Sustainable Living

LIVE COMFORTABLY AND CONSCIENTIOUSLY

Pitzer Sustainably Built Residence Halls

PITZER STUDENTS LIVE IN SUSTAINABLY BUILT RESIDENCE HALLS.

  • Residence halls feature more than 40 sustainable features including solar panels, a green roof and recycled materials.
  • Two additional mixed-use residence halls feature a gray water system, which allows sink and shower water to be recycled to water the plants around campus.
100%
OF ELECTRICITY USED MATCHED WITH WIND ENERGY CERTIFICATES
90,000
GALLONS OF WATER SAVED MONTHLY
THROUGH GRAY WATER SYSTEM
55%
CUT IN WATER USAGE
SINCE 2008

THE P.A.S. COMMUNITY—
THE FIRST-YEAR LIVING EXPERIENCE

Pitzer College requires all full-time first-year, sophomore, junior and senior students live on campus and enter into a residency agreement each academic year when enrolled at the College.

  • All first-year students live in the P.A.S. community in one of the three residence halls: Pitzer, Atherton or Sanborn.
  • Rooms are double occupancy, with two rooms sharing an adjoining vanity, bathroom and shower.
Pitzer Sustainable Living Experience
Pitzer Hall

PITZER HALL

  • Houses 78 students.
  • Common areas include a living room, eight study rooms and laundry facilities.
  • The first level of Pitzer Hall is the home of the Admission Office.
Atherton Hall

ATHERTON HALL

  • Houses 62 students.
  • Common areas include a living room, six study rooms, and laundry facilities.
  • The first level of Atherton Hall is also home to the campus mail center, art studios, a music practice room and the Lenzner Family Art Gallery.
Sanborn Hall

SANBORN HALL

  • Houses 178 students.
  • Common areas include a living room, nine study rooms, laundry facilities and a kitchen.

EAT FRESH, LOCALLY SOURCED FOOD

IN OUR CELEBRATED DINING HALL—McCONNELL BISTRO—VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN OPTIONS ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE.

Pitzer College Sustainable Living

All of the food is served trayless to reduce waste, with 75,000 pounds of food waste collected for compost during the ’17-’18 academic year.

So Many Options at the 5Cs!

Students living in the residence halls are required to commit to a meal plan which allows access to any of the seven dining halls located throughout The Claremont Colleges.

  • Dining halls sponsor themed food nights, like Taco Tuesdays at Pitzer.
  • Daily menus are published online.
  • Through Pitzer’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network, students donated over 2,100 pounds of food to the Ontario Salvation Army in the ’17-’18 academic year
#2
BEST FOOD ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

Newsweek

#13
BEST STUDENT FOOD

Princeton Review, 2018

7
DINING HALLS AVAILABLE
THROUGHOUT THE 5Cs

OTHER PITZER FOOD VENUES

Pitzer College Sustainable Living
  • Shakedown Café.
    Founded and managed by students, this eatery serving delicious, locally sourced meals that are both environmentally and socially sustainable in a venue of art, music and creative energy. A group of 12 co-managers run the restaurant and each have a shift a week, where some 50 shift-volunteers come to help. Located on the second floor of the Gold Student Center (GSC).
Pitzer College Sustainable Living
  • Grove House.
    Features a student-run kitchen serving fresh sandwiches, salads, juice drinks and their famous cookies, the Grove House is open every day and most evenings. Events such as open mics, poetry and fiction readings, musical performances and art openings are hosted here. According to legend, the Grove House was purchased at auction for $1 by Pitzer students who then raised funds to move and renovate this Craftsman-style house—now a favorite student spot.
Pitzer College Sustainable Living
  • Pit-stop Café.
    The café serves coffee, espresso drinks, gourmet sandwiches, wraps, salads, fruit cups, juice and freshly baked pastries. Also available—free printer and wireless Internet access. Located in Bernard Hall facing the Scott Courtyard.
Pitzer College Sustainable Living
  • Organic Garden with Chickens.
    Our popular gardening club, Soul in the Soil, tends the garden every Friday afternoon. And student volunteers tend to our garden’s resident chickens—right in the middle of campus—throughout the week.
Pitzer College Sustainable Living
  • Demonstration Kitchen.
    This commercial-grade kitchen was designed and is used by students for cooking projects and events. The Office of Student Affairs sponsors a cooking seminar series each semester and students are welcome to use the kitchen whenever they like. Located in the W.E. Community.
Meet a Pitzer College Alumni
Meet the Pitzer Chickens

ZERO-SCAPE FOR ZERO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

ABOUT 75% OF THE CAMPUS IS LANDSCAPED WITH NATIVE, DROUGHT-TOLERANT PLANTS.

  • Plants throughout campus are part of the John Rodman Arboretum. Climate-appropriate, native California, drought-resistant plants and succulents dominate the landscape, along with native field stone.
  • The landscaping in front of Scott Hall began as a class called Ecological Landscaping. Students and faculty created six different ecosystems. The gardens are riparian, desert, chaparral, grassland, oak woodlands and coastal sage scrub.
  • The Outback Preserve on the north side of campus offers 3.4 acres of pathways through a rare ecosystem: alluvial sage scrub.
Pitzer College Sustainable Living