Five College Environmental Initiative

January 12, 2012

Dear members of the Smith College community,

I, along with the presidents of the other five colleges and Neal Abraham, executive director of Five Colleges, Inc., recently issued a call for ideas for new initiatives and programs in academic, co-curricular, and operational aspects of sustainability.  In response to this call, CEEDS would like to invite you to participate in one of the Blue Sky meetings they have scheduled for early February (see below). These meetings, which are open to all members of our campus community, have the goal of brainstorming possible programs and projects that span the lives of students and faculty and the administrative and operational activities on each of our campuses, among our campuses, and in our region.  This call and these meetings are an opportunity for us all to think broadly about how we engage with sustainability issues on many levels, to dust off ideas that have been put on the back burner for one reason or another, to bring forward ideas for innovative solutions related to our daily work, to think creatively about how we learn or teach, or just come together with enthusiasm to brainstorm.  Ideas generated on each campus will then be pooled together as part of the larger Five College Blue Sky Initiative.

Smith campus members unable to attend the February Blue Sky meetings can submit ideas for sustainability projects and programs online any time at the Five College Web site, www.fivecolleges.edu/sustainability. You may also send your project ideas and project descriptions directly to Joanne Benkley at jbenkley@smith.edu. I and the other presidents would like a report by the end of February, but CEEDS welcomes your ideas whenever they might occur.

Sincerely,

Carol T. Christ

Spring 2012 Blue Sky Meetings

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 in the Neilson Library Browsing Room
9:00 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.
11:00 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.

Thursday, February 9, 2012 in Campus Center 205
9:00 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.
10:30 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.