Senior green funds green gift

Author: Michelle Constant

The Class of 2007 will present the College with an environmental fund for green initiatives on campus as its senior gift, the Senior Committee announced last Friday. Called The Green Fund, the gift will support projects including biomass incentives, carbon neutralization efforts and the organic garden.

Seniors voted last week on a list of proposed gifts suggested by students. The list included the Green Fund, a wall-mounted clock for the New Library, contributions to the Hillcrest Environmental Center or the Axinn Center at Starr Library, wireless Internet in Axinn or Hillcrest, scholarship money for future students or a donation to the annual fund, which is responsible for seven percent of the College's direct operating expenses.

According to Leigh Polfer '07 and Brett Swenson '07, the co-chairs of the Senior Committee, close to 500 seniors voted on the class gift, making it one of the largest turnouts in years. Annual Giving Officer Heidi Webb said the Green Fund won with 146 votes. A new library clock came in a close second, down by 20 votes, while the number of votes for the other gifts fell within a lower range, with wireless Internet receiving the fewest number of votes.

Webb said that seniors a few years ago donated a clock for McCardell Bicentenial Hall and said that the Green Fund is a more original gift. Webb also said that the Class of 2007 is known as "the green class," and that this fund was a characteristic choice that is "going to be a really great gift to the College." She said that the endowed fund "will benefit any project to help [the College] achieve greater goals of making the campus more sustainable," encompassing projects like the Hillcrest Environmental Center.

According to Polfer, the environmental fund will consist of the seed money to begin a fund that will grow over time as continual alumni donations accumulate. The goal of the Senior Committee is for the fund to eventually reach $10 million. Polfer hopes that this fund will serve as "a model for all other environmentally conscious colleges."

Swenson believes that the Green Fund is "one of the greatest senior gifts the school has ever received" and is honored that this gift will be associated with her senior class.

Other seniors, however, were not as content with the chosen senior gift. Mateo Fisher '07 voted for the scholarship money. Fisher said, "we must take measures to ensure that anyone that can add to the [College's] culture, regardless of financial means, has the opportunity to be here." Fisher also expressed a strong belief that the library clock was not a useful choice for students.

Micah Gurard-Levin '07 thought that it is "important to pick a class gift that contributes to the student experience on campus" and to give back to the College community for all of the ways it has benefited the seniors during their four-year tenure. Gurard-Levin said that although supporting environmental issues is important for the global community, contributing to the construction of the Axinn Center would have been a more "meaningful gift to help maintain the historical significance of that building."