A UNIVERSITY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Western Washington University advertises that they are a university of the environment
on their website. From the creation of Huxley College of the Environment in 1969, sustainable
and renewable ideals have spread through campus like a hot fad. In 2004, students voted to pay
an extra yearly fee so that the university could only purchase renewable energy.1 In the past
couple years, student organizations banned the selling and purchase of disposable water bottles
on campus and where there is a trashcan, you can bet there will also be a recycling and compost
bin.
A key element to Westerns environmental interest is the Outback Farm on south campus,
behind Fairhaven. The Outback Farm OELP (Outdoor Experimental Learning Program) is a
collaboration project between Associated Students and Fairhaven College. 2 Outback provides
any interested student or community member the opportunity to learn about sustainable
agriculture, local ecologies, land/habitat restoration, and the basic functions to cultivating an
organic garden or farm. The Outback encourages students to pursue their love for sustainable
agriculture. According to the farms official website, there are eight segments of the land:
community garden, educational garden, forest garden, herb and ethnobotany garden (study of
medicinal or religious plants in relation to humans), wetland area (small tributary of Connelly
Creek), amphitheater, outdoor classroom, and greenhouses.3

"Green Campus." Green Campus. Western Washington University. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.wwu.edu/
about/green>.
2

"Welcome to the Outback!." Associated Students Outback Home Page. Associated Students of Western
Washington University, 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://as.wwu.edu/outback/>.

ITS NOT EDEN

The community garden portion of the Outback consists of about 40 three feet by ten feet
plots that are available for individual student or community member use. 3 There are no
restrictions to who can have a plot, or even how many plots one person can have depending on
how they acquire them. This is both a blessing and a problem. Because it is a relatively unknown
opportunity, there is no shortage of plots even though there are more than 15,000 students at
Western. However, many of the plots that have been given to students or Bellingham residents
are unkept or abandoned. It appears that there is a lack of communication between patrons of that
land and the coordinators of the farm.
There are several components to the problem of having unmanaged agricultural land. The
largest concern being poor crop rotation and soil maintenance which can lead to an invasion of
weeds into the beds, choking out worms and using up the soils natural nutrients, leaving it dry
and unhealthy for actual crops. Another problem is aesthetic beauty and general appearance of
care on the farm. This is important because, like any non-profit organization, the Outback farm
relies on volunteer work, University allotted money, and donated money to stay functioning. If a
possible beneficiary sees that the farm looks unkept or mismanaged, even if individual plot
abandonment doesnt reflect on the overall wellbeing of the land, than they will be less likely to
give money. I have listed all of the problems associated with unkept plots in a more easilynavigated bullet format below.

"The Farm." Associated Students Outback The Farm. Associated Students of Western Washington University,
2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://as.wwu.edu/outback/garden/>.

* No Fertilizer, No Fun: Unmanaged crops are poorly rotated and that leads to the invasion of
weeds which suck nutrients out of the ground and tear apart plot beds. Weeds suck all of the
nutrients out of awesome top soil which takes a very long time to form and is crucial for
healthy plant growth. This poses a problem to the Outback especially because it is devoted to
sustainable, organic farming methods so those nutrients cannot be replaced with fertilizer that
might pose a threat to other ecosystems in the area. This also means that the ground has to be
regulated closely, to keep its nutrients high and soil PH at a good level around 6.54 .
* Unnecessary Labor: Poorly managed land creates more unnecessary, hard labor later on
(weeding, properly composting weeds, re-tilling etc..). This is especially evident at the Outback
because it is dedicated to upholding values of sustainable, organic agriculture methods. This
means limited use of machinery, and no use of fossil fuels to aid these farming processes.
Comparatively to how agriculture is done in the rest of America, where 10 calories of fossil
fuels are burned to generate just one calorie of food 5, the Outbacks carbon footprint is near
nothing.
* Volunteer Work Based on Aesthetics: When the plots are not aesthetically beautiful, there
may be less volunteers who make snap judgments on the farm that it is unkept and not
welcoming. The farm relies on volunteer work to continue functioning, because it is a nonprofit.
* Outside Beneficiaries Donate to Aesthetics: When plots are not aesthetically beautiful,
beneficiaries are less likely to make donations to the farm so there will be less resources.
4

