For the past six years, a group of devoted students has grown food at Long Lane Farm to feed the hungry and to connect to the food they eat. But although the farm belongs to a university that values sustainable development and a green campus, students who work there feel it receives little support from the administration.

“[The administration’s involvement is] close to zip,” said Aaron Greenberg ’11, an active farm member. “Which is really a shame because the school is all about being ‘green’ and ‘sustainable,’ and the farm provides an incredible opportunity for educating students about sustainable agriculture and how to practice it.”

According to Tim Shiner, Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development, the administration would be willing to play a more active role with the farm if the students made their needs clear.

“We have worked with them to plan orientation service trips but other than that, I haven’t had much involvement at all with the farm,” Shiner wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “As with all student groups, we certainly will help them if they come to us for assistance, but in my time here, this has been very rare.”

In 2004, the land was rescued from becoming a women’s correctional facility and converted into a farm, which is located approximately a mile from campus. According to members, the farm functions as a non-hierarchical structure, with the goal of cultivating a relationship with the Earth and with food. Student farmers hope to make sure that the two acres the farm sits on remain a safe and productive space. The farm is one of the University’s many allures, especially for those interested in environmental causes.

“It was my first experience doing something non-academic at school and it was a chance to be off campus while still being with Wes students,” said Julia Jonas-Day ’12. “For me, it represented a lot of Wesleyan’s ideals, like planting and doing sustainable things for the Earth.”

For some, the farm provides an escape from the often stressful atmosphere of college life.

“There’s nowhere else on campus that I’ve found where I can go and feel like I don’t need to live up to any expectations that anyone has of me,” said Eric Sherman ’10.

Greenberg says the farm’s laidback atmosphere is important, but sometimes detrimental when combined with disorganization. The farm is entirely student-run, with the exception of a student intern that the Environmental Studies Certificate Program sponsors. The intern helps out with May Day and Pumpkinfest, the farm’s two main yearly events.

Greenberg offers suggestions as to how the University could be more involved with the farm, such as the creation of a fulltime job opportunity for someone to run the farm and teach students aspiring to be farm interns how to successfully execute sustainable agriculture. He also has ideas for the Environmental Studies Department.

“The Environmental Studies Department should be more involved, not just in name but in actuality,” Greenberg said. “[The farm] should be in the curriculum and there should be professors who actually care about the farm because they care about sustainable agriculture.”

Jonas-Day, who is the co-chair of the Environmental Organizer’s Network’s Green Fund Committee, describes the farm as her first foray into hands-on work with sustainable agriculture. She has her own suggestions for how the farm could be better utilized as a resource to boost the University’s efforts towards sustainability.

“From the farm I met people who got me involved with the forum for sustainable agriculture, and then I went off from there,” Jonas-Day said. “[The University can help by] advertising the farm better—especially to freshmen—and running more programs there, as well as having a more organized forum for working on the farm.”

Although some on the farm wish the University was more involved, they are always looking for students to help out. Workdays on the farm are every Saturday once the weather gets warm enough for crop growth.

“Anyone and everyone can come out to the farm on workdays, and there’s always fun and smiles and maybe a song,” Greenberg said. “And we get dirty together!”