Sustainability Career Panel Newsletter
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One of our favorite times of the year is almost here… Campus Sustainability Month! Below is a highlight of major events and programs happening this October, though check out the iSEE Sustainability Calendar for the full list. This is the perfect time to take action and show your support for environmental consciousness (and the Illinois Climate Action Plan!). I look forward to seeing you across campus!
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WHEN: Wednesday, August 24th
TIME: 6:30 - 7:30 pm
WHERE: Channing Murray building (1209 W Oregon St)
And it’s deja vu all over again, folks~
SECS will have our inaugural meeting of the school year this Wednesday, and, honestly, quite frankly, it’s gonna be epic :) We will learn about the storied history of SECS, discuss organizational goals, review our code of conduct, and kick off our campaigns for the semester. All this, of course, will be overshadowed by the pure joy derived from being with a diverse group of driven students passionate about making our community greener, happier, and healthier!
It ain't over till it's over. See ya Wednesday
Join the Discord!
Contact Us!
PRESIDENT Gabriel Kosmacher, gkk2@illinois.edu
VICE PRESIDENT Zoe Huspen, zhuspe2@illinois.edu
TREASURER Dankia Ford, djford2@illinois.edu
SECRETARY Alex Chavez, achavez5@illinois.edu
EDUCATION OFFICER Claire Sullivan, csull7@illinois.edu
MEDIA OFFICER Lexi Delmonico, acd4@illinois.edu
ACTION COORDINATOR Rudy LaFave, lafave2@illinois.edu
OUTREACH COORDINATOR Owen Jennings, orj2@illinois.edu
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION Nancy Peña, nancyp3@illinois.edu
Visit our Website
SECS is pleased to share our new website with you all: https://secsatuiuc.web.illinois.edu/
Feel free to browse the site and learn more about the history of our beloved RSO, our current projects and endorsements, while also keeping an eye out for upcoming environmentalist blog posts 👀
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1001 S Wright St
Champaign, IL 61820-6225
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Gabriel Kosmacher, Shallon Malfeo, Betsy Liggett, Morgan White, and Brent Lewis met this morning to discuss the plans for adding a green roof at the Nick Holonyak Jr. Micro-Nano Technology Center.
SECS is interested in developing the green roof on the closed patio for MNTL. What structural load can the patio maintain? Qu Kim had said the patio was closed off because they weren't comfortable with having people out there, and Brent thought it would be a really good idea to put a green roof there.
SECS requested the floor plans to identify the square footage of the patio, and apply for SSC funding. Brent will provide the floor plans. SECS will work through who will maintain the green roof.
Morgan asked if perhaps it could be a vegetable garden, which could provide food to users or donated to the Bucket Brigade. Shallon noted that the food could go to Solidarity Gardens. Morgan asked if Brent thinks vegetable gardening is even feasible in this location, and he explained that it would be way more maintenance. Betsy said it would need maintenance daily instead of monthly, if it were veggies. Additionally, the veggies would lead to more carrying green materials throughout the halls, which would not be well received by the users. This space should not include human food production.
Step 1 -- talk to Ryan Wild and Qu Kim about whether this space is feasible. Then work on design plans and SSC funding application. Consider contacting Fine and Applied Arts about a long-term partnership. There will also need to be a Memo of Understanding about the maintenance of the green roof.
Hello all~
We would like to update two announcements from our last email.
