First Student Day of Action energizes campus politics

By Will Shoemaker

Late one night this October, in the usually stale hallways of the Withey East Room, students howled, drums thundered, and the energy built late into the night as the sounds drifted across campus. It was a drum circle held by the Youth Energy Squad to celebrate the faculty mock-debates, and the energy was still gathering the next day at 11 am, when students gathered for the Student Day of Action in front of Withey Hall to spread their enthusiasm across the campus.

It was as much a day for expression as it was for a day of action on October 19. Some students freestyle rapped or read poetry through amplifiers, while some professors encouraged students to stop and listen. Other students contributed their talents to a mural, hosted by the Art Sub-Squad (ASS), which represented what each artist thought of the question, “What is energy?” The painting stretched ten feet long and four feet high, and slowly formed into a colorful melding of planets, water, and human figures.

But perhaps the most powerful statement of the day was the scribbling of signatures. Students staffed tables offering three separate petitions for campus members to sign, one of which was the Declaration of Independence from Dirty Energy, a document sponsored by energyaction.net and designed as a way for American youth to declare their opposition to environmental injustice, global warming, and our nation’s dependence on oil.

The event at Green Mountain College was one of over 275 held nationwide on October 19, and yielded some 325 signatures total, making Green Mountain College one of the leading contributors of signatures nationwide. Event coordinator Noah Monro drove the afternoon with his excitement: when he wasn’t reading poetry over the loudspeaker or calling on people to sign the petitions, he was walking with passers-by to have a quick word with them. “It was thrilling to see such a positive, colorful, and creative action-based event on campus,” Noah said.

Many other students at the YES event shared Noah’s enthusiasm. Chris Conner, a member of YES who spent the afternoon selling cinnamon bunt cakes and energy-efficient light bulbs, said he was helping out of frustration with politicians’ failure to represent environmentalists sufficiently. “I’ve been very anti-oil for a long time,” Chris said, “so I had a big problem with Kerry not talking about energy independence. That’s something we should all be talking about.” Jessica Dowling, a YES member who helped with the energy mural, agreed. “As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “sustainability is not an option. And while Iraq is important, if we want a healthy world, we need to be constantly thinking about our living spaces.”

The Student Day of Action involved one of Green Mountain College’s big living spaces: the Withey Dining Hall. On the YES tables was a petition for the student initiative to change the light bulbs in the cafeteria. Written by Green Mountain College senior Tim Poole, the proposal lays out how the school could invest in nine-watt dimmable fluorescent bulbs to replace the now-in-use forty-watt bulbs. The proposal estimates that, based on the lifespan and energy costs of the bulbs, over the course of three years the new bulbs would save thousands of dollars. Tim, a transfer Environmental Studies major from Alaska Pacific University, gathered signatures at the YES event to enhance his presentation when he officially makes his proposal later this month.

Finally, at about 12:30 in the afternoon on the Student Day of Action, a silver hybrid fuel-efficient car rolled to a stop in front of Withey Hall, and Peter Clavelle, mayor of Burlington and candidate for Vermont Governor, stepped out to shake Noah’s hand. After leading the crowd in a spelling of energy (E is for environment, N is for no to nuclear power, etc.), he was promptly greeting by a small flock of GMC Streaking Team members in action. “It looked like their sign said ‘Clean Energy,’” he said. “It looks like they don’t need any extra energy.”

Since the Student Day of Action, the YES team is looking to become more structured in its delegations of tasks through roles such as treasurer (to handle the newly acquired budgetary funds) and secretary. The club is also looking to boost its membership from about 175 to 200 members, and aims to create an educational event series biweekly to raise awareness about energy issues on campus. The club will be expanding to do fundraisers like a T-shirt sale, and they hope to create a subcommittee to help gain faculty, staff, and administrative voices with needed perspectives for new projects. YES has decided on three main projects for this year, including the dining hall change-a-light initiative, vending misers for the 21 vending machines on campus (vending misers make vending machines more energy efficient; DEEP scholars started the project last year and handed it over to YES), and energy-efficient hallway lighting.

From cinnamon bundt cake to light bulbs, lighting petitions to colorful murals, and gubernatorial speeches to all-out nudity, one message came through strong this October 19 from the YES team: expression. Even if only for one lunch block, every GMC student got to say something big. “Energy is about positivity,” Noah said to the wide arc of people that had gathered around, “it’s about sharing your views proudly with all the people around you.” People clapped, they signed petitions, they picked up a paintbrush and created. Let’s just hope that after November 2 energy still means this much.

(Shannon Bonney also contributed to this story.)