Displaying items by tag: warren wilson college

A student farm leader takes care  of pigs at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. Most of the college’s pigs were recovered following fatal flooding from the Swannanoa River on Sept. 28, 2024.  Warren Wilson College

Collective action helps alleviate climate anxiety in wake of Hurricane Helene

This story was originally published by The Revelator.  

Mallory McDuff teaches environmental education at Warren Wilson College.

SWANNANOA, N.C. — “We need 10 people on flush crew, five to clean out the fridges in the science building, and 15 to clear trees on the roads! We’re gonna do this together!”

This wasn’t a pep rally or a community service event. It was the morning meeting called at 9:30 a.m. each day by campus leaders in front of the cafeteria at the small college where I lived without power or water, after the climate disaster of Hurricane Helene devastated our community in Western North Carolina.

“We know the Swannanoa Valley has been hit especially hard,” the college president told the group of students and employees. “And we are here for this college and for the greater community. This is our work together.”

That day I joined my neighbor Tom Lam chain-sawing his way across campus with a crew of students clearing brush along the way.

“Now gather ‘round so you can see how to sharpen this chainsaw,” Tom said in his booming Jersey voice, pulling on his suspenders after we’d cleared trees that crushed a neighbor’s car.

I’ve spent 25 years teaching environmental education, raising two daughters, and living at this 1,000-acre campus where all students work in jobs in places like the farm, garden, forests, and even fiber arts. And I think this might be one model of how to live in community in a climate emergency.

A birds-eye view of Warren Wilson College in the Swannanoa River Valley near Asheville.  Warren Wilson College

Warren Wilson College considers selling or leasing parts of its Swannanoa Valley campus as it addresses budget deficit; conservation easements also in play

This story was orginally published by Jason Sandford at Ashevegas.

Eds. note: The headline has been adjusted to reflect that Warren Wilson College is considering the sales, but has not yet put property on the market.

SWANNANOA — Warren Wilson College officials are considering selling or leasing chunks of the bucolic 1,100-acre campus as the college continues to seek ways to offset a $5.5 million budget deficit.

School officials are simultaneously considering adopting conservation easements that would protect, in perpetuity, some 600 acres for educational, research and recreational purposes.