OTW Week 5 FA 09

AnotheR SustainabilitY award Fall

Week Five

14. Oct. 09

A2

“What’s This? Another Shakespeare Play I See Before Me?” A1

Nature of Halloween Returns to COA D1

Art Comes to Campus

D1

A1

Inside the Bubble News in Brief with Sasha Paris

Vox Populi

Dave Feldman claimed to know that “humans can’t fall faster than 90 mph.”

Investigations are underway.

—Jose Merlo

The Improv Club slid into a coma, from which it can only be revived by a major student transplant.

VOX POPULI (meaning the Voice of the People in Latin) aims to be an alternative communication project which connects a wide variety of independent channels of expression.

Seafox’s student population turned into pop-culture characters. Napolean Dynamite is probably to thank.

The Supreme Rulers of Theatrical Fabulousness (aka the American Shakespeare Center) wowed COA once again, despite their current lack of Whacker-noodles and failure to follow their own rule that “Good actors wear purple pants.”

Lynne Williams declared “Behind the Tofu Curtain.”

Upcoming Auditions for MACBETH! Alicia Hynes and Dan Mahler will be directing a production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” during the upcoming winter term! Auditions will be early week 1. Keep your eyes peeled for more audition info to come closer to the end of the term.

Until then…be bloody, bold and resolute. Contact Dan or Alicia with any questions you may have. Happy fall!

Turn Off When Not In Use —Casey Yanos How many times have you walked into an empty bathroom and the light is on, or walked past the deserted reserved section in the library only to see the light shining from inside the cubby?

Too often it seems that students at COA are a bit too forgetful about doing little things to save the planet.

On average, over the course of one hour, the light in the reserved section in the library is left on two times for five minutes, until either a work study student or a librarian notices it is on and turns it off or another student using the

reserved section remembers to turn it off. So in a sixty minute interval, the light is left on, unused, for ten minutes.

This may not seem like much, but multiply that by how many hours the library is open each week and then that number by the thirty weeks that the student body is on campus and you find that just because of students’ negligence, this college wastes 580 hours of energy each year.

And that is just in the reserved shelves of the library, two light bulbs. How often do you go in the restroom in TAB and find no one around but the light is on? How often are lights left on in dorm rooms while students run

It is an effort that attempts to raise the voices of the unheard (locally and globally) - that immense minority who stand for similar causes through different actions.

Our goal is to create a space where people can learn and be informed in an interactive and different way. Help us construct this revolutionary intercultural communication project (collaborative guidelines coming soon).

...SPEAK UP AND TAKE THE MEDIA...

across the hall to their neighbors room or downstairs to the kitchen? How many times have you walked into your sections’ kitchen which nobody is using but the lights are on, or the laundry room, or the common room?

It’s like a disease, a virus of carelessness and inattention spreading all over campus, taking control of students who claim to care about the environment yet disregard the simple requests on the light switches to PLEASE TURN OFF WHEN NOT IN USE!

A2

CO A CA L L E D S USTAINABILITY LEA DER —Donna Gold

College of the Atlantic is an Overall College Sustainability Leader according to the Sustainable Endowments Institute which issued its College Sustainability Report Card this week.

The institute, a nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices, is a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. It “grades” colleges in the United States and Canada on their campus and endowment sustainability activities, looking into their efforts as institutions to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. COA is one of only 26 colleges and universities in the US and Canada to receive the top recognition, an A-, and the only college in Maine to do so.

Upon hearing the news, senior Leland Moore, chair of the college’s Campus Committee for Sustainability commented, “It is important that institutions of higher education set an example as change-makers and trendsetters for the next generation. Although getting recognition of a good deed is admirable, what is really important is that with its environmental leadership, College of the Atlantic is helping to pave the way for a more sustainable world.”

Recently, many media outlets and other organizations have compiled their own lists of the greenest colleges, including Princeton Review, Sierra Magazine and the environmental blog Treehugger.com. Only College of the Atlantic and Vermont’s Middlebury College have appeared on all four of these lists.

(Some) Other Colleges Recognized as Sustainability Leaders: —Matt Shaw Bates College

University of Florida-Gainesville

Pomona College

University of British Columbia

Furman University

Princeton University

Brown University

George Washington University

Rice University

University of Calgary

Georgia Institute of Technology

University of Richmond

California Polytechnic State University

Goucher College

Rochester Institute of Technology

University of California-Berkely University of California-Davis University of California-Los Angeles University of California-Merced University of California-San Diego Carleton College Carnegie Mellon University University of Cincinnati Colby College University of Colorado Colorado College Dartmouth College University of Denver Dickinson College Duke University Emory University

Grand Valley State University Hamilton College Harvard University University of Maryland-College Park Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGill University Middlebury College

University of San Francisco Santa Clara University Seattle University Smith College St. Lawrence University Stanford University University of Utah

Mills College University of Minnesota University of New Hampshire New York University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Northeastern University Oregon State University-Corvalis

