Director's Report

It has been another year of tremendous growth and development at the ise. Our campus on Maple Hill has been bustling. We have been offering year-round classes to a small group of B.A. students (in affiliation with Burlington College) in three areas of concentration: Social Theory and Action; Ecological Land Use; and Ecological Building. Students combine classroom studies with hands-on, experiential learning. Those engaged in Social Theory and Action worked with a variety of activist organizations in Central Vermont, including the Worker’s Center and the ISE Biotechnology Project. Students in Ecological Land Use concentrated their energy on the ISE’s permaculture and organic gardens, and those studying ecological building had the opportunity to work on our new straw bale, timber framed multi-use barn, which will house classroom and shop space.

The construction of the new building was moving along quickly until winter set in, forcing us to stop until things thaw out this spring. After weeks on end of sub-zero weather we are all ready for Spring. Our B.A. students will begin the Spring Semester on March 23rd, with a 9-week block of classes followed by our Summer Institute programs: Sustainable Design, Building and Land Use; Ecology and Community; Arts, Media, Activism, and Social Change; and Theoretical Inquiries in the Age of Globalization. We expect our usual international student body to rock the house this Summer, as they have for the previous 28 years.

As I write the ISE is awaiting word from the Vermont Department of Higher Education as to whether we will be able to re-institute our M.A. Program, this time in affiliation with Prescott College. The program we have proposed would involve students in study at the ISE and work with Prescott through their low-residency Master of Arts Program, providing both a rigorous learning environment and maximum flexibility to M.A. students.

Also of note is the ISE’s Biotechnology Project’s successful campaign to place resolutions against biotechnology on the agenda of over 70 town meetings around New England, a tremendous effort to educate people about this important issue.

Overall it has been a busy year, with the prospect of more work to come. We thrive on hard work, simple living, critical thinking, and the support of the social ecology community. We ask all our friends to renew their support and commitment to the ISE by contributing to our annual donor campaign. The following pages details our upcoming programs and development goals for the year. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to our important work. In thanks for your support of the Institute, we are pleased to offer several book titles from South End Press as gifts for donations of $200 or more. We need the support of all our members and friends—every donation counts!

Dr. Daniel Chodorkoff
Director

Social Ecology n 1: a coherent radical critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends. 2: a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society.

Published by the Institute for Social Ecology