Saint Anselm College acts as a second home to all our students and the monastic community. One sub-division of SGA has dedicated their work to improving and cleaning up our home on the Hilltop. 

The Respect the Nest Committee, formed in 2014, flew under the radar of SGA for years. Until 2020, when President Richard Flandreau, appointed ‘24 class council members Kevin Macarelli and Hannah Peterson as co-chairs of the committee. “We thought it was a big issue on campus,” said Macarelli, “neglected by the school, SGA had the opportunity to pick it back up and promote sustainability.” 

The two had already worked on recycling across campus, as Peterson states, “we became interested in environmental sustainability in SGA when we both started recycling resolutions, to get a dumpster outside of JOA”. Their dedication and work for the committee have paid off as Respect the Nest gains more members throughout the school year. 

“Other than just campus clean-ups, they also hold recycling days, thrifting days, and they also post on social media to promote sustainable tips to recycle not only on campus but back home”, said Matt Tobey ‘24, Respect the Nest member. He goes on to explain that the committee also holds tabling events to hand out t-shirts, reusable straws, and cloth bags to students. Peterson states, “the first time we got our name out there was last year during Earth Day…if a student posted a picture of them recycling then we would give them a free t-shirt since there were a lot leftover from previous years.” By using their social media account, they were able to spread their message across campus to reach most of the student body. Macarelli backs up this claim by saying, “social media has been huge for us, it’s hard to see sustainability on a microlevel, so we use social media to document and show the work that we’ve been doing.”

“My hope for Respect the Nest is that we can bring their recycling and community aspects to get to more areas on campus,” states Maura Crump, SGA President-elect. She moves on to explain, “we have the SGA crowd and students who care about these issues, but it’d be great to spread their message across campus even more than what they’re already been doing”. Crump goes on to support the projects that the committee does and hints at the future garden project. Christine Landry, ‘25 Environmental Studies major, explains the garden project by saying, “we’re working on creating a community garden, but obviously that will take a lot of time and dedication from the committee.” This goal will take a lot of time to accomplish but will help to promote clean eating and sustainability to students. 

As co-chairs Macarelli and Peterson enter their third year at Saint Anselm College, they have high hopes for the committee after they graduate. They have worked hard to create meaningful connections with other groups on campus and even contacted some Biology professors to help advise them on proper sustainability. Crump also hopes to help increase the knowledge of the committee across campus in her upcoming presidency. “They’ve done great work with the recycling of paper and plastic bags, but I know that sometimes they mention trash being thrown into recycling bins. We want to make the initiative more well-known across campus to avoid that”. 

With support from all over campus, the committee can only hope to grow and create a stronger message. As Macarelli states, “a big part of Respect the Nest is making sure people understand that this is our home. We need to quite literally respect the nest by cleaning after ourselves, cleaning up uppers, cleaning up everywhere, because at the end of the day we’re coming home to the Hilltop”.