Sustainable Bowdoin to encourage green living

News in brief: Town to sell Mere Point lot after rejecting petition

On Monday, Brunswick Town Council voted (7-2) against a citizens’ petition that called for the town to hold a referendum on whether to reverse the council’s previous decision to sell a waterfront property on Mere Point Road. The petition proposed that the property be converted into a community park in an effort to preserve public access to the coastline. The petition gathered over 1,100 signatures, the most in town history.
Brunswick will move forward with the sale of the property, as the council originally decided in a contentious 5-4 vote last September. The town had acquired the property last year after its previous owners failed to pay property taxes for nearly a decade.
Soxna Dice, a principal organizer speaking on behalf of the petitioners, feared for the town’s loss of public waterfront access. At the town meeting on Monday, she argued that a park at Mere Point would be accessible for all citizens, such as school groups on field trips, clammers and the elderly. According to Councilor Stephen Walker, there is currently scarce public access to the waterfront for Brunswick residents.
Though questions were raised concerning the council’s legal obligation to meet the petition’s demands, the council’s major concerns included the cost of converting the property into a park as well as the quality of the property itself and its accessibility for the elderly.
During its deliberation, the town council considered the merits of the property as a public park. Objectors found contention with the potential cost to the town. Not only would Brunswick be unable to collect the tax revenue on the waterfront property, but the town would also be obligated to front the costs to convert the land into an accessible park. According to Dice, the petitioners did not propose a budget for the park, arguing that that responsibility would fall to the town if the referendum passed.
Though the Council is moving forward to sell the property, councilors on both sides of the vote expressed commitment to expanding public access to the waterfront in the future.

News in brief: College restates support for affected students amid immigration concerns

In an email to students and employees on Tuesday, Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion Leana Amáez wrote that she will serve as Bowdoin’s “point person” for students’ immigration-related issues. Amáez also reiterated the College’s commitment to supporting students affected by the immigration policies of President Donald Trump.
Amáez’s email cited deportation actions by federal immigration officers that made news last week as cause for “a heightened state of anxiety for vulnerable communities,” including members of the Bowdoin community. She noted, as President Clayton Rose has previously stated, that the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs has been in contact with students who could be affected by the policies, and continues to provide “appropriate support,” including access to legal resources.
On Tuesday, several major national news outlets reported that a 23-year-old man named Daniel Ramirez Medina, who had been protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program under the Obama administration, was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Seattle.
Under DACA, individuals who were brought to the United States undocumented as children could register with the government and receive permission to work or attend school, as well as a two-year relief from deportation. About 750,000 immigrants are registered with DACA nationwide.
In an executive order on January 25, Trump expanded the categories of immigrants who are considered a priority for deportation. Under the Obama administration, deportation priority was mostly reserved for individuals who were convicted of a serious crime or were deemed a threat to national security, but Trump’s executive order expanded this label to include people who “have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense” and gave immigration officials more discretion in deporting individuals.
Full data on the immigrants arrested by ICE since the executive order have not been made public.

News in brief

Sustainable Bowdoin to encourage green living

February 10, 2017

On Tuesday, Sustainable Bowdoin will launch the Green Living Commitment, a program designed to help students create healthy habits and reduce their carbon footprints.

The program is a revamped version of a previous Sustainable Bowdoin initiative, Green Dorm Room Certification. Bethany Taylor, the sustainability outreach coordinator, said that the new program is designed to be more individualized.

“If you really want to recycle, but your roommate is not at all interested, you are no longer responsible for their inaction,” Taylor said.

Through a survey, students can pledge to different actions and habits for three different levels of certification: Bronze, Silver and Green. An online checklist outlines a point system, where students earn points based on their habits. Low commitment activities, such as buying a plant, earn fewer points, while higher commitment activities, like carpooling to campus, earn more points.

Additionally, participants will be entered in a raffle each month to win prizes for their dorm depending on their certification level. The higher the certification, the better the prize.

“The competition should reinforce people’s participation,” Taylor said. “It’s ongoing [and] you are encouraged to go back if you want to raise yourself up a level.”

The Green Living Commitment will run this semester in conjunction with another campus-wide energy-saving competition that will begin on February 27, International Polar Bear Day, and run through April 22, Earth Day.

Taylor hopes that the Green Living Commitment will become a permanent part of Sustainable Bowdoin’s programming.

“This semester will be focused on taking in student feedback and coming up with a better version of it to start in the fall,” she said.

To promote the Green Living Commitment, Sustainable Bowdoin will host a “Love Your Planet Valentine” event where students can write notes to each other in the spirit of the holiday.

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