"Understanding PH." Rodale's Organic Life. 16 May 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://
www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/understanding-ph>.
5

Lott, Melissa. "10 Calories In, 1 Calorie Out - The Energy We Spend on Food." Scientific American Global RSS.
11 Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Outside funds from Bellingham residents are extremely limited and dependent on how they
perceive the farm is functioning, aesthetically beautiful, and fits their other personal
preferences.
* University Funding: The farm operates as a non-profit. This means that the funds available
for building new equipment, educational sessions, facilities, and plants is limited and reliant on
personal beneficiaries within Bellingham as well as university funds. The university wants to
see that the farm is impressive, they want clean well managed plots to prove that the students
are benefitting from the Outback. If they are not impressed, they will not approve expenditures
and might even say that the farm is less valuable than, say, a football field or new dorms to
house more students. In fact, according to a brief summery of the Outback written by
coordinator Liliana Morgan, the university pushed to build new dorms over the land that the
Outback occupies in 1989, and it was only through efforts of individual student petition as well
as volunteers Julie Muyllaert and Bay Renaud, that the construction was not undertaken. 6
* Incoming Freshmen Want to Live in a Wes Anderson Movie: When prospective incoming
freshmen are touring the campus they might be unimpressed with the agricultural resources
especially if the farm appears to be unkept. Then the university is losing those students tuition
money.
* Limited Land Availability: There is hardly any land available for agriculture, we are given
free pieces of land to grow our own organic food and we neglect it. This shows some sense of
under appreciation of clean, healthy food availability.

"Outback Timeline History." 2. Print.

* Limited Plot Availability: If in the future someone was interested in growing food in a plot,
but all of the plots were taken even if they had been forgotten, then they might miss the
planting season.

MO MONEY, MO POSSIBILITIES

I am proposing that we charge each plot holder a very low fee each quarter that they are
using their plot, no more than five dollars. That way, patrons are not asked an unreasonable
amount to use the land. With five dollars coming in from every plot, the farm is looking at an
additional $125 dollars each quarter that can be put to community functions, new materials, or
guest speakers. This amount is not enough to create any actual profit for the farm, just enough to
add a new tool to the toolshed each quarter. I also propose that each land holder must write a
short essay of entry to the farm explaining why they want the plot and what they are going to
grow. That way, students would take their plots a little more seriously and make sure to
communicate with the farm director that they are no longer interested in their plot as soon as they
are disinterested.
Per standard short response requirement, there would be a limit of 250 words per essay so
that time spent reading these essays is kept to a minimum. Furthermore, the Outback already
employs students for work study and managerial positions; grading a few essays could be a part
of that job description. At the beginning of each consecutive quarter after the first initial entry
essay, the plot owners could have a brief, informal meeting with the farm student manager to tell
them about what they grew and what they are planning on doing with their plot next. The only

other foreseeable complication would be figuring out who manages the five dollar payment from
each student. There are two solutions to this issue: 1) change the five dollar payment to a
suggested five dollar donation, most students will feel morally obliged to donate and then the
farm would not have to manage the logistics of renting land or 2) deal with the incoming money
in a democratic way where the farm student manager collects the money and then all of the
volunteers and work study students vote on how to spend it. Given the corporative,
interdisciplinary nature of the farm Im sure that volunteers and paid employees could
collectively find an outlet for the money.

IT MATTERS

Why should this matter to the rest of the university? The Outback is a relatively small
asset of Western Washington and it would be pointless putting administrative time into fixing this
problem. However, the solution I have proposed is nearly painless and could be organized
between the students working at the farm and Associated Students. Furthermore, the effect of
fixing this one problem has the high likelihood to reach the rest of Western. Prospective students
interested in agriculture, like myself, are more likely to chose Western over, say Evergreen where
they have an extremely well managed 5-acre farm7, if they can see that on top of Westerns
incredible academic standards, there is a functioning outlet for gardening. Choosing a college is
far from easy, and this small contribution to the universitys overall appeal could be the deciding
factor for incoming freshmen.

"Organic Farm." At Evergreen. Evergreen State College. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://evergreen.edu/organicfarm/>.