After a semester of concern over the fate of Boston University’s Sargent Center for Outdoor Education, campers might not have to part ways with their green retreat after all.
BU is currently negotiating a lease over its 77-year-old education center with Nature’s Classroom, a private nonprofit corporation that promotes hands-on environmental education, according to a June 22 press release given to The Daily Free Press. In effect, this lease will allow BU to continue its ‘research and orientation programs,’ while Nature’s Classroom can also run summer programs and other activities.
‘We are in lease negotiations,’ BU spokesman Colin Riley said.
Nature’s Classroom has 13 different sites in New England and New York where students, grades 4 to 8, learn about the environment through hands-on education. It is not fully clear yet how BU and Nature’s Classroom will collaborate, but the facility will operate under the name ‘Nature’s Classroom at Sargent Center.’
However, as of July 1, BU plans to layoff the majority of SCOE employees, ‘although a few will remain to conclude the university’s business,’ according to the press release. Nature’s Classroom will hire back some of these employees to continue working at SCOE starting Sept. 1.
After BU announced in January that it would cease operation of its education center and camp in Hancock, N.H. due to financial concerns, camp lovers, ranging from professors to alumni to seventh grade teachers, spoke up in protest.
SCOE supporters said closing the camp would not only have negative consequences on environmental education, but eliminate an integral experience that so many gained outside BU’s urban environment.
SCOE supporter Greg Freed, a College of Communication alumnus, created a Facebook group titled Sargent Coalition, which gained over 700 members, as well as a blog to follow the camp’s situation. Yesterday he posted an entry titled, ‘Sargent Center to remain open in September,’ regarding the current negotiations.
‘Changes will be made organizationally to reduce cost and attempt to move towards a ‘break even’ operation,’ Freed said in his post. ‘All costs will be paid by Nature’s Classroom, and any surplus revenues will be theirs to reinvest in programs and facilities.’
‘The lease will serve as a bridge to a more permanent plan, [‘hellip;]’ Freed said. Freed was not immediately available for comment.
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Staff reporter Jenna Ebersole contributed to the reporting of this article.
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