Shallon Ted-Talk:
Our amazing president Shallon is hosting an iSEE TED Talk: Eco-Edition discussing sustainable agriculture at 7pm on March 28th — join us to learn more about sustainable agriculture locally at the Student Sustainable Farm and discuss the future of agriculture globally. Register for the event here: https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvcOyrpzMqGNyJXFPC0MxnalQtqHkCpKD-
Barn Dance:
SECS will be participating in the upcoming Barn Dance with other RSO’s on campus. Things don’t get much better than this, folk’s. Sign up with this link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIGrfaWsx94GunFQKcyTJTNRUKhbQACT3wMiIwpgo-OmJKOQ/viewform
and venmo @Mathew-Pianfetti, make sure to include 'SECS Barn Dance <firstname lastname>' in the memo
SECS is pleased to share our new website with you all: https://secsatuiuc.web.illinois.edu/
Feel free to browse the site and learn more about the history of our beloved RSO, our current projects and endorsements, while also keeping an eye out for upcoming environmentalist blog posts 👀
PRESIDENT Shallon Malfeo, smalfeo2 at illinois.edu
VICE PRESIDENT Alec Van Patten, alecrv2 at illinois.edu
TREASURER Danika Ford, djford2 at illinois.edu
SECRETARY Gabriel Kosmacher, gkk2 at illinois.edu
EDUCATION OFFICER Emily Detmers, emilygd2 at illinois.edu
MEDIA OFFICER Zoe Huspen, zhuspe2 at illinois.edu
ACTION COORDINATOR Michelle Verlinsky, mav5 at illinois.edu
OUTREACH COORDINATOR Owen Jennings, orj2 at illinois.edu
SOCIAL EVENT PLANNER Lexi Delmonico, acd4 at illinois.edu
GOVERNMENT LIAISON Sophie Speedy, sspeedy2 at illinois.edu
Co-presidents Owen Jennings, Maiah Caise, Jack Reicherts, and Maria Maring are excited to embark upon their second semester as SSLC leadership together. The primary goals of the semester include:
Bolster collaboration between environmental RSOs on UIUC campus. The SSLC hopes to work with Student Affairs to incentivize participation with the SSLC, using the University of California Berkely’s Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) as a template. Weekly board meetings and monthly full meetings will continue per usual.
Bolster collaboration between other Illinois schools like University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Springfield, and Illinois State University. Both SECS and ISG may play significant roles in this relationship-building. The SSLC has already been in contact with Illinois State.
Host Earth Month events. The SSLC already began communication with the Illini Union Green Team last semester to begin planning events like Green Quad Day and a movie night on the Quad. Organizations like SECS, Red Bison, and iSEE that have been historically active in Earth Month events will be essential in these processes.
Write SSLC bylaws. The Council has not previously had bylaws, and they are absolutely essential to moving forward in an organized and successful fashion.
Continue to monitor the fight for divestment from fossil fuels. This iCAP Objective has caused copious political strife between students and administrators. Because divestment continues to be a hot topic, the SSLC will continue to listen to student concerns.
The SSLC underwent many changes under the new leadership of co-presidents Owen Jennings, Maiah Caise, Jack Reicherts, and Maria Maring. The board experimented with the mission and niche of the SSLC, ultimately establishing that the organization shall act as a medium of communication between student groups and the administration. The organization will also be the primary host of the annual Student Sustainability Summit in October, touting – among other interdisciplinary events – Green Quad Day, Sustainable Student Research Symposium, and Tuesday Talks at Bevier Cafe.
This Summit was the Council’s most noteworthy accomplishment this semester. The SSLC collaborated with: Red Bison, Outdoor Adventure Club, the Department of Agriculture and Biological Engineering, the Sustainable Student Farm, the Pilot Processing Plant, Grand Prairie Friends, the F&S Solar House, Stop Line 3 CU, Students for Environmental Concerns, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Student Sustainability Committee. This myriad of events had varying levels of attendance. The SSLC leadership learned two primary lessons from the inaugural Student Sustainability Summit: first, quality over quantity in terms of events; and second, planning well ahead of time is absolutely essential in order to adequately advertise each event. If you attended or co-hosted any Summit event, and you would like to let the SSLC board know your feedback, please fill out this form. The current SSLC leadership looks forward to how future leadership will expand upon the Summit.
Another noteworthy accomplishment of the SSLC this semester was action following the publication of the Campus Admin Manual’s Expressive Activity Policy draft. Students were largely emotional about the policy’s stringent punishment for demonstrations on campus, so the SSLC – in conjunction with SECs and the SSC – wrote a letter to Chancellor Jones demanding that the policy more closely align with the student body’s needs. As of January 2022, the SSLC has received no reply from the Office of the Chancellor.
Co-presidents Maria Maring and Owen Jennings spoke at the Campus Sustainability Celebration and Sustainability Council meeting, respectively, on the topic of divestment. Though SSLC leadership was merely prompted to give basic updates at these meetings, they utilized the face-to-face opportunity with campus administrators to voice student concerns about completing iCAP Objective 9.1: Fully divest from fossil fuel companies by FY25.
In a first, the SSLC and general members participated in the Homecoming Parade. Roughly a dozen students marched with divestment-related signs. The SSLC hopes to expand Homecoming attendance next year.
