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Environmental Studies Department
Olin Rice 249
1600 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
651-696-6274
Comments & questions to:
esson@macalester.edu

Environmental History of Macalester 1970-2000

By Kira Pascoe and Sarah Ullmer
May 2000

1970's –

• Macalester Recycling Organization, (MACRO), the first ever known recycling campaign at Macalester was begun by two students in the 1970s. They borrowed equipment from physical plant and spent hours collecting cans to recycle. This evolved into the student organization, MACRO, and was later made into a student employee position.

1992 - 1993 –

• Campus Environmental Issues Committee was founded by Mark Davis and co-chaired by Mark Dickinson.

1996-1997 –

• The Community Service Office employed a work study student with the title Environmental Issues Area Coordinator.

Fall 1996 –

• Fall break service trip to Gooseberry Falls State Park to clear ski trails. This trip was sponsored by the Community Service Office and led by Angie Sauer .

Spring 1997 –

• Brian Kramer and Kira Pascoe founded Macalester Ecological Society (MECOS). MECOS was the first student organization ever at Macalester to focus only on environmental issues.
• Community Service Office began Dodge Nature Center weekly restoration volunteer crew, led by Eli Marlow.
• The first Earth Week was coordinated by a core group of students who organized a series of events including, speakers, student events, outings, and campus education activities.

1997-1998—

Fall 1997-

• For Fall Break 1997 MECOS co-sponsered a restoration service trip with the Community Service Office to Tettegouche State Park.

Spring 1998-

• MECOS formed student groups that focused on environmental issues at Macalester such as paper reduction, recycling awareness, native landscape, and decreasing campus energy use.

1998-1999 –

Fall 1998-

• MECOS kept environmental committees going, launched an anti-styrofoam campaign and began looking into reusable mug options.

• Community Service Office begins Environmental Education programs at Boys’ and Girls’ Club and Randolph Elementary School, led by Sarah Ullmer.

Spring 1999-

• MECOS continued the tradition of sponsoring events during Earth Week.

• MEADOWLARK published the first environmental journal

1999-2000--

Fall 1999-

• MECOS launched a reusable cups campaign. Reusable cups were sold for a dollar. Students could use these cups at school and in neighboring businesses and receive a small discount on the price of their drink.
• CEIC was reconvened by Al Romero
• MEADOWLARK published an environmental journal

Spring 2000-

• Environmental Studies Senior Seminar class investigates Macalester’s environmental practices

• Meadowlark published its environmental journal

• May 4, 2000- Talloires Declaration signed by President McPherson

Environmental Organizations at Macalester

CAMPUS ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES COMMITTEE (CEIC)—

The Campus Environmental Issues Committee (CEIC) was started by Mark Davis in 1992-93 and co-chaired by Mark Dickinson. Mark Davis went on sabbatical and the organization went defunct. Al Romero reconvened the CEIC in the Fall of 1998. Its mission is to evaluate, research, recommend and educate the college on environmental issues and practices. During Fall of 1999, the CEIC presented the Talloires Declaration to President McPherson and surveyed faculty, staff and students on environmental awareness and practices. The policy sub-committee chaired by Professor Brett Smith wrote and Implementation Plan summarizing the necessary steps to implement the Talloires at Macalester. The Talloires was signed on May 4, 2000 by President McPherson, and representatives of the students, staff and faculty.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AREA COORDINATOR—

The Community Service Office (CSO) employs a student as the Environmental Issues Area Coordinator. This student position was created to provide opportunities for Macalester students to do environmentally focused service projects. Service projects focus on a broad range of issues including restoration at Dodge Nature Center and environmental education at the East Side Boys and Girls Club and Expo Elementary School.

MACALESTER COLLEGE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY (MECOS)—

Macalester College Ecological Society (MECOS) was founded in 1997 by Brian Kramer and Kira Pascoe with the mission to promote environmental awareness within the Macalester Community. MECOS has sponsored annual EARTH WEEK activities.

MEADOWLARK – Meadowlark is a naturewriting journal founded in the Fall of 1998. Its first board of editors was Claudia Curran, Megan Hall, Andy Miller and Kira Pascoe. It was created as a forum for students, faculty, and staff to express their thoughts about environmental issues and, by doing so, inform the community of the beauty, complexity, and state of natural and human environments. The Macalester College Student Government in the Spring of 2000 chartered it.

MULCH-- A student run sustainable garden that has, in the past, focused on growing organic food. Fiona Creed founded MULCH. Currently MULTCH is focusing both on organic gardening and native landscape. In the past MULTCH has invited neighboring community to join the garden.

PUBLICITY ACTIONS SPRING 2000

Talloires Flyer

A Talloires awareness flyer was created at the beginning of the semester of Spring 2000. This flyer was printed on the back of re-used paper and sent out to all faculty and staff. The flyer explained the Campus Environmental Issues Committee (CEIC) and the Talloires Declaration (see attached flyer).

