Lafayette College
EN-3: Student Life

Society of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (SEES)- SEES, advised by Arthur Kney, is an organization with three main goals. First, S.E.E.S. provides a learning experience for interested students in the related fields of environmental science and engineering. Second, S.E.E.S. conducts research to help solve current environmental science and engineering problems. Third, S.E.E.S. seeks to promote environmental sustainability through community outreach and partnerships. Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection (LEAP)- LEAP, advised by Katalin Fabian, is Lafayette College’s student environmental advocacy group. They are dedicated to making Lafayette a more sustainable institution and decreasing its ecological footprint. They are composed of students from all class years and all majors, and take advantage of our variety of perspectives to address a multitude of environmental concerns at Lafayette. The Lafayette Food and Farm Cooperative (LAFFCO) is a student organization that works to increase involvement and knowledge of our food and agricultural system. It also serves as the student branch of LaFarm.

LaFarm, run by Sarah Edmonds, is one of several sustainability initiatives at Lafayette. LaFarm Community Garden & Working Farm is a site for teaching, research, outreach, growing healthy food and building community. Our daily work and our long term goals aim to build an understanding of the critical role of food and farming in environmental stewardship.

Lafayette College’s 2014 Roethke Festival presented a two-day symposium focused on the hot-button issue of hydraulic fracturing, more commonly referred to as fracking. The symposium, “A Place for Fracking?,” was free and open to the public. The events were meant to showcase the interdisciplinary nature of the issue of fracking. They included a round table discussion with guest speakers who were photographers, novelists, and scientists, a community forum, and a keynote address delivered by author, biologist, and environmental activist Sandra Steingraber. Alix Ohlin, a professor at Lafayette College, helped to organize the event and link the campus and the community.

Lafayette College's William's Center for the Arts held the multimedia concert Documerica on September 5th, 2014. A meditation on the United States’ relationship with the environment, the production features commissioned work by four composers, and new music by the members of ETHEL, all set against a backdrop of photographs from the archives of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Project Documerica” of the 1970s. The Director of the Performance Series at William;s Center for the Arts is Hollis Ashby.

The Lafayette Outdoors Society (LOSt) is an organization that introduces students to the great outdoor recreation activities that the Easton area has to offer. Events include hiking/Camping, rock climbing, kayaking, cycling and running. LOSt follows Leave No Trace principles. The faculty advisor for LOSt is Cliff Reiter.

Each year, the first year experience includes reading a book before coming to campus, followed by small group, faculty-led book discussions during orientation. The book provides a theme for orientation and first year programing beyond that first week. In 2013-2014, the book was Jane Goodall's "In the Shadow of Man", following up on an exciting visit from Jane Goodall came and spoke during the Spring of 2013, an event that included many other talks and initiatives. In 2014-2015, the book was Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction". She spoke on campus in the spring of 2015.

The TREEHouse special interest living group is located on in an off campus house that is still college-owned. The purpose of the living group is to establish a low-impact, environmentally-conscious culture. The members of the TREEhouse all live together, trying to be models of recycling, efficiency, and conservation – employing human ingenuity, innovativeness and resourcefulness to establish a virtually waste-less and environmentally friendly community. The members of the group help to develop a campus-wide consciousness about preservation of the environment and the group serves as a pilot for new campus-wide environmental and energy policy. The TREEhouse was previously a interest floor located in a residence hall on campus. Three years ago it was disbanded for a year and has been an off campus living leaning community (LLC) for the past three years. Grace Reynolds, in Residence Life, has information regarding all of the LLC's.

Through Lafayette's community garden, LaFarm, students work under Sarah Edmonds, the Farm Manager, to grow food using organic, small scale, sustainable practices and then help in selling that food both to our Dining Halls and at a market for students and staff on campus. This both involves hands on labor and logistical office work.

Other websites for student groups include: https://sites.lafayette.edu/sees/ The listed website under sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences was for the Elizabeth Kolbert year. Here is a site describing the Jane Goodall year: https://news.lafayette.edu/2013/07/03/class-of-2017-jumps-into-campus-intellectual-life-with-reading-by-jane-goodall/