Committee examines options for eco-program Kohler Donates $10 Million
By Andrew Ricardo ’10
News Reporter
After withdrawing the plans to create a golf course on the eastern edge of Choate’s campus, Herbert Kohler has offered $ 10 million as a gift to help Choate develop in another way.
Approximately 250 acres of land will be used as the footprint for an as-yet to be defined use of the land. Though plans are still in their earliest stages, Mr. Kohler has given Choate a challenge for how to use his gift: in a letter to the Board of Trustees and Headmaster Ed Shanahan, Kohler said that “…if we believe we could advance environmental knowledge on this land in its most natural state, I am willing to contribute all or a sizable portion of this $10 million towards the establishment of a viable leading edge Environmental Laboratory funded by an endowment dedicated to that purpose.”
According to an e-mail he sent to Choate’s faculty, after Mr. Kohler’s proposal, Mr. Shanahan assembled a group to, “comprise a planning committee for exploring and developing ideas” regarding what should be done with the land and Mr. Kohler’s grant. The committee is co-chaired by Dean of Academic Affairs Kathleen Wallace and Trustee and Chair of Buildings and Grounds Committee Marshall Ruben. It includes science teacher Joe Scanio, English teacher Megan Shea, HPRSS teacher James Stanley, Science Department Head Larry Stowe, admissions officer Beth Whitney, and Mr. Shanahan.
Although Mr. Kohler responded to the environmental concerns that shut down the golf course project by suggesting that an environmental studies center or program be the beneficiary of his gift, he has made no actual requirements. According to Ms. Wallace, “[Mr. Kohler] has not said that we have to build something; he has not prescribed what we should do in any way.” As of right now, the committee is still in the process of gathering information and piecing together exactly what it would like to do with the resources available. Ms. Wallace did say that while nothing is solid yet, the group “[agrees] that [it] wants some sort of a research component, likely some sort of ecological research component.”
If Choate does indeed decide to go through with building something in the vein of conservation research, it won’t be completely without guidelines or ideas to follow: “We’re going to try to have people visit other schools and facilities [with environmental programs] in order to see what they do,” remarked Ms. Wallace. Mr. Stowe said that the committee has to ask itself what it can learn from preexisting programs in other places similar to Choate: “What can we learn from places like Harvard Forest, an ecology research station in western Massachusetts, or the Mountain School, an organic farm and forest program in Vermont? We are talking over possibilities a bit, but primarily gathering information and advice.”
Choate students are mixed in their ideas and opinions of what should be done with this project, but most agree that an environmental component is a good idea. Kat Selberg ’10 said that “If Choate has the money and space to build a new facility, it should be something that speaks to the students’ needs or gives back to the community…the idea for a facility in research and conservation sounds like a good way to benefit everyone.”
Andrew Rivera ’09 said, “A new research facility, or at least something with the aim of helping the environment, will complement the Green Cup perfectly.” As far as other possibilities for the use of the land, a wide variety of possibilities are on students’ minds, both curricular and extracurricular. “I’d like a new place that provides entertainment…the SAC is getting awfully dull,” says JungHa Lim ’09. Kat Selberg ’10 adds, “Extended photography facilities would be great.” Other students, mindful of the importance of the currently undeveloped wetland to the ecosystems in the areas around Choate, think the space would be best left alone, with the money going to fund a program or project rather than a new physical expansion of structures.
Mr. Kohler’s generous donation, though as yet undirected, allows Choate to consider what it needs to help students engage with the environment and the valuable resource that is the Choate wetlands—and, just as importantly, to act on what it decides.
