This past week’s meeting featured two major proposals. The more straightforward of these was a proposal to change the Environmental Modeling Committee’s proposal to purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to cover the school’s non-renewable energy consumption. SGA will use its $40,000 renewable energy fund to purchase RECs to cover 15 percent of the college’s energy use over a two-year period, instead of purchasing enough to cover 100 percent of the college’s consumption.
The remainder of this year’s money will be used to pay for a Renewable Energy Audit of the school to reveal where the college can improve in cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions.
While the short-term impact of the decision to purchase fewer RECs on the college’s standing as an environmentally-friendly institution will be negative, the long-term impact of knowing how to lessen the campus’s environmental impact, in my opinion, outweighs the short-term loss.
The second item on the agenda was the Automobile Congestion and Pollution Reduction Task Force Report, which recommended closing two central campus roads and reducing campus parking. President Peter Friedrichs presented the proposal, which was drawn up by a special SGA commission that he led along with Director of Campus Safety Stewart Smith and three other members of the community. If approved by SGA, the proposal will be incorporated into the school administration’s “Master Plan,” which has not been fully presented to SGA.
Under the proposal, the road in front of Harris Dining Hall and the rest of the Plex will be closed off this summer by bollards, which are thick removable metal stakes installed into the pavement of a road or side-walk. This stage of the plan is meant as a test, to see whether closing off a road within the campus would indeed encourage students to drive around campus less and walk or bike more.
If closing off that road works out, the next step of the plan is to close off Cro Boulevard in the same way. According to the administration’s “Master Plan,” Cro Boulevard will be replaced by a smaller walk surrounded by grass and trees. The barbecue pit behind Cro, the shrub-covered hill beyond that, and the road in front of Harris will be graded down towards Harris as a flat hill on which the school might build an out-door amphitheatre. This, Friedrichs said, would connect North Campus more to the rest of the campus.
The second part of the proposal deals with parking. Removing Cro Boulevard and the road in front of Harris would require removing the parking spaces on those two roads. The current system for allocating parking spaces, which is based on seniority, would be replaced by a lottery, which would exclude freshmen, who would not be allowed to park on campus.
This facet drew the most argument, with several representatives and one student-at-large voicing concerns and disapproval. Freshmen would have to depend on upperclassmen for rides to Mystic, Groton and other places at which the Camel Van does not stop, some pointed out. Friedrichs cited this as a point in favour of the proposal, since this dependence cultivate stronger bonds between freshmen and upperclassmen. Many representatives did not agree.
He also said the plan would encourage more students to use already-existing transportation like the SEAT-bus which stops on Williams Street.
As it is, the school has calculated that an average of 1500 cars are parked on campus every day, meaning that bringing the number of parking spaces down to 1500 would not have as drastic an effect as one would at first expect. However, the proposal to bar freshmen from campus parking shows that the commission believes the reduction in parking may create a parking shortage.
There are three main reasons to remove the roads: it would make the campus prettier, it would encourage students to make healthier choices and it would help the environment.
From an aesthetic point of view, replacing two wide roads and the parking spaces on them with pedestrian walk-ways and more green space would improve the campus’s visual beauty, which, according to Friedrichs, is commonly cited by students as a major factor in their daily lives. Moreover, a prettier campus would increase the college’s appeal to prospective students, possibly increasing the applicant pool and increasing the enrollment rate, which would further help the school sell itself as “a selective liberal arts college.”
Also, decreasing the number of cars on campus and eliminating the option of driving to many parts of campus will encourage students to walk or bike more. From an environmental point of view, reducing the amount of driving by students will reduce the volume of greenhouse gasses emitted by the college.
As the administration would be paying for these changes, cost should not immediately factor into SGA’s decision. This is a very contentious issue, and the final vote on its passage could be a close one.
Members of the Executive Board urged the House Senators to tell their constituents about the proposal and to solicit opinions from them.
I encourage all students to go to their House Council meeting this week to find out more about this important matter and to express their opinions, so that it may truly be decided in as open and democratic a way as possible.
