Skidmore College
EN-3: Student Life

The Sustainability Committee (SuCo) is the primary student committee responsible for educating and collaborating with students, the Student Government Association (SGA), faculty, staff, and administration with the intent to advance the College's commitment to sustainability. SuCo devotes itself to embracing the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainability by implementing policies that address campus challenges. SuCo will help coordinate and support student, faculty, staff, and administrative groups that work on sustainability-based initiatives. This group channels student voice, ideas, and concerns into the development of Skidmore's sustainability efforts by working closely with the Sustainability Office, the Campus Sustainability Subcommittee, and any other relevant groups. This committee helps streamline student efforts and campus initiatives addressing the goals of the Campus Sustainability Plan. SuCo ultimately integrates student insight and propose policy recommendations to encourage Skidmore to reach its full potential while advocating for an inclusive, sustainable community. The Environmental Action Club (EAC) is a student-based group committed to sustainability initiatives on campus, in the community, nationally, and worldwide. EAC’s goal is a 100% clean energy future, and an ecologically, socially, and economically just world. To work towards this goal, the EAC focuses on four general themes - energy, transportation, waste, and food issues. They plan events, campaigns, projects and more around these issues to generate awareness and inspire change. SkidEats is Skidmore’s student-run sustainable food group, focusing on all things food related. The group organizes events to bring awareness to our local, regional, national, and international food systems.

In April 2009, volunteers from the Environmental Action Club, with the support of Facilities Services, broke ground to create the Skidmore College Student Garden. In 2014, there was an opportunity to bring the garden to a more central, visible location on campus. Students, staff, and faculty worked together to find a suitable location for the new garden and chose Wiecking Green. The new location is more accessible, visible, and inviting to our campus community and visitors of the College. Students also chose to rename the garden to the Skidmore Community Garden, representative of the garden's mission to be an inclusiveness space for all. Students, staff, faculty, and other community members are always welcome to enjoy the garden space as a place for rest, reflection, fun, and learning. The garden supplies local food, grown using organic practices, to Skidmore's dining hall. It facilitates a connection to, and appreciation for, the food that we eat, and offers hands-on learning opportunities for the Skidmore community. The garden provides an outlet for community members interested in environmental issues, social justice, and economic development to learn about the local food movement and the ecology of food. The garden has produced over 5,000 lbs of food since 2009. The garden hosts an annual Harvest Dinner each fall that serves over 250 meals made almost entirely of locally-sourced food and coordinates a spring fundraising concert called Beats for Beets.

Skidmore Feelgood- Feelgood youth movement committed to ending world hunger in our lifetime. FeelGood students run non-profit delis specializing in grilled cheese sandwiches. 100% of deli proceeds are invested in organizations sustainably eradicating global hunger. The programs coordinated through the Sustainability Office (BikeMore, Community Garden, Compost, Sustainability Representatives, and North Woods Stewards,) are all student-run enterprises. For instance, the garden manager is involved in budget management and coordinates invoices, payments, and garden expenses during the growing season.

Geopalooza- The two-day event focused on geothermal heat pumps (GHP) as a way to heat and cool buildings and reduce fossil fuel reliance. Attendees heard from cutting-edge technical and policy experts on how GHPs can minimize greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy bills. Another focus of the event was net zero buildings, where GHPs and renewable electricity combine to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions. This conference was open to the public and students. Skidmore Unplugged, the College's annual three-week energy reduction competition, always includes a series of energy-related lectures and dialogues with sustainability leaders, community organizers, and faculty members. The 2015 Skidmore Unplugged series included keynote lectures with former government officials, regional community organizers, and included dialogues and panel discussions between faculty, staff, and students.

The Tang Teaching Museum organizes numerous events and exhibitions related to sustainability. Examples include: -Classless Society, an exhibition that questions how one might think about class today in the current social and economic context, including the availability (or not) of class mobility and the different ways that class is signaled and understood. - Affinity Atlas, which included the exhibition of Leaning Skeleton by Vik Muniz, and a screening of Waste Land, which charts an inspiring project between the artist (Vik Muniz) and individuals who gathered recyclable materials in landfills. The movie was screened in downtown Saratoga Springs and was followed by a community discussion.

The Skidmore College Outing Club organizes outing trips nearly every weekend during the academic year. Outings include rock climbing, hiking, snow boarding, camping, and more. The Outing Club increases access to outdoor activities by providing necessary equipment to anyone in need. Club members help decide and plan each trip. The purpose of the club is to provide all students with the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities in the outdoors and to make professional training available to those who wish to further their knowledge of wilderness skills.

One-quarter of the Human Dilemmas first-year seminar focuses on humans in relation to the natural world. Learning objectives push students to explore: Who am I?; What exactly am I?; What is my relationship to others?; and What is my responsibility to them and to the world?. "Human Dilemmas" challenge students’ conventional assumptions surrounding these predicaments as we focus our attention on interdisciplinary readings, critical thinking, and academic inquiry. Debates, field trips, and writing will move us toward an understanding of what it means to be human in our contemporary world.

Each student-run program provides our students with opportunities to learn sustainable life skills. For instance, Skidmore Unplugged provides opportunities for students to learn how to adopt more sustainable habits, our compost program teaches students how to manage food waste, and our garden program teaches students how to grow food and manage a sustainable business.

The Sustainability Office offers 15 paid student leadership positions each semester and offers three paid student positions during the summer. Student positions include Compost Manager, North Woods Steward, BikeMore Manager, Community Garden Manager, Sustainability Representative, and Sustainable Dining Communications Manager.

Feedmore- Feedmore is a hunger-relief program that collects surplus food from the Skidmore dining hall and delivers it to local soup kitchens and food pantries. The program delivered over 3,500 lbs. of food to local service organizations since 2014. Divest Skidmore- Divest Skidmore is a student-led campaign bringing awareness to the impacts of the fossil fuel industry and seeks to push the College toward fossil fuel divestment.