Tufts Sustainability Collective (TSC) and the Lewis Hall duty team last Friday hosted EarthFest, an afternoon of eco-activities on the Academic Quad followed by a music festival outside Lewis Hall.
EarthFest has been held in Boston for many years as an eco-friendly music festival, Caroline Jeanmaire, who organized this year's EarthFest, said. Although Tufts has hosted EarthFest in the past, this year's event was much larger than previous editions, according to Jordin Metz, member and former co-director of TSC.
"We were lucky to have a windy but sunny Friday that brought people outside," Jeanmaire, a junior exchange student, said.
Over 20 student groups set up tables on the Academic Quad, including Tufts Bikes, Tufts Transit Coalition and Students for a Just and Stable Future, as well as representatives from organizations such as Tufts' Green House and Tufts Career Center, as well as off-campus companies MassRides and Zipcar.
Activities held throughout the morning included mural painting, a clothing swap, a fashion show and a Jeopardy game that tested participants' knowledge of sustainability-related issues, according to Jeanmaire. Students also had the chance to create energy on a special bicycle provided by the Office of Sustainability.
The Eco-Reps had previously collected donations for the clothing swap from students in dorms, according to sophomore Charlotte Clarke, the Eco-Rep for Haskell Hall. During the event, the clothes were available for free, and the Eco-Reps took photos of people with their new clothes.
"We want to promote reusing ... [to] reduce your carbon footprint, reduce your waste output," sophomore Angie Bell, the Eco-Rep for Carmichael Hall, said.
Food from local restaurants was also provided, Jeanmaire said.
"We [did] our best to have things that are made of vegetables to give people the feeling that green food is also good," she said.
New this year was TSC's collaboration with the Lewis Hall duty team, according to Fern Gray, resident director of Lewis Hall and a first-year student in The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The team organized the Leo Lewis Music Festival, a concert featuring undergraduate student performers that included bands Waldo and Shark Saddle, as well as the Disney a cappella group, Enchanted.
"At first, TSC wanted to have live music during the activities, but then ... we discovered that [there were] two events on the same day, and we decided it would be great to join them so they would not overlap," Jeanmaire said.
Throughout the concert, the Lewis Hall Eco-Reps shared tips about environmental consciousness. Composting of all food scraps - including meat, which is not usually allowed - was also promoted, as the event involved a barbeque.
"From our perspective, it's always good to try and get into the dorms and get the students where they're living to think about green living and interacting with each other in a more green and sustainable way," Gray said.
The music festival was part of the Lewis Hall duty team's efforts to ramp up its programming this year, Gray said. The initiative began with the haunted house during Halloween, which attracted over 300 students from across campus and far surpassed attendance at any previous activity organized by a duty team, according to sophomore Kwanki Tang, a resident assistant (RA) in Lewis Hall.
"When it comes to RAs organizing such huge events, it is definitely unprecedented, and I think that we have set a good standard for RA teams in subsequent years," Tang said.
Planning for the concert began in January, Gray said, starting with a huge program proposal to obtain funding from ResLife.
"Leo Lewis, who is the namesake of our building, was the founder of the music department," Gray said. "We were destined to throw this event because our building is actually named after the person who brought music to Tufts University, so it all just fell together really well."
According to Gray, the duty team - consisting of herself and the six RAs - first began looking for residents of Lewis Hall who wanted to perform. They then held auditions, which attracted the attention of bands outside of the dorm.
"Some [were] more known and more popular, and then some [were] more underground, but it's a great outlet for them to actually share their music with all of these students and Tufts University," she said.
The music festival is likely to become a regular occurrence on campus, according to Gray and Tang.
"Based on exit interviews, the music festival is a concept that many students want to see happen on a bi-annual basis," Gray said.
Tang agreed that the event generated a positive response from students and RAs alike.
"By having events of this scale, you actually reflect - not just to your residents, but also [to] everyone at Tufts - that duty team events are not just ... slipshod things that you put together for the sake of fulfilling a requirement, but really to engage the community in a way that is meaningful," Tang said.
