environment – Houghton STAR

Designed as an effort to create more options for students to get involved in the act of environmental stewardship, the Creation Care Townhouse is continuing to have an impact. Houghton’s Sustainability Coordinator, Brian Webb, sent out an e-mail last summer to all townhouse residents, seeking anyone who was interested in the opportunity to pursue creation care. Webb said that his purpose in creating the Creation Care House was to designate a place that could engage students on the topic of creation care in a more intentional and ongoing way. “I was familiar with the model of a living learning community…I really liked the idea of taking that model and applying the topic of creation care to it, particularly since creation care, stewardship, sustainability, whatever you want to call it, is very appropriate to the residential context.” Webb also said that these types of communities are particularly impactful because when students go on to live on their own, they are able to take the principles they’ve implemented and continue them into an awareness of how their habits impact the world.

After conferring among their housemates, future residents of Perkins 49 took Webb up on his offer. House member Lauren Bull stated that their admittance into the house was anything but grueling. “There wasn’t really a formal selection, we just kind of volunteered,” she said. Her housemates include Winona Wixson, Brittany Libby, Lydia Wilson, Jory Kauffman, and Amy Eckendorf. After the group had been selected, a number of different options were afforded to them in terms of which area of creation care they wanted to explore. The group chose food and water.

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Bull said this meant they would be composting, low-flow faucets and toilets would be installedin the house, as well as having monthly meetings and brainstorming sessions with Brian Webb to learn more about sustainable food practices and the difficulty of eating organically in college, among other things. It was all part of this initiative that moved two large composting bins to the townhouse area, available for all residents’ usage.Webb said his goal for designating the Creation Care House was to create something that was both internally and externally focused in educating and encouraging good stewardship practices within the townhouse, as well as enabling the students to take their knowledge to the community, particularly in the other townhouses. Last semester, the group sponsored a visit to a local farm where all the vegetables were naturally grown. Bull said the visit along with listening to the farmer and his wife talk about his farming practices was part of the learning process of coming to awareness in being more intentional. “It’s really cool to see how achievable it is. They made it look very attainable.” The venture was posted with only 24 slots, all of which were filled. The first of this month marked a showing of the documentary Fresh, examining America’s food system, all organized and promoted by the Creation Care House. They are currently planning gardening workshops to be held later this semester.

As for the future of the program, Webb said he is leaving room for expansion. “Ideally,” he said, “I would like to get two houses next year. If I had two quality applications from groups of students who are committed to it, then I would accept two houses.” He also mentioned that the following year’s application process would be a little more difficult, hoping for more of a competitive bidding process, not made possible this year because of the rapidness with which this was developed. He is also hoping that next year the Creation Care House will be able to bring in some sort of creation care expert each month about their area of expertise, adding weight to the program’s intentionality and credibility. In its educational and communal benefits as well as its perceptible success, the Creation Care House has measured out to be something sustainable in itself.

With the Campus Climate Survey, issued this week by the Diversity Audit Committee, Houghton College has begun to “take the temperature” of the students, faculty, and staff on campus regarding topics of ethnic, racial, sexual, gender, and disability-based diversity.

Image courtesy of http://www.meridianschools.org/

Professor Intí Martínez-Alemán explained from where the need for a Diversity Audit came. In 2009 an incident occurred during a chapel celebrating Black History Month. Two students, one dressed as a gorilla and another in a banana costume, ran through the aisles. Professor Martínez-Alemán cited this event as a key piece of evidence in Houghton’s administration’s realization that diversity, and the way students perceive it, might be an important issue to address on campus.

Later in 2009, a few professors and college administrators attended a conference in Vermont which dealt with diversity topics on college campuses. Documents concerning the then-current state of diversity on Houghton’s campus and goals for where the discussion on diversity and the implementation of policies encouraging diversity should have gone in the coming years. According to Professor Martínez-Alemán, this document and its ideas were not explicitly implemented in any way. The Diversity Audit is ultimate result of earlier attempts to analyze Houghton in light of ethnic, racial, sexual, gender, and disability topics.

Once the results of the survey are compiled, the Committee plans to analyze the results and then create focus groups based on these results. This April, Jane Higa, current Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students at Westmont College, will be coming to Houghton to look at the Committee’s and focus groups’ findings and to help draft a final document to present to the Board of Trustees and Administration of the college.

Professor Martínez-Alemán said “[we] have this idea of an average Houghton student: white, female, and 18-22 years old. Anyone that does not fit that description [, on our campus,] is diverse.” And so the Diversity Audit’s purpose is to take a look at why Houghton is most attractive to young, white females and to discover how, once students enroll and spend time at Houghton, the college shapes their thinking about themselves and people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, for example.

Dennis Stack, Houghton’s Dean of Students, emphasized this purpose as primary to the committee. The Diversity Audit, and particularly the Campus Climate Survey is not at all meant to target any one group or make individuals feel guilty for thinking or feeling a certain way about others. Stack described the survey as a “safe, risk free, and comfortable” way for people to share their honest feelings about people different from themselves.

“We really want to know, or it would be really great to know, what lens everybody is looking at life through,” said Stack. And he followed by saying, “it would be of course ideal for everyone to see through the same lens, and for that lens to be the same one Jesus sees through.”

In order to get an accurate idea of the campus climate as related to issues of diversity, the Committee hopes for people to be willing to participate. Stack said, “we want everyone to take [the survey] because we want everybody represented.” The number of responses to the survey has already surpassed Stack’s original expectation, and he is hopeful that the rest of campus will take the initiative and contribute.

Ellen Musulin, a sophomore, is one of the students who chose to participate in the Campus Climate Survey. After completing the survey, she said, “It made me think, and took longer than I expected.” Musulin also related the relevance and merit of the survey; she said “I think the survey will help begin the process of looking at the topic of diversity; If this is truly an issue, then the college should really continue talking to students, faculty, and staff.”

President Mullen is also involved with the Diversity Audit. In response to a question that came up in the SGA student forum concerning the purpose of the Campus Climate Survey and the Diversity Audit, President Mullen said, “The Audit really should have happened three years ago.” And now that the Diversity Committee has been reformulated, with the President’s input, she is encouraging students to “participate thoughtfully.”

President Mullen also echoed and expanded upon the sentiments of Dennis Stack. She said, “we need to figure out a little more fully what it means to have a theology [in the realm of diversity] that is as rich and deep as the kingdom of God.”

In conclusion to the SGA Senate, President Mullen admitted that the process of a hard look at the college in light of diversity will not necessarily easy. She concluded her short address of the topic by saying “if we are going to go through with this, it is going to require some tough discussions, and I am committed to having those discussions.”