1947

One purpose of this column is to bring the class together with each other every so often, and we welcome any and all words of news from all of you.

Another purpose, I feel, is to bring Dartmouth out to you through "unofficial" but caring eyes. I have had opportunity to do work at the Thayer School, and this frequent visiting has brought me close to many aspects of the College. We all know there are students and we have as a class a chance to interplay with them. And we certainly are aware of the many faculty abilities, the strivings of the administration, and the efforts of all the alumni support people.

There is a little known (to most of us) segment of the College whose job it is to keep the entire plant, which is the campus, operating effectively; so well that in effect, if successful, they go unnoticed. I refer to the Buildings & Grounds Department. Over the past year, I have been favorably impressed with the directness, integrity, and responsibility shown as I have worked with them. We have some excellent specialists, some confident directors and planners, and on every level we have men and women doing unsung chores to make students' lives better, their learning experience more real.

I saw a perfect example of this, when I exercised my interest in things environmental, and began to explore Dartmouth's role in the community, regarding waste problems.

All of us now recognize that waste or garbage is slowly engulfing us, both in city and country. I feel our government, at all levels, is ignoring or perhaps just beginning to awaken to the magnitude of our problem. I wanted to know what the College was teaching students on this subject, so I went to the Environmental Studies Department, in the Nathan Smith Building just behind the chemistry building. I talked to Chairman Jim Hornig and Professor Andy Friedland, and it was most enlightening and pleasing to learn of the strength and growth of this department, now in its 20th year. Some classes are tied in to Thayer Engineering as well as the departments of geography, government, earth sciences, philosophy, and chemistry. There is currently discussion of offering a major in environmental studiesfor now there is a certification program and a modified major program. There is an ongoing ten-year-old overseas study project, in Nairobi, Kenya. Twenty Dartmouth students each year study,work, and live with their African counteroarts. They are directly involved with farmers, nomad pastoralists, and resource managers in this developing nation.

But best of all, I feel, is the community involvement the E. S. students have created. A 1988 class in environmental policy developed measures they felt appropriate to deal with local concerns in waste management. Their study analyzed, in detail, 41 percent of the total 2,638 tons of garbage Dartmouth generates annually. The students came up with systems, handling tech niques, special containers, and some new rules, to bring about recycling at Dartmouth on a meaningful scale. They now have paper recycling in all buildings, and estimates are that over 50 percent of the College waste stream can be recycled, with continuing efforts.

Working directly with Buildings & Grounds, the students found Bill Hochstin a knowledgable and willing planner and prime-mover. With his great cooperation, and direction, a meaningful recycling program is in full swing.

To me, this is the greatest view of the College at work in its community.

One last word: there is a lively, active alumni group called "Dartmouth Alumni Network," with whom any of us can make contact if interested. This group will lead a celebration for the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 1990. A very definite plus for Dartmouth College.

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