December 7, 2004

Environmental Task Force
December 7, 2004 Meeting Notes

Present: Caroline Wick, Camille Parrish, Ben Wish, Dan Nein, Tom Wenzel, Christine Schwartz, Sarah Potter, Erin Bertrand, John Smedley

We began by discussing the upcoming plans for the College to build a new dorm commons around Rand, and a new dining facility, as called for in the Master Plan. We had heard of progress in the selection of architects and discussed the need for clarification on the process by which they would be chosen. Sarah reviewed for us how the previous process for the student center plans had worked. We wondered about who would be on architect selection committees, and how they would be chosen. I was asked to e-mail Bob or Terry or Elaine to seek clarification.

We discussed what would comprise the “justification” for increasing the environmental coordinator position from half time to full time. Christine has had experience in this and described the need for a Job Description, a Job Advertisement, and a lengthy, detailed statement of Justification. We thought this should include, for example, information gleaned from other institutions about the kinds of work their coordinators have done, including environmental and financial rewards reaped. We talked about spreading the word on our findings early in the winter semester, through meetings with faculty, staff and students, in order to get feedback before producing our final report.

[Subsequently J.S. discovered that the first faculty meeting of the year is on January 10, the first day of classes, pushing up the schedule for presentation to the faculty]

We talked about contacting Paul Farnsworth to learn about the timescale for renewal of our electricity contract, with an eye towards purchasing green electricity.