Thursday Night Grassroots

Campus Environmental Activism

This year has been an exciting one for Thursday Night Grassroots (TNG), the student organization dedicated to environmental activism here at Williams.  We got off to a great start this fall with many returning members and some new faces as well!  The year began under the continuing leadership of Co-Presidents Zoe Grueskin ’14 and Tara Miller ’15, and Treasurer Sam Lewis ’15, who served through the fall.  In January, we elected new co-presidents (Alice Stears ’15 and Lucy Page ’16), and a new treasurer (Molly Pickel ’15).

During the summer we received printed copies of the “Mountain Topless” calendars we started work on in the spring of 2013, and began selling them once school started in September.  Each month has a quote or statistic about Mountaintop Removal Mining and a (completely decent) photo of a TNG member.  Sale of the calendars raised money for anti-mountaintop removal efforts, and also helped increase on-campus awareness of this environmental and human-rights crisis.

This fall we also continued to work on fossil fuel divestment at Williams, a project initiated in force during the 2012-2013 academic year.  While the original proposal that was given to the College last spring was turned down, we worked hard to re-formulate our “ask,” and are currently working closely with the Alumni associated with the “Williams Endowment Initiative” to gather signatures on a new divestment petition.  To maintain a dialogue about this issue both on and off-campus, we have held multiple events throughout the year, including a lecture in the fall by Massachusetts state senator Ben Downing about divestment at the state level.  We also partnered with the Williams Endowment Initiative to facilitate a personal divestment webinar in April.  We continue to urge Williams to be among the ever-growing number of institutions who have removed their investments from fossil fuels.

Grassroots

We also worked hard with CES and other environmental groups to put together a lot of exciting programming for Earth Week (April 21-27).  There was a balloon installation in the Paresky Center all week to display the average volume of CO2 produced by a member of the Williams community on a given day, and we worked with other student groups to organize an Earth Week-themed “stressbusters” with local food, and an Earth Week-themed “Williams After Dark” event on Friday, which featured a “Trashion-show” from the Eco-advisors.   Early in the week, local author Elizabeth Kolbert read from her new book “The Sixth Extinction”, and on Earth Day itself, Michael Klare, the Five Colleges Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, gave a talk and hosted a discussion about “Breaking the Carbon Curse.”  Students could attend all of the Earth Day events with bellies full of entirely local food, as each dining hall featured a special “150-mile meal” with only local food throughout the day.  All throughout Earth Week, TNG was working hard to gather signatures on a new petition asking the college to commit to a stronger CO2 emissions goal, an initiative which we continue to pursue and which is detailed later in this newsletter.

While we have been working hard on the Williams campus, we’ve also sent many TNG members to environmental actions off-campus.  On September 21st, several Williams students trekked to Brattleboro, VT, to participate in (and actually organize) a rally to “draw the line” on climate change and the Keystone XL pipeline, one of the thousands of similar events held across the world on that same day, which was designated by 350.org as an international day of action. We also sent over a dozen Ephs to the “Reject and Protect” Rally against the Keystone XL Pipeline, which took place on April 27th in Washington D.C.

Thursday Night Grassroots has accomplished so much this year, and we are looking forward to starting right up again in the fall with lots of projects, especially the emissions goal initiative.  The outpouring of support in the last month concerning this issue specifically has been amazing, and we are so thankful that so many students, alumni, faculty, and staff care so deeply about environmental issues here at Williams.  We are especially indebted to CES, the Zilkha Center, and the Davis Center for their continued support and guidance.  Finally, we want to thank our graduating seniors, who have worked so hard throughout their time here at Williams to make a real difference and have been amazing role-models.  Although we are sad to say goodbye, we can’t wait to work with them from their new position as Alumni, and look forward to expanding our ranks with new members from the class of 2018!

Williams students want to reduce their carbon hoof print

You can sign your name in support of our current campaigns by signing the petitions linked below:

Williams Endowment Initiative (Divestment): www.williamsendowment.org

Williams Greenhouse Gas Emissions Goal Change: www.tinyurl.com/EphCO2

—Alice Stears ‘15