmental leaders" he went on to say.