Students in Bancroft and Fuess won’t get away with throwing that coke can in the trash.
Bancroft and Fuess will introduce a new dorm leadership position, the Environmental–Proctor, to promote sustainability on in their dorms and across campus.
Environmental Proctors, commonly known as “E-Proctors”, will help promote recycling and encourage students to shut off lights when leaving their dorm rooms.
The E-Proctor job description explains that E-Proctors are responsible for helping students learn how to develop sound habits for sustainable living.
The E-Proctor is also responsible for serving as a dorm authority on issues of sustainability and auditing a dorm wide plastic bag and plastic film receptacle. E-Proctors play a large role in the coordination of the Green Move-In and Move-Out, as well as Non Sibi Day.
Paul Johnson ’12, the E-Proctor in Fuess, said that E-Proctors have also created a new “Light Duty” as part of the weekly dorm duty rotations. This means that each week an assigned student is asked to make sure lights in hallways and common rooms have been turned off, and to unplug the dorm’s vending machines when they are not in use.
Mark Cutler, Instructor in Spanish and House Counselor in Fuess, had the idea of creating the E-Proctor position while reviewing applicants for proctorship in the dorm.
“I saw a lot of great leadership in the dorm. And it seemed to make sense to create a job to oversee sustainability,” said Cutler.
Erin Wong ’13, E-Proctor in Bancroft, said, “We’re the guinea pigs. If everything pans out, we’d like to see an E-Proctor in every dorm on campus.”
E-Proctors will also give their dorm mates a weekly “Trash Talk” concerning the dorm’s impact on the environment and new ways to reduce waste.
Wong held her first Trash Talk in Bancroft this past Sunday, “We talked about beluga whales in our discussion. It’s a bit indirect, but I told them about how melting ice caps causes boats to invade whale habitats and potentially dump waste or spill oil, which could kill the fish,” said Wong.
Wong said some students have had varying reactions to the changes. “A lot of people are confused. The vending machines are turned off for most of the day, and when you take away a luxury like that people aren’t sure what to make of it,” she said.
“You don’t want to be the bad guy, but you have to be a stickler,” she continued.
The E-Proctors’ responsibility of keeping the dorm environmentally friendly will merit similar privileges to those of a regular proctor, including exemption from school-wide Work Duty and eligibility for an extra day per term of personal time for each class.
“At first, we were also going to also let them have their own refrigerators. But then we realized that that wouldn’t be very green,” said Cutler.
“The [E-Proctor position] is just a pilot right now, but it’s going to provide a good model for the future,” Cutler added.
