Paul Smith's College
Contact Information
Education and Research:
Our First Year seminar, (Our Changing World) had a curriculum component covering sustainability. Bill McKibben, head of 360.org and Astrid Cabral, poet and Amazonian environmental activist were guest speakers who also held workshops for students and faculty.
We have passed a Sustainability Studies BS thru faculty governance. A key to sustainability training is understanding the processes and communities we work to sustain. For example in Biology 101, the course aims to develop a sense of place in the "tree of life" and of how different species and ecosystems interact and the labs are designed to use field examples as much as possible rather than buying one-time-use specimens. All of our classes in the sciences provide that foundation. Sustainability-focused courses include Permaculture Design, Ecological Change & Society, Homesteading in the 21st Century and Introduction to Renewable Energy. We have a semester study abroad option for our students with the Center of Ecological Living & Learning. Prof Curt Stager, internationally recognized researcher on climate change ( 2008 F., C Stager, et al.. Holocene vegetation and climate records from Lake Sibaya, KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 152: 113) has involved students in his research in Africa for more than 10 years. He is also the host for the Natural Selections radio show on North Country Public Radio, featuring sustainability/ecology/human-nature interactions as a common theme. (Podcasts at http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/natural.php)
We participated in Step-It-Up, Recycle Mania, Earth Day, our own Sustainability Day and hold campus clean-ups each semester. The college funded guest speakers, such as James Merkel, Sustainability Coordinator at Dartmouth College and James Howard Kunstle.
We established the Sustainability Council--students, faculty and staff--to oversee the efforts for the President's Climate Commitment. They will assume responsibility for funds generated by a $25 sustainability fee voted by the students this spring. We have a Sustainability Matters web page linked to our homepage.
Bachelor's programs require a "Capstone" experience: recent efforts have been on windpower, solar power, recycling, composting, hydroelectric generation at our dam. Surveying students participate in the Adopt-A-Highway program on Rt . 86 near campus. We underwrite a Farmer’s Market on campus every Friday, May--October, and host meetings for Adirondack Harvest, a nfp promoting sustainable agriculture. A very active Students for Environmental Action club participates in the projects related to the climate commitment (initiated “Scrape-the-Waste” program on Fridays to emphasize food waste) and were integral to the passage of the sustainability fee.
The college underwrites the Adirondack Watershed Institute--the major entity researching and combating invasive species in the Adirondacks and monitoring water quality in more than 100 lakes.
Campus Operations:
We purchase, since 2007, our entire electricity use through renewable energy credits from Community Energy, a subsidiary of Iberdrola. Our campus safety office now uses a fully electric Zenn Car for patrols, completely eliminating the necessity for fuel and oil. We have an Energy Smart purchasing policy and purchase only 100% post consumer recycled paper.
Other specific changes to our operations are as follows: high temp dish machine booster leading to elimination of chemical sanitizer in waste stream, no more Styrofoam in dining services AND in our large culinary program, no more trays in dining room since 9/07—one of first in nation (eliminates 60% post consumer waste, 40% reduction in hot water, 40% reduction in ware-washing chemicals), eliminated “to-go” materials in dining, recycle fryer oil to bio-diesel use by local Tucker Taters farm, day-part lighting initiative (dim for breakfast, bright for lunch, dim for dinner but no light at all on sunny days),total transition to green chemicals, Fair Trade coffee, and sustainable decorations for events (use of natural greens rather than purchase of flowers etc.).
The President mandated in 2006 to our sub-contract food service provider (Sodexo) that each year there be demonstrated an increasing percentage of foods and services purchased locally (100 mile radius). Our grounds maintenance protocols specify no pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer use. Each student room has recycling bins and each residence hall has a recycling center as does every floor in the remaining administrative and academic buildings.
We also have a ride-share board for students and staff and contracted with carpoolworld.com for scheduling for employee carpooling. We instituted a van service for students to Saranac Lake and this coming year are helping underwrite the Franklin County Bus service. Since we are also a “municipality”-- we have our water and sewage plans due to our remote location—we are in the process of installing new controls in our water tower to reduce pumping time estimated to save 31, 036 kWh/year. We are also installing a new more environmentally sensitive treatment for our steam boilers in the gym, projected to save over 2000 gal of #2 fuel oil and this summer completely renovating the natatorium, installing a non-chlorine purification system and energy efficient water heaters. We are also installing this summer, campus wide, smart strips for shedding of “ghost loads”. We are presently constructing a new research laboratory building—The Countess Alicia Spaulding-Paolozzi Center for Environmental Research & Education—as the home for our Adirondack Watershed Institute under guidelines to be LEED certified at the silver level.
Administration and Finance:
Paul Smith's College was founded on the principal of access to higher education and we have kept to that commitment being need-blind since our inception. Presently 33% of our students receive Pell Grants. Of the 621 New York students 71% receive need-based aid thru the state Tuition Assistance Program. Approximately 70% of our students receive tuition grants from the college for the unmet need as determined by the FAFSA. The college was awarded a $1.1 million TRiO Student Support Services grant in the spring of 2005. The TRiO-SSS program through its own sustainability initiative provides cultural enrichment field trips and sponsored speakers and events. We have established new endowed scholarship funds for low-income students in forestry and for study abroad opportunities. Being a very rural, remote location, and therefore struggling with diversity, we committed to a contract in spring 2008 with Xamining Diversity led by Mr. J.W. Wiley, to provide training and guidance in diversity related issues for all members of the campus community. The president serves on the national task force for the nfp College For Every Student whose focus is providing access to college for students from low-income rural and inner city communities.
The Strategic Planning Committee selected Climate Commitment as one of four organizing themes for the college’s next multi-year strategic plan to go into effect October, 2009. The college contracted with the Loyalton Group to do an energy audit for the campus and that audit has been formalized into a $1.4 million Sustainability Capital Action Plan to go to Board of Trustee review for approval and funding in August.
Currently the President serves on the board of the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation, the only CDFI within the six-million acre Adirondack Park and the board of the Northern Adirondack Empire Zone, a state-mandated economic development agency. In addition he is the president of the Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce, the leading economic development group in the region. The President is also on the board of the Northern Forest Council Strategic Economic Initiative—aimed at sustainable practices in the communities from Maine to the Adirondacks and the Dean of Forestry is on the Northern Forest Higher Education Resource Network promoting sustainability education in the region. The Dean of Science, Liberal Arts and Business serves on the advisory board for SCORE which consults with entrepreneurial start-ups in the region.
The Adirondack Watershed Institute provides a Watershed Steward program for the region (employing Paul Smith's College students). Stewards educate boaters about loss of species due to invasives and how to take measures to prevent the spread of invasives, encourage sustainable recreation behaviors, work with children in educational programs on sustaining our natural ecosystems and conduct research on ecological science.
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