523,045 research outputs found
Explore Concentrations at Smith
No full textWe have added Smith Concentrations to our collections! Explore the scholarship of the Environmental and Community Engagement and Social Change Concentrations with more coming soon...https://scholarworks.smith.edu/gallery/1015/thumbnail.jp
Smith and Smith: Achieving Sustainable Education Together: A qualitative study of the potential for Smith College to reach it’s own goals of sustainability by beginning a learning exchange with Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School
No full textAt Smith College we lack a major program of study in Environmental Science and Policy, and as a part of our sustainability initiative on campus, we should expand our curriculum to branch out, into the Northampton community and form an educational agreement with Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School. Graduates of Smith College should have a grasp of the vocational fields offered at Smith High School be able to make ecologically sound decisions for themselves, the community and the planet. Smith College should take notice and participate with the local community where there is great potential to change the dominant modes of thought through education. There is also great potential for crossover education in academic and vocational subjects at the high school level as well as at Smith College. We can look at SVAHS as a model institution as well as a partner in experiential and transformative learning
A Tautology or Two While We Translate Chinese Classics
No full textWhat is a Chinese classic, and why do we translate one? These innocent questions lead Sabina Knight and Kidder Smith into a mandala of paradox, metaphor, and tautologies. En route they must negotiate a field of errant nouns, shifty images, and undisclosed participants. Relying on maps drawn by Borges, A. A. Milne, Quine, and Zeno, they find themselves in a landscape where little is certain and much is in transit—from here to here. The generic passports of poetry, prose, and philosophy have been stamped Invalid. So everyone acts like a resident alien. The authors discover that what they don\u27t know is as useful as what they do. And, strangely, translations materialize
Evaluating Flood Risks at Smith College in Relation to Northampton
No full textClimate change is causing a steady increase in atmospheric temperature, causing more frequent and intense storms for vulnerable areas. As a result, floods will be higher and reach farther inland, increasing the risk of property damage and loss of life. In the event of increased amount and frequency of precipitation caused by climate change, Smith College and the City of Northampton may be facing a lack of capacity and/or infrastructure for flooding. Our goal is to define the current strengths and weaknesses of the flood infrastructure at Smith College and the City of Northampton. Our objective is to assess possible adjustments to the flood infrastructure from Smith College and the City of Northampton, including the levees, the floodwalls, and the dam to address the projected increase in flooding that may occur at Smith College and the City of Northampton. We also aim to provide an informative report on the projected flooding risk to Smith College and the City of Northampton caused by the Mill River and Paradise Pond. To achieve this goal, we conducted interviews, mapped the 100 and 500-year floodplains surrounding Paradise Pond, and compiled information on the flood infrastructure and streamflow data at Smith College and the City of Northampton. Through this process, we hope to influence Smith College to enhance flood mitigation and provide a foundation for future research. This project is intended to inform other universities and university towns dealing with climate-induced flood management
Envisioning Climate Justice with Smith Students
No full textSmith College has taken initiatives to increase on-campus sustainability in the face of the climate crisis, but there is work to be done to incorporate justice into these solutions. To envision how Smith can implement climate justice within its physical campus, workshops were hosted on Cromwell Day. The primary stakeholders for this report are Smith students, who are key constituents in implementing Climate Justice on campus. The workshop included three exercises to guide students in envisioning climate justice at Smith: illustrative visioning, participatory mapping, and an exit survey. The most important themes that emerged from the illustrative visions were Nature and Resources. From the participatory mapping exercise, the most prominent themes were Green Space and Infrastructure. The most common themes in the exit survey were Green Space, Infrastructure, and Divestment. Visions under the themes of Green Space and Infrastructure had the most synergy with projects mentioned by the Landscape Master Plan, indicating the potential for a climate justice framework in this guiding institutional document. A diverse range of climate justice visions was generated in the workshop, but many visions were either sustainability-oriented or justice-oriented, rather than climate justice-oriented. We recommend actions to incorporate climate justice into the physical landscape and other parts of campus life to increase discourse on climate justice at Smith
Smith College Campus ADA Accessibility Report
No full textWith Smith College being a residential campus for a diverse population of students, accessibility around campus is extremely important for the wellbeing of these students. All students should have access to physically accessible paths to move around campus.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990. The act addresses a wide range of topics related to accessibility, including but not limited to: physical accessibility and accessible design, equal employment opportunity, discrimination prevention, and benefits. This project focuses specifically on physical accessibility across Smith College campus. The standards referenced for the rest of this report are based on the most recently updated ADA standards from 2010.
