Going green is becoming more and more popular at the University. Environmentally conscious student groups are sprouting up, dining halls are trying to reduce their waste and consumption of water, and this semester has seen the creation of a course about how to reduce one’s carbon footprint.
But before this, there was Brown Earth.
Initiated in 2002 and run by the students of Brown College, Brown Earth is an environmental student committee on Brown’s Governance Board.
It was started as a way to encourage an appreciation of the environment and promote its conservation, as well as to foster residents’ interest in the landscaping on Monroe Hill. These remain its primary goals today, said Brown College Grand Poobah Chen Song, a fourth-year College student.
Brown “is where we live, and this is one more way to reach out to the people,” said Brown Earth co-chair Liza Stoner, a second-year College student. To further this goal, members created a mailing list to include all residents in Brown Earth and create a more close-knit community, she said.
Strictly speaking, Brown Earth is not a CIO; rather it a committee on the Brown College Governance Board and is open to all Brown residents.
“There is a smaller, core group of residents who are consistently involved, as well as a satellite group that makes it some[times],” said committee co-chair Denson Staples, a first-year College student.
Currently, Brown Earth has two major projects. The first is looking at the feasibility of planting a vegetable patch, citing Hereford’s garden as inspiration, Stoner said. The location suggested for the vegetable patch is in a corner of the quad in the middle of Brown, but Stoner said she was not sure that the area is sunny enough.
The second project is a renovation of the Childress Memorial Garden on Monroe Hill. Staples said he felt the garden has “been forgotten about” and is hoping to revitalize it.
“We are trying to arrange for someone to come in and design a new garden [and] get it back on its feet,” Staples said. Brown Earth has also spearheaded landscaping projects around Brown, he added.
In addition to landscaping projects, other organized activities include apple picking on Carter Mountain, tours of the Pavilions’ gardens with Brown fellows John Sauer — who is also the historic garden supervisor — and Cathy Clary, hiking and camping in the area, visiting farmers’ markets and college picnics and participating in Compact Fluorescent Light bulb giveaways and dorm-plant giveaways, Song said.
Stoner noted that there was large interest in dorm-plant giveaways. Brown Earth purchased more than 100 plants from local nursery Elzroth & Thompson, all of which were taken to new homes.
“The idea behind the giveaways is to give [students] something green for their dorms, to bring the outdoors in,” Stoner said.
Song, who was also a co-chair of Brown Earth last year, said the giveaway plants are bought with dorms in mind — that is, committee members buy hardy plants. For any students looking to buy plants for their dorms, he suggested devil’s ivy, dracaena or philodendrons as potential “die-hard plants.”
As a follow-up to the giveaway, Clary, who has tended the gardens at Monticello, taught a workshop to learn about nursing sick houseplants.
The workshop also helped students find a fellow Brown resident remaining in Brown during Winter Break to take care of their plants while they were away.
Buying more than 100 plants was not cheap. The committee’s funding comes from Brown residents’ student activity fees and Brown College’s endowment. Most of the money is spent on buying plants and on food for picnics, Song said, while some also goes toward organizing film screenings of documentaries or environmentally themed movies.
While Brown Earth has encountered some landscaping disagreements with the University, usually because of a lack of funds in the face of recent budget cuts, Song said in general the University has wonderful landscaping.
Brown Earth is not involved with any other groups, though some students are members of other environmental organizations, Song said, adding that anyone or any committee is welcome to contribute.
We “want to fight this reputation of Brown being exclusive [and] dispel that snobby, elitist myth,” Song said.
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