The College ceremonially opened the doors of its new Sustainable Living Center this weekend, commemorating the event with speakers, music, and tours of the facility. The opening marked the realization of a 10-year long effort by Dartmouth students to create a residential hall dedicated to decreasing students' environmental impact.
Marissa Knodel '09, a long-time proponent of the SLC, cried throughout the grand opening events.
"I didn't think I would get to see it during my time here [at Dartmouth]," she said.
The center, located in North Hall, houses 19 students who hope to minimize their environmental impact by adopting sustainable daily behavior, such as composting. The SLC ultimately aims to be completely self-sufficient for its energy usage. Currently, residents are petitioning to remove a vending machine in the hall, which they believe uses an unnecessary amount of energy, according to SLC resident Cristina Pellegrini '11.
"I wanted to do more than just recycle," Pellegrini said. "I thought the SLC would help me incorporate environmental aspects into my daily life."
Residents hope the SLC will raise campus awareness and interest about the environment -- the group plans to host weekly dinners and will offer the center as a learning space for academic courses. Multiple professors have expressed interest in inviting members of the SLC to talk to their classes about their living experience, SLC resident Matthew Cloyd '11 said.
"We want to try to not be the stereotypical group of hippies that live together and take communal showers," Cloyd said.
As recently as two years ago, the idea to create a sustainable residence at the College had been abandoned, according to Samuel Welch '10, an SLC resident and the primary organizer of the grand opening event. The idea for the center had been discussed for about 10 years, but no action had been taken until spring 2007, when a group of students began to revisit the possibility of starting the project.
"It's absolutely exhilarating," said Margi Dashevsky '10, an original proponent of the project. "We worked very hard and it went faster than we expected."
In his speech at the grand opening, which took place in Collis Commonground this Saturday, Welch told the audience that the SLC proves that it does not take scientists and "logbooks" to understand how to heal the environment, emphasizing the simple changes students can make to their daily lives in order to lessen their environmental impact.
"[Environmentalism] is a science of community, a study of the way things interact and play and grow off of and with and in spite of each other," he said. "We would be utter fools to think that it is something that can only be measured in inches or dollars or years of increased lifespan."
College President James Wright also spoke at the event, highlighting Dartmouth's historic commitment to environmental studies and protection.
"This institution is also a citizen of this world and we want to take the opportunity to make a difference," he said.
Tom Wessels, an ecologist from Antioch University New England, gave the keynote speech. Wessels most recent book, "Myth of Progress," details how human technological development has exploited the environment.
Dartmouth's Sustainability Manager Kathy Lambert '90 praised the project and the members of the SLC for their commitment to environmental sustainability.
"These students are doing things everyday to make a difference," she said.
The event coincided with the Green Jobs Day of Action, a national event that scheduled approximately 700 environmental events across the country in the hopes of pressuring the government to create "green-collar" jobs to benefit the environment.