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Senior Environmental Seminar Imagines a 'Green Plan' for the College

How should a college cited by The Princeton Review as America's "most beautiful campus" plan for its environmental future? What is the cost of vast green lawns, and are there equally attractive landscaping alternatives that would affect the local ecosystem differently?

Students in Thomas Millette's fall senior seminar in environmental studies will have the opportunity to ask these and similar questions as they conceptualize an environmental plan for the College. Millette, a professor of geography, says they'll use the class "to think about and discuss what a 'Green Plan' might include. There's no clear consensus out there yet as to what a Green Plan is. [Ideas] run the gamut from architectural plans showing use of landscaping to David Orr of Oberlin College's concept of a college with zero waste discharge," Millette explains.

He feels students are often able to come up with novel questions or solutions because they are not yet invested in the status quo. "They are able to acknowledge the fact that as a society, we cannot continue business as usual, so they're open to thinking about the world in different ways. They think beyond recycling or energy conservation to question how we do everything."

"I don't stand up and lecture anymore," Millette says. "I've found that students become more motivated when they have a problem that needs to be solved. Instead of reading the seminal book or article on a topic just because it's been assigned, they now enthusiastically read them to find the tools they need. And I've found that the harder the science, the better this method seems to work!"

According to Millette, no college or university has yet produced a comprehensive Green Plan, making this a cutting-edge exercise for the seminar's students. "The Plan for 2003 has environmental concerns as one of its key objectives, giving staff and students an interesting opportunity to think innovatively on behalf of the College," says Millette. "I hope that what the students produce offers the Mount Holyoke community something to spark new kinds of planning discussions."