List of Organizations

New organizations are started every term, but many groups continue from year to year:

Bennington Free Press. Founded in the spring of 2003, the Bennington Free Press is distributed throughout the College community. Believing that a student newspaper is as crucial to a college community as is the formation of a strong student government, the BFP provides a wealth of information from a student perspective and provides experience for students who are interested in writing, editing, photography, publishing, advertising, and public relations.

COLT (Community Outreach Leadership Team). COLT is comprised of 4-6 students who plan and coordinate volunteer opportunities, community service, environmental awareness, education and civic engagement. The group also works to strengthen the connection between the Bennington College community and the larger local and global community. COLTs' most successful events have included the Pumpkin Carving Challenge (pictured), the Bennington Bed Race, and cooking meals at the 6 Bank St. Homeless Shelter.
Drama Collective. Drama Collective is a support group for the theater community at Bennington College. It encourages student work and seeks to make an accessible and comfortable environment for everyone involved in the theater department. Its goals include funding and producing the 24-hour play series every term; supporting and funding independent projects; encouraging talk-backs and funding receptions; and bringing guest artists to Bennington to supplement the theater curriculum.
Judicial Committee. The Judicial Committee hears cases involving student misconduct, providing yet another capacity in which students take responsibility for the governance, safety, and well-being of the community. The Judicial Committee is chaired by a current student and includes six students, as well as six members of the faculty/staff, with two Assistant Directors of Student Life and the Dean of Students serving as ex-officio members. Hearings normally consist of three to five members of the Committee, who must attend training sessions, review cases prior to hearings and come prepared to hearings, with questions.
Maple Sugaring Project. The many species of trees found on the Bennington College campus include a number of sugar maples, and every spring, students get together to take part in one of Vermont's oldest traditions: maple sugaring. Over the course of March and early April, they tap trees, gather and boil sap, make syrup and watch the winter change to spring. Students take part in all aspects of the syrup production: from collecting sap once a week to staying into the early morning to boil all the sap before it spoils during the warm spring days. Sugaring is a great way to get through Vermont mud season and get ready for the sweetness of spring.
The Outdoor Recreation Program. The Outdoor Recreation Program provides a variety of both on- and off-campus outdoor activities for the College community. These trips offer students an opportunity to take a break from their academic pursuits, explore the natural world around them, and foster new friendships. These activities are also open to staff and faculty. Outdoor Recreation Program trips are organized and run by students trained in outdoor leadership, wilderness skills, and emergency medical skills. These student leaders are also open to new ideas from students for trips and activities that are not currently available. Depending on the season, a wide variety of trips are offered. These include canoeing, caving, rock climbing, rappelling, white-water rafting, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, road biking, mountain biking, and overnight camping. We also offer a variety of hiking trips on local trail systems including the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail. More extensive multi-day trips have also been offered during the midterm break. These have included rock climbing at Acadia National Park in Maine and hiking/climbing in West Virginia. For more information about the club and events please contact the Office of Student Life, 802-440-4330.
plain china, a new online literary magazine, aims to join and sustain Bennington's long and fertile literary tradition by showcasing the best prose and poetry of Bennington students writing today. Say its founders: "We view plain china as a venue for emerging writers and as a forum for an ongoing literary conversation on this campus."
Program Activity Council (PAC). Students on PAC plan and coordinate student events, such as dance parties, guest performers, and bands. Any student on campus may submit a proposal to the council for an event and suggest ways in which PAC's annual budget should be spent. Some of PAC's most successful and longstanding events include SunFest, Rollerama, and Bowlerama (pictured).
SILO. Published annually since 1943, Silo is a student-created and-designed journal of art, writing, and music. A student editor-in-chief selects committee heads for the different disciplines (Visual Art, Writing, Video, and Performance and Music), and committee heads select representatives from a broad range of backgrounds within each discipline. The submission process is open to the entire student body, and the committees select from the works submitted. The Silo publication has taken many formats over the years, and is currently a 6"x6" color and black-and-white journal packaged with a compact disc of musical selections and DVD of video art and performance footage. The completed Silo publication is available each spring to campus offices such as Admissions and Alumni Relations, and is free for the student body.
Student Council. Composed of elected delegates from each house, Student Council is the central forum for student discussion of nonacademic issues (academic issues are covered by the Student Educational Policies Committee). Among its most vital tasks is facilitating communication between students, faculty, and administration in a way that ensures fruitful conversation and thoughtful action on campus issues. Student Council also helps coordinate funding for student organizations. At the beginning of each year, Student Council creates a tentative budget to divide the Student Activities Fund among the various campus organizations. This tentative budget is proposed to the student body at large and discussed at house meetings before delegates vote to ratify the budget and funds are distributed.
Student Educational Policies Committee (SEPC). SEPC is a group of students—two for each discipline—who represent the student body in issues affecting academic life at Bennington. These SEPC representatives, who are elected by the student body, serve as a liaison among students, faculty, and administration. The SEPC also coordinates mid- and end-term course evaluations that provide a forum for students to critique their courses. In addition to evaluating individual courses and teachers, the SEPC also considers larger questions of academic policy and articulates their concerns and interests to the campus community.
Student Endowment for the Arts (SEA). The mission of SEA is to financially support and educate the artists of Bennington College while strengthening the role of the arts within the entire community. By design, it aims to stimulate grant writing, proposing and allocating funds in a realistic scenario. SEA offers exposure and experience in the process for both applicants and members of the board. As an all-student board, it strives to maintain an accessible relationship with the student body, undergraduate and graduate students alike. It serves and nourishes the community by encouraging artists of all mediums to apply for financial support as well as to participate on the board. Its goal is to directly aid promising artistic endeavors that would otherwise be financially impossible in order to fulfill artistic visions in the name of students' education and to be a valuable resource for the College at large. Proposals are reviewed anonymously and are judged on the strength and clarity by which they are presented, their supporting materials, and their artistic excellence.