Students in Prof. Laura Goldin's (ENVS) popular class, "Greening the Ivory Tower," gathered outside the Heller School Monday to commence their project RARE (Reduction, Awareness, Recycle, Education), an effort to promote paper recycling at Brandeis.Students in the class established RARE in fulfillment of a final project required for the class. Rather than working on individual projects as is customary, the class decided they could bring about a stronger impact together.

Between 11:30 and 2 p.m., they appeared at the Heller School lobby in an event designed to share information about environmental implications involving paper usage.

"We decided to all come together for one cause," Zevit Aaron '06, who has an editorial role in the project, said in reference to the decision for the class to combine for a campus-wide project. "We want to make people aware of the amount of paper that they use and ... offer solutions."

While students have been required to complete such projects in Goldin's prior "Greening the Ivory Tower" classes, Goldin remains enthusiastic about the founding of RARE as a component of this year's class.

"We try to learn and be engaged at the same time," Goldin said.

Representatives from the class at the event unveiled a display showcasing the issue of the overuse of paper, and more environmentally efficient methods of using and getting rid of paper. Double-sided handouts on the issue were provided, and class members discussed and answered questions from those at the event. A similar event has been planned for Dec. 1 at the Usdan lobby from 11:30 to 2:00 p.m.

RARE Coordinator Tahlia Orbach-Smith '06 helped organize the group's efforts and Monday's event.

Orbach-Smith said that the RARE event aimed to make Brandeis community members more aware of "how important it is to conserve the amount of paper they use."

RARE's event focused on environmental awareness at the Heller School specifically in light of the development of a new building for the school. In fact, Goldin was originally approached about ways to share her knowledge on these environmental issues by Elizabeth Merrick, a research scientist for Heller's Schneider Institute for Health Policy and chair of HellerSAVE (Sustainability, Awareness, and Valuing the Environment), an environmental awareness program at the Heller School.

According to Merrick, HellerSAVE aims to "improve the environmental sustainability of Heller's operations by reducing negative impacts on the environment, to increase awareness of environmental issues, and to collaborate with others in the Brandeis community towards a "greener" university."

Merrick said that a mutually beneficial relationship has been formed between HellerSAVE and Goldin's class in addressing environmental issues.

"The students formed RARE, and helped us by doing two major things: conducting an audit of our paper consumption at Heller, and staging an awareness event to get people interested in and knowledgeable about reducing, re-using and recycling paper. The students have done a terrific job. We appreciate their contributions greatly and hope that each and every one of them continues this activism on behalf of the environment," Merrick said.

According to Aaron, the project has entailed weeks of effort by all members of the class, each member having taken on certain responsibilities. The class was informed about many of the issues from Goldin, visited an entirely "environmentally safe" elementary school on South Street, and also learned about non-"green" aspects of the new Brandeis Shapiro Campus Center construction. They also interviewed various people at the Heller School about their own use of paper, according to Orbach-Smith.

The class also created a Publicity Group and Advertising Group to perform various tasks. The Publicity Group recycled paper into notepads, which could offer an alternative to the use of additional paper and reduce, however minimally, paper consumption.

One member of that group, Robyn Gottleib '04, said that she was surprised to find so much blank paper thrown out in Brandeis buildings and also "found that people confuse the recycling bins with garbage."

Orbach-Smith described how the Advertising Group demonstrated an excess of paper use in creating a giant ball constructed from extra recent issues of the Justice and a man from old cardboard and papers in the mail room. Both were on display at the Heller School function.

This year is not the first that Goldin's "Greening the Ivory Tower" class gave a combined effort.

Goldin recounted a number of past successful projects, including the development of the tri-bin recycling program, the wetland restoration project, the posting of stickers on light switches, improvement of chemical management in photography labs, and study of drainage patterns.

The students involved in the project are enthusiastic about RARE, as well as about the class in general. Several students expressed similar sentiments of increased awareness and sensitivity to the various measures that could be taken to significantly improve environmental safety on campus and in general.

"We're just trying to do the most that we can by the end of the semester, and hopefully that will make a little bit of a difference," Aaron said.

"I can say it's been a real eye-opener ... as to (how) little things we do can have a big impact," Orbach-Smith said. "Paper use is just one small part of it. If only more people would just do small things like this, I think we can really make a change.