Most of the buildings on campus were built before the passing of the ADA, and because of this they are not required to meet ADA requirements unless they are subject to large-scale renovations. In order for Smith to truly be an equitable institution, it must be proactive and implement changes to make campus more accessible as soon as possible instead of just waiting for major renovations. Through this project, we will investigate the extent to which the campus is accessible to all students through evaluating select criteria for campus pathways and identifying potential areas for improvement. In our data collection, we prioritized paths on the basis of being essential for traveling across campus and accessing frequently used academic buildings, parking lots, and facilities. We also primarily focused on paths because our community partner is the Smith College Botanic Garden, who wanted to know how they could use Smith’s 21st century landscaping plan to improve accessibility on campus. The criteria we chose to focus on include path width, the presence of cracks/potholes/obstacles that hinder accessibility, path slope, the presence of stairs, the presence of railings, and path material. All of these factors are important to consider when thinking about potential physical barriers that can hinder movement
Open Education Network
No full textSmith College Libraries is now a member of the Open Education Network (OEN)! This is great news! We look forward continuing to advance all things Open for Smith College scholarly work.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/gallery/1014/thumbnail.jp
Stormwater Management on Smith College Campus
No full textThe projected increase in precipitation due to climate change in the Northeast of the United States will have a negative effect on stormwater infrastructure. In the New England area, under the high emission scenario, there is expected to be a 14 percent increase in annual precipitation by the end of the century. Traditionally, gray infrastructure, such as drains and culverts, has been used to collect stormwater, move it through a series of piping, then ultimately discharged into a body of water. An alternate approach is using green infrastructure, which micks the natural water cycle by capturing stormwater where it falls and treating it at its source. Smith College’s current stormwater management system is heavily reliant on gray infrastructure. However, this system will be inadequate in the future because the climate is changing. For this project, we assessed Smith College’s current stormwater management, created a series of maps that aids in our assessment, performed a stormwater runoff case study on the Quadrangle of Smith campus using EPA Stormwater Calculator, and developed recommendations for future studies to further improve the assessment of stormwater management on campus.
One of our findings is that the current stormwater management infrastructure on campus is becoming less adequate since there are major flooding sites on campus. We also found that there will be 0.6 million gallons of extra runoff under the projected climate in the Quadrangle alone. As the New England’s climate changes, our current stormwater infrastructure will continue to face strain and will be vulnerable. As seen from our case study, implementation of green infrastructure will reduce the amount of runoff, thus help make Smith College campus more resilient to the effects of climate change
Running Water: Student Water Use and Conservation in Smith Houses
No full textWater is a natural resource that is too often taken for granted. At a place like Smith College where the sprinklers are set to go off in the quad every night at midnight and there is always cool water in the dining halls, clear water in the bathrooms, and hot water in the showers, it seems as if it is endless supply. Unfortunately water is not a renewable resource and humans are quickly depleting the small percentage of freshwater that is actually available for our use. Smith is taking the first steps towards becoming a more sustainable institution through decreasing its carbon foot print. However, there is also a growing interest in looking at other issues that do not directly impact climate change, such as water use and how to reduce the amount and rate at which water is being used on campus. In order to accomplish this task behaviors surrounding water need to be identified and attitudes towards water reframed. Through this project we determined the largest and smallest consumptive behaviors surrounding water use on the Smith College campus. Working in collaboration with the Sustainability Director Dano Weisbord, analyzing several of the college’s quarterly water bills, and comparing those results to the results collected from a survey distributed to a fraction of the student body about when and how they use water, we developed a series of recommendations for the immediate future and the long term that we hope will successfully help to reduce the amount of water Smith uses on a yearly basis
Informing Smith College Botanic Garden’s Seed Collecting Policy
No full textSeed collection is a practice riddled with ethical and legal hurdles. Botanic garden seed collection, whether for display, research, or conservation, is tied to a long history of colonialism and exploitation, which botanic gardens continue to grapple with today. The Smith College Botanic Garden has called on us to help inform their seed collection practices, so they may write up a seed collection policy by Spring 2025, their next collection season. We used a combination of literature review, a survey, interviews, and mapping to explore the history of botanic gardens and seed collecting, gauge various perspectives around seed collecting, identify legal conventions to follow, and visualize the Smith College Botanic Garden’s history of seed collection locations. We found that botanic gardens have an intrinsic history of perpetuating colonialism, thus so does seed collecting. There are no universal standards for seed collection practices, ranging from acquiring permission to collect beforehand to regulations on how many seeds to collect, how frequently to collect, protocols for collecting rare/threatened/endangered plants, and how to consider Indigenous territories and knowledge. We concluded that it is best practice to follow legal conventions such as acquiring a permit or license and having specific protocols for collecting rare versus common species. The relevant literature also highly endorsed documenting seed collections in a comprehensive database. Overall, we recommend that the Smith College Botanic Garden create a mission statement that will guide its collections policy to respect legal conventions and make efforts to include Indigenous perspectives
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