Tree Lighting Project
Student Projects Committee at Carleton College
Context: The Student Projects Committee (SPC) is a sub-committee of the student government, dedicated to implementing student ideas for campus and student life improvement. SPC has an allotted fund from the student activity fees to implement approved projects which rolls over to the following fiscal year if unspent.
Problem: No one was submitting ideas. SPC held a contest that awarded idea-submitters free cupcakes if their idea was selected. Out of ~2,000 students emailed, only 21 responded with ideas. Most ideas submitted were not feasible (we could not add a slide from the top floor of the library to the ground floor of the library, and we could not cancel exams).
Solution: I had the idea to add lights to the tree outside of the library. Winter term at Carleton lasted from January-March, and it was the darkest and most depressing time of the year in Minnesota where temperatures were as low as 60 degrees below zero.
After planning with the lighting design committee and campus design committee (additional considerations were needed to accommodate the astronomy tower’s research on campus), the lights were installed on the tree.
This caused an uproar on campus.
Some felt it was a misplacement of their student activity fees. Others loved the boost of energy that the lights provided as they were walking around at night and into the library.
See coverage in Carleton College’s Student Newspaper below:
Link to article here, written by Sarah Lieberman in January 2020
SPC decided to conduct an official survey to gather insight on student sentiment.
Where previous emails for surveys were largely neglected (even with the bait of free cupcakes), we received over 800 responses for our survey, with long responses to our free-response prompts.
Result: Mission success! We submitted a call for student projects shortly after receiving survey feedback and received about 100 new ideas.
MADDIE KYHL 