Donald Keough, News Editor–
On April 13, dozens of students came to show their support for geothermal energy during a campout on the intramural practice fields.
Student support for Denison’s transition to geothermal energy has continued to grow this past year, through events like the campout and a petition effort by Green Team and Outdoors Club which reached over 400 signatures, which was sent to the Board of Trustees who met this past weekend.
This was the second outdoors-centered event showing support for Denison’s net-zero goal after a hike led by Outdoors Club on Feb. 10. The main ideas that Green Team and the Outdoors Club are advocating for in these events are the creation of a firm 20-year roadmap that sets a concrete timeline for sustainable processes and for Denison to start setting aside funding for geothermal energy.
During the campout, students gathered on the field at 7:30 p.m., and enjoyed games like soccer and spikeball, while also setting up tents to sleep in for the night. Later on, the students moved to a spot close to Ebaugh pond for a bonfire, where they roasted marshmallows and cooked hot dogs. Afterwards, students moved back to the intramural fields where some chose to stay the night.
Maaike Snider ‘26, club president, said that she felt the event went very well, adding that they put a lot of work into the event.
“It’s really cool that what we’re doing is coming to fruition,” Snider said, during the campout. “We’re actually making a difference.”
Maaike also said that the campout helped “show support for the geothermal energy project which helps prove to the [Board of Trustees] that students actually support this.”
Besides the student support, some faculty members have shown interest in the students environmental plan. Denison President Adam Weinberg has been one of them, in ways such as meeting with members of Green Team and Maaike Snider to discuss the petition and visiting the students during the campout to show his support for their efforts.
“I always enjoy supporting our students and showing appreciation to student groups.” Weinberg said in an email. “It’s a great group of students who are working tirelessly to make fun opportunities available.”
Weinberg also said that he was impressed by the research and work Green Team and Outdoors Club had been doing throughout the year to help the college meet their net-zero goal.
This goal, which was set in 2010, aims for Denison to be net-zero by 2045 after the Presidents’ Climate Commitment was signed. Denison hired Ever-Green Energy in 2022, a company focused on renewable energy who provides business advisory services, to formulate a plan that would allow the university to reach net-zero by 2045.
In this plan, Every-Green encourages Denison to move to geothermal energy by installing geothermal plants below the intramural practice fields, which is why the campout was at these fields.
Weinberg said he appreciates “the way Green Team and Outdoors Club has approached their work this year in a data driven way to develop positive and forward looking ideas.” This work by Green Team and Outdoors Club was one of the reasons he organized a meeting between members of Green Team, Outdoors Club, and trustees from the Buildings and Grounds committee.
“I thought the trustees would be impressed by the students and the work they have been doing.” Weinberg said. “And second, the Board has been discussing the next phase of our work and I thought the ideas generated by the students would be helpful. Both were true. The trustees were inspired and impressed by the Green Team students and their ideas will be helpful to the planning we are doing as a college.”
Gazing at their fire, students at the campout event roast s’mores and cook hot dogs on April
After the fire, some of the students returned to the intramural field to sleep in the tents
the had set up earlier in the night.
Charlotte Meyer ‘26 was one of the Green Team members who met with some trustees of the Buildings and Grounds committee on April 11.
“The fact that we talked to members of the board at all was huge,” Meyer said, referring to the meeting. “I thought the best-case scenario was getting the recent student trustees to talk to us. Getting to talk to the chair of the Buildings and Grounds committee was a huge win.”
Meyer as well as other Green Team and Outdoors Club members also met with the recent student trustees on April 4. Student Trustees are recent graduates who serve on the board and their role is to represent student interests. These trustees, Jesse Felker ‘23 and Ray Walker ‘22, were elected following their senior years. Meyer hoped that because of this meeting their ideas for campus sustainability goals would be discussed at the trustee board meeting last weekend.
“It’s going to be a very slow process,” Meyer said, discussing the takeaways of the meeting with the trustees. “We understand that we’re not going to get much action out of this meeting. But we believe that as long as we get the conversation started things will happen in future meetings.”
Despite the slow process, Meyer said that she’s felt that the progress this year has been positive, saying that she feels very optimistic.
“I’m feeling very pleased with how far we got this semester.” Meyer said. “This is frankly, a lot further than I expected [us] to get. I’m very, very happy with how things have gone.”
Looking forward to the fall semester, Green Team and the Outdoors Club are looking to continue moving forward with their support for climate related progress at Denison. Weinberg commemorated their progress so far this year in the same email mentioned earlier.
“A huge thanks to both the Green Team and Outdoors Club for all the fantastic work they did this year.” Weinberg said. “For all the ways they are demonstrating positive and forward-looking leadership across campus.”