University of Vermont University of Virginia Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University University of Washington

University of Oregon-Eugene

Washington University in St. Louis

Pacific Lutheran University

Wesleyan University

University of Pennsylvania

West Virginia University

list compiled from Sustainability Report Card 2010

B1

Outside the bubble

Friday, October 16 2009 International Day of Opposition to Monsanto Maine Events & Activities Teach-ins & Discussions: Gaining Seed Sovereignty & Food Sovereignty in Maine with Bob St.Peter, Food for Maine's Future & Ben Hummel, Colby Student 1:00pm Colby College, Foss Dining Hall 3:00pm University of Maine Farmington, North Dining Hall A (in the Olsen Student Center)

The World According to Monsanto film screenings & patent-free seed swaps bring seeds to share and your own envelopes or containers no patented seeds please!

12pm U Maine Fort Kent, Nadeau Conference Center 4pm Colby College, Olin Science Bld. Rm 1 4pm Unity College, The Tavern 7pm 7pm 7pm 7pm

The Morris Farm, Wiscasset U Maine Farmington, Thomas Auditorium Gibbs Library, Washington Monroe Town Hall, Monroe

7pm Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Bangor 7pm David's Folly Farm, Brooksville 7pm Maine College of Art, Portland 7pm Hartford Town Hall, Hartford 7pm Bates College, Lewiston 7:30pm College of the Atlantic, Gates Auditorium October 16 International Day of Opposition to Monsanto This day marks the first international day of opposition to Monsanto called by La Via Campesina, an international movement of peasants and farmers. These events are part of a global day of protest and celebration.

Sponsored by Food for Maine's Future Voice in Maine for the International Movement for Food Sovereignty www.foodformainesfuture.org for more info call 244-0908

C1

Op-Ed Just Another (Dead) Fly on the Wall —Gina Sabatini It was a simple paper towel roll, adorned with the label “Fly Warrior’s Tube.” She held it above her head, anticipating the whapping sound that would mean the demise of one of innumerable tiny black flies that found themselves eating, breathing, buzzing, mating, and puking all over the surfaces of Milliken. The rest of us balanced on chairs and couches, bringing ourselves eyeto-eye with the little buggers, our empty hands ready to press together with unfortunate victims between them.

They swarmed around the compost bin. They cleaned their feelers while resting on the toaster.

They were probably laying eggs on that container of poorly scraped hummus that had been left out too long. And who knows what they were doing in the composting toilets...

One thing was for certain: The flies were everywhere, and that didn’t mean good things for the residents of Eco Disney. Oh, if only Mickey Mouse had made himself a home in the walls, instead of Anonymous Gnat and his 733,357,121 brothers and sisters.

And so we neglected an hour or two of Human Ecology and Renaissance reading to assume our positions on the front lines.

Armed with cardboard tubes, rolled up sheets of paper, and notebooks of epic proportions, the battle waged long after community dinner. Soon the flies retreated, sure to regroup and plot their next attack. The dish sponge lurking by the sink was a likely target.

In the morning, the carnage was incomprehensible.

Hundreds of bodies lined the windowsills, wings shriveled, legs bent this

way and that, compound eyes unseeing. Many of the flies had met their fate in the hot orb that was the lamp lightbulb, and the smell of singed antennae was not hard to detect.

The ceiling was smeared with bug guts like the beginnings of a Van Gogh painting. Wings and other bug parts could be found on walls, the floor, the couch—it was almost more than anyone could bear. But the trouble was over. The invaders would no longer propagate and evacuate their wastes and vile juices on our food and dishware. We had won the war.

Of course, like most wars, the lines that determine the start and end, winner and loser, fly and human, are a little fuzzy. Some of us began to question why the flies were here.

Had we invited them by leaving a bowl of fresh apples on the table, or that one night the dishes just didn’t get done and the meal didn’t get scraped into the compost bin?

Is it because we have composting toilets, which just scream to be infested by the little winged beasts?

Perhaps it’s because we all read Lord of the Flies in middle school, and they figured since we alluded to them in literature, we wanted to coexist with them in real life.

And coexisting is a dandy idea, but not in the context of food and sanitation. It’s sad, really, that we felt the need to go to war with the flies, but it was necessary for the preservation of our health and snacks whose bags don’t seal the whole way.

However, as mentioned before, the lines that mark the ends of wars are blurry, and we knew it wasn’t over. Some of us awakened to flies in our ears, others to a set of compound eyes spying as we bathed or brushed our teeth. They were getting sneaky, expanding their

territory, and gaining in numbers.

There are still more battles to fight and more flies to swat. Perhaps we can make a peace treaty with the flies. Maybe annihilation is not the way. But until they extend one of their six legs in truce, the battle must go on.

So if you’re ever by Milliken and see people standing on chairs, wielding paper towel tubes and shouting obscenities at a seemingly invisible attacker, we’re not crazy. We’re in the middle of a war zone. You can contribute to the cause before the flies take over COA. Bring on the fly paper!