Talloires Forum

In order to raise awareness about the Talloires Declaration, a forum was arranged on March 30, 2000. This forum explained the Talloires Declaration, and the proposed Implementation Plan. 45? people attended the forum, the main audience being students with some faculty and staff present.

There There was some concern voiced by faculty about the meaning of the Talloires in terms of teaching and curriculum including the proposed environmental diversity requirement. The logistics and timeline of implementing the Talloires at Macalester was also questioned.

EnviroBit

The EnviroBit is a weekly series of environmental messages highlighting environmentally friendly actions that students, staff and faculty take. The original intent was to publish a different EnviroBit in the Bulletin, MacWeekly and TODAY each week. This was much more difficult then it appeared. The EnviroBbit still has great potential, it is just a matter of figuring out how to publicize it. One option is to write or hang copies of the EnviroBit up in a consistent place each week.

The following EnviroBits were submitted by faculty, staff and students during Spring 2000:

• My roommate turns the heat down in our apartment during the day when we’re all out. (Mandy Stearn '01)
• I bring my shopping bags back to the grocery store to reuse (my roommates do to). (Mandy Stearn '01)
• I dive into the recycling bins and pull out paper to use the backside when copying or printing things. (Brian Kramer '00)
• I try to figure out all of the different computer printers and copiers so I can reuse paper...there’s plenty of one-sided paper to use! (Andrea Tietmeyer '00)
• I use the dorm room recycle boxes. (Ziyad)
• Meadowlark reuses paper, cardboard and magazines for its advertisements and publicity. (Claudia Curran '00)
• The coffee cans recently placed around campus were placed by my statistics group in an effort to reduce cigarette butt littering around campus. (Rebecca Kramer)
• Each week I hand out 23 homeworks to my Principles of Economics class. I have discovered that it is very easy to make these copies on paper that has already been used on one side. One does have to make sure that the paper is in good shape so as to not cause paper jams in the campus copiers. I also urge my students to write their homework solutions on used paper. Next year I am going to experiment with incentives and standards to encourage students in my class to make the move to used paper. (Sarah West, Economics)
• I dumpster dive regularly. Our stools in the printmaking studio came out of a dumpster during Olin/Rice renovation. A little paint and they look good as new. Perhaps we can set up an online BB where departments disposing of items can see if any else can reuse them first. (Ruthann Godellei, Art)
• Not long ago, I happened upon a shareware program called "FINEPRINT 2000" (www.fineprint.com) that makes it easy to print documents "2-up" --that is, two pages reduced to fit on a single page. You can also do 4-up or 8-up. The program offers a free trial and costs $39.95 for a licensed copy, which I happily paid for myself. It’s easy on trees and makes for a lighter briefcase load. (President Mike McPherson)

Graduation Pledge

The pledge is an opportunity for graduating seniors to take a graduation pledge stating, " I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider or any organization for which I work." Students will sign the pledge before the commencement ceremony and receive a ribbon to wear on their graduation gown.

SUGGESTED FUTURE ACTIONS

These are ideas that we came up with to help raise environmental awareness at Macalester.

Footprint Idea

The ecological footprint is a measure of the amount of productive land and water that is necessary to sustain the life of an average person. This concept can also be applied to an institution's impact on it's environment. In order to calculate Macalester's footprint, data must be collected over a year long period. The change in Macalester's footprint can measured over time to determine the positive and negative impacts that Macalester has on the environment. A theme we thought of to help raise awareness about Macalester's environmental impact is "Finding Macalester's Footprint" campaign.

More information can be found in Our Ecological Footprint by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees.

Action Days

We thought about having theme or action days either during Earth Week or at random times throughout the year. Themes that we thought of for these days were: No paper use day, conserve energy day, reuse day, sustainable food day. Each of these days would promote awareness and action on the chosen issue. For example. during no paper use day, the campus would be challenged to use only the clean back-side of used paper for everything. One way to encourage this would be to start with stocking all of the printers in the computer labs with used paper. Each year another paper saving action could be suggested.

Screen Saver Idea

Change the screen savers in all the computer lab to an environmental message or suggestion that can be implemented at Macalester. For example, "What about dandelions on Shaw Field?", "What kind of tree is that outside.", and "Have you eaten food made from MULCH lately?".

Bird Calls

Another idea to raise awareness is through sound. How often have you heard people's radios blasting out their dorms. What if all that music were bird calls? We thought that one way get people to think about the environment would be to play bird or animal calls in random places around campus. This would include both academic buildings, dorms, and outside.

Collaborating with Other Schools

Keep in mind the possibility of working with other schools. St. Thomas is nearby and has been active in putting on environmental conferences and has at least two environmental activists teaching there currently. Working with other schools enables an exchange of information and help energize the environmental effort.

Resources

Creighton, Sarah Hammond, Greening the Ivory Tower, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1998.

Wackernagel, Mathis; Rees, William, Our Ecological Footprint.

Macalester College · 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105  USA · 651-696-6000
Comments and questions to esson@macalester.edu