A coOperative living and cooking experience on Bryn Mawr's campus? Starting in the fall semester of 1999, the Bryn Mawr will have an addition to the residence and dining options currently available. The new Batten CoOperative house will be available to all bi-college sophomore, junior, and senior women who are interested in a coOperative living and cooking experience. The house activities will focus on environmental and social justice issues.
Batten House, a white stone cottage located beside Brecon, will house 13 CoOpers. They will take turns cooking 6 vegetarian dinners every week, organize and host speakers, outdoor appreciation events, and picnics for the college community, and work closely with the Haverford Campus bi-college environmental house known as ehaus.
The goals for the first year of the house include meal preparation of 6 dinners a week, buying food from local retailers and buying co-operatives, recycling of glass, plastic, metal, paper, and other items, composting of food waste, sponsorship of community speakers, community service projects in Philadelphia, and holding outdoor appreciation events for the college community.
Although the house will serve as a center for environmental and social justice education and action, it will also place a strong emphasis on creating community, both within the house and on the Bryn Mawr campus. The coOperative living aspect of the house, in which all members take part in the maintainance and chores of the house, will allow residents to examine how their actions affect the people with whom they live. All members will have the opportunity to organize events and be part of the decisions that affect other house residents.
In the future, the house will expand its activities and involvement on the campus. Batten CoOp will be involved in planting a flower garden with Bryn Mawr grounds and the Wild Things Partnership, planting a fall harvest garden with pumpkins and squash, hosting a customs week picnic and camp-out for interested frosh, and including a wider variety of the Bryn Mawr community, such as McBrides and Graduate Students, as residents in the house. A lounge in Batten House may also serve as an environmental center for the college, as suggested in the proposed College Green Plan.
How can you apply? On Monday, March 22, at 7pm, there will be an (optional) informational meeting at the campus center. You can pick up an appication there or in the Residential Life office. Fill out the application and turn it in to Residential Life by Friday, March 26 at 5pm. All applicants who express an interest and willingness to live in the Batten CoOperative community will be accepted! Applicants will not be judged based on whether or not they are vegetarian, their activism experience, or their membership in campus organizations. If more applicants apply than spaces are available, a lottery will determine next yearÃs coOperative residents.
Questions? Please contact Adrea Lovejoy (alovejoy), Abby Youngblood
(ayoungbl), or Director of Residential Life, Angie Sheets (asheets).
An ongoing effort by students, faculty, and staff may soon result in the official implementation of the proposed "Green Plan" for Bryn Mawr College. This initative for environmental action began as a hopeful idea of members of the BMC Greens many months ago. Now, an active committee including Adrea Lovejoy '00, Abby Youngblood '01, Jan Newberry, Ann Ogle, Don Abramowitz, and Juliet Crider, is guiding the discussion and progression of the Plan through various levels of the College, preparing it to be presented to President Vickers and the Board of Trustees for official approval.
This is the Plan, as presented during a roundtable discussion at the Second Annual Community Environmental Fair held last month in the Campus Center:
"Individuals and groups within the Bryn Mawr College community have initiated and implemented various achievements in environmental responsibility, in areas such as energy conservation, recycling, environmental education, and waste management. We propose to embrace the principles underlying these advances, to acknowledge them as a part of the values and culture of the community, and to establish a means to ensure their continuity and integration into the future of the College.
The following principles outline the responsibilities of the Bryn Mawr College faculty, staff, administrators and students as stewards of the physical environment and to promote environmental awareness, local action, and global thinking: