Onyx Fall-Winter 2017

new initiatives like a Ring Day campus cleanup and improved awareness of recycling on campus. When

club members noticed that recycling materials wasn’t as easy for housekeeping staff as it could be, the

efforts have helped Swickard understand what she wants to do post-graduation, dealing with clients as a human services professional. “I’ve learned how to teach other people how to do something,” Swickard says, reflecting on her Sustainability Club experience. “Now I know that there are all these events that my future clients can get involved in. There are things they can do in their daily lives that cost nothing but have an impact on our earth. I can teach them how to do those things when I leave The Woods.” dad Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is unique when it comes to sustainability. One of our four core values is sustainability, which means that students are introduced to sustainability academically in their first year and can choose to take a capstone course in sustainability, usually in their junior or senior year. For first-year students, the sustainability unit of “Into the Woods” — Woods Core (WC) 100 — often allows students to perform hands-on work in sustainability. Since all students must perform a service project, many choose to lead initiatives aimed at making campus a greener place.

One initiative that the first-year students in WC 100 led last year was a trayless week in the O’Shaughnessy Dining Room.Trayless programs are nothing new—many schools have moved to trayless dining since it limits food waste (people get less food when they have to carry it by hand) and saves water since there are no trays to clean. So what was different about Trayless Week at The Woods? “It was quiet,” Tarasi explains. Usually, trayless initatives are met with some amount of consternation, since it can be a bit inconvenient. Other schools have had their trayless initiatives met with protest. Tarasi smiles when he recalls how smoothly the trial week—and the resulting final decision to go trayless permanently—went. “Greening The Woods committee worked really hard and led the College in adopting the trayless program permanently. WC100 students did a great job of educating campus before the trial week.” Students sent e-mails, hung posters, and stood by the trays to explain why trayless dining was a good idea. “That’s another thing that’s different about this school,” Tarasi says. “The students themselves are learning how to

club stepped in to make the process more efficient and to let and staff know how to dispose of particular

students, faculty

recyclable items. different about

“That’s what’s a small school like The Woods,” says Tarasi. “It’s very easy for you to get involved and see your ideas come to fruition. There are few layers of oversight, and students get the ability to be leaders and see the impact of their ideas.” Did Swickard find a new way to recycle that will eradicate all waste moving forward? No. But she led her student club to improve how we treat our earth—even just a little bit. Suddenly, students, staff and faculty are cleaning up the grounds before Ring Day and noticing less and less trash on Wabashiki cleanup day. When considering the impact on the entire earth, the actions of the club are minute. But, as Swickard knows, if everyone did a little more, we’d be in better shape. These

Left: Assistant Professor of Ecology Dennis Tsarasi, Ph.D., teaching students during an integrated science class. Top: Freshman Olivia Burns of Terre Haute, Ind., and Sustainability Club President Olivia Swickard of Deputy, Ind., work together to make containers to collect plastic caps on campus. The caps will be recycled to make benches for campus.

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