Bryn Mawr and Haverford women have a new housing option open to them this fall with the opening of Batten House Co-Op. Through the efforts of Adrea Lovejoy '00 (former president of the BMC Greens) and other students, students will now have the option of living on campus, but in a more environmentally and ethically responsible manner. According to the mission statement, "Batten House Co-Op is an intentional community of bi-college women. Its members endeavor to make group decisions by consensus, to live with environmental consciousness and low impact upon the earth, to organize social justice and environmental activist events among themselves and the larger bi-co community, and to raise awareness in the community about the interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental issues. This year its members plan to achieve these goals by weekly co-op meetings, through cooking vegan/vegetarian communal meals, reducing waste and product consumption, choosing environmentally responsible household products. and through hosting speakers and organizing campuswide events." At present, eleven bi-co upperclasswomen are members of the co-op. We have been in the process of intensively discussing the ways in which we will run the co-op in the most environmentally and socially conscious manner.
The BMC Greens and other members of the community still living on campus discussed intensively how best to fulfill our goals for the year.We are already making progress in trying to live with less environmental impact. An example of this is that we will be composting food waste and doing our own housekeeping and thus be able to alter waste management and choose the chemicals that we use. So far it has been a challenging and rewarding experience to work so closely to determine many aspects of our shared lifestyle. During the semester we hope to extend an invitation to the entire community for dinner. Any questions can be directed to KatieGordon (kgordon@brynmawr.edu).