C2

“Has he made any new policy choices?”

“That’s his job right? If he boldly stood for environmental jusitice or economic rights he’d impeded profit and probably get capped. He’s got to direct our frustration away from the real perpetrators of justice.”

“Obama = WAY COOL. His policy choices = what-ever” “This year has proven that even a strong candidate, with a powerful mandate from the people cannot make a broken system work. Health care reform is the shining example of how much corporations have America by the balls. Electoral reforms anyone?”

“I’m sad to say I don’t know enough to answer this question intelligently.”

“I feel like nothing has really happened in the last year at all, at least nothing that makes up for the years of bad governing by the last Commander in Chief.”

“Cool - but too contested in the ‘politics as usual’ climate of Washington. It would be hard to be cool under those circumstances, I think.”

E1

Wellness Corner

New Academic Probation Counselor —Ken Hill

Naomi Martin has been hired on a temporary, part-time basis to assist with academic probation and learning difference accommodations. Naomi will help track, monitor, and assist students on academic probation. In addition, she will help provide proper accommodations to students with any documented learning differences. We are delighted to have her join the academic services team - please join us in welcoming her to the COA community.

Naomi will be on campus Mondays from 10:00 to 3:00, and Thursdays from 12:00 to 3:00 in the Deering Common Counseling Office. Her e-mail is nmartin@coa.edu and her phone extension is 386

New Counselor in the Wellness Wing —Kip Young

My name is Kip Young, and yes, I knew the whale skull when it still had flesh, but that’s a story for another day. I’m a counselor from the Acadia Family Center in Southwest Harbor, and I work on the COA campus on Tuesday mornings from 8:30 to 11:30 at the health center. I’m a licensed drug and alcohol counselor and I work to support those who are experiencing alcohol and/or drug related issues, be it yours, or that of a friend, family member, or loved one. Regardless, if you feel your life is being impacted by drugs or alcohol in a negative way, or if you simply have questions and would like a confidential, nonjudgmental person to speak with, please stop by. There is a sign-up sheet on the door next to the heath office.

D1

Events

ART:21 PROGRAM

Susan Dowling, co-creator of national art series to introduce COA screening —Donna Gold

The work of some of the world’s best contemporary artists will be on screen on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at College of the Atlantic, when it airs an episode from the Public Broadcasting Company’s Art:21, Art in the Twenty-First Century.

The screening will be held at Gates Community Center and will be introduced by series co-creator Susan Dowling, who will also be present to talk about the series and contemporary art after the screening. The essence of the program is the artists speaking directly about their inspirations and ideas, with in-depth profiles and dynamic behind-the-scenes footage. This year, COA is presenting an episode called “Compassion,” features artists exploring the possibility of understanding and reconciling past and present while exposing injustice and expressing tolerance for others.

Alumni Speaker Series

Among the artists represented is South African artist William Kentridge, who uses stop-motion animation, drawing and performance to create poignant films and stage productions that transform sobering political events—such as apartheid, revolution and colonialism—into poetic allegories. Another artist, Carrie Mae Weems takes inspiration from colloquial forms—a joke, song, plea or rebuke—to create complex photographic series that scrutinize subjectivity and insist that pernicious stereotypes be held up to the mirror of everyday emotional and intellectual life. Artist Doris Salcedo draws from the oppressive history of her country, Colombia, creating understated sculptures and installations embodying the silenced lives of the marginalized, from individual victims of violence in her own country to the larger disempowered populations of the Third World.

On Oct. 20 at 4:15 there will be a sneak preview of the screening in the college’s McCormick Lecture Hall as part of the Human Ecology Forum, along with a panel discussion with Dowling and others. For more information, call 288-5015 ext. 257

Amy Toensing, a human ecologist with a career in photo journalism, whose work frequently appears in National Geographic, will share images and discuss ‘Australia’s Drought’ Monday October 19, 11:10

COA CELEBRATES HALLOWEEN’S NATURE

Dorr Museum’s ghoulish guides offer fun, learning —Donna Gold

Witches, sorcerers and bugs— scary things, oh my. Find them at COA’s annual “Nature of Halloween,” celebration on Saturday evening, Oct. 24. There will be four separate sessions, each half hour, from 6 until 7:30 p.m.

The evening is one of fun, adventure and learning, as children and adults travel from table to table within the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History and else-

where on campus to ponder the elements of Halloween.

Examine creepy crawlies, such shivery things as a live giant centipede, brown recluse spiders, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and other bugs and spiders. Move on a bit and you’ll find a table writhing with live snakes.

A mad scientist will have a table filled with bones, pickled animals and taxidermy, while a sorcerer offers rustic magic wands made from various woods and a witch will speak about medicinal herbs. Each table has its own edible treat, from cricket candy (yes, made from real crickets—not for the vegetarian) to candy eyeballs to herbal teas.