The SSLC revived its dormant Facebook account (@sslcuiuc) and newly established an Instagram account (@uiuc_sslc). On the latter, the SSLC made 40 posts and gained 227 followers. The Facebook account has 93 followers; engagement on this platform is much less. The SSLC also made a linktree and a Google calendar to which other RSOs can sync. That way, all events from all different orgs are all conveniently on one calendar. This joint calendar is still undergoing troubleshooting, and it is not yet available for public viewing.
Amidst these new endeavors, the SSLC held full membership meetings roughly once a month, as did the previous leadership. One recurring issue was lack of attendance and engagement. Leadership held many conversations with both general members and staff advisors about how to increase the efficacy of the Council, but no good solution was found. The SSLC will continue to hold these monthly meetings and brainstorm about how to increase engagement throughout the upcoming spring semester.
The SSLC board met weekly. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact the Council at sslc-chair@mx-illinois.edu.
The following information was received from Haley Cepek, the secretary for the Student Environmental Action Coalition at Illinois State University:
We are currently planning a climate rally in response to the recent COP26 conference. It would take place this Friday, 11/12/21, starting at 1pm at Uptown Circle right outside ISU campus. I want to spread the word over to the University of Illinois so that more people would have the opportunity to use their voice for change. It is an important event and I would love for University of Illinois to have representation. I would greatly appreciate if you could help me in spreading the word over to your campus. We are hoping to make as big of an impact as we can with this rally, and we would truly benefit from combining our communities together to support one cause.
Alec Van Patten met with Brent Lewis, Betsy Liggett, and Morgan White to discuss the SECS' idea to get a new green roof on campus. F&S staff shared some lessons learned from other green roof installations, and suggested some potential locations. These include:
We also mentioned the ECE green wall, which needs help getting refurbished. It most likely needs better watering and possibly needs a review of the soil quality.
For the funding, the SECS is likely going to request SSC funding in the spring semester. Brent says they can request pricing info from LiveRoof.com to get an estimated budget.
Once a location is selected, Alec will email this group to move into the preliminary approval stage.
See the attached October newsletter for Students for Environmental ConcernS. There next general meeting will be Wednesday, October 6th from 6:30-7:30 at the Channing Murray Building. That building can be found at 1207 W Oregon Street.
Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) is leading a climate strike on Friday to demand action on climate change! Participants will meet at the Alma Mater statue, march around the Quad and down Green Street, then reconvene for speeches at the Alma Mater. The event ties in with a Global Climate Strike organized by the youth-led group Fridays for Future to demand intersectional climate justice.
The strike will take place on Friday, September 29th, 2021 at Noon.
See the attached SECS newsletter from August 23rd. Included is information on their general meeting and announcements regarding the sustainability community.
Please note that the Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 25th at 6:30 in the Channing Murray building parking lot. The address is 1209 W. Oregon Street. Disregard any previous date/time as it was incorrectly listed.
Thank you for a great Earth Week, Illini! Here a few highlights:
From: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-...
The company also announced its next phase of coal plant closures in Illinois and Ohio with a combined capacity of more than 6.8 GW, by 2027. The plan has the following timeline:
"These plants, especially those operating in the irreparably dysfunctional MISO market, remain economically challenged," Vistra said in a Sept. 29 statement. "Today's retirement announcements are also prompted by upcoming Environmental Protection Agency filing deadlines, which require either significant capital expenditures for compliance or retirement declarations."
The recommendation was submitted to the NRES unit on March 2, 2018, by Morgan White. Jay Hayek, Extension Forestry Specialist in NRES, will be planting 2 acres of trees at the southwest corner of Race Street and Windsor Road. The trees were purchased by the Champaign County Rotary Club. There will be a wide variety of native oak and hickory species that come in 3 gallon containers and range in height from 3-6 feet. The Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) plan to assist with planting the trees, when they are delivered in early April.
The Students for Environmental ConcernS (SECS) meet regularly each year. The announcement for the first 2016-2017 meeting is attached here.
In 2011, students at faculty from the University of Illinois develop the Re_Home for the Solar Decathlon Competition. As a result of a new landscaping and beautification plan, the Re_Home has found a permanent place on campus. In maintaining a “sustainability ideology”, the landscaping plans for this project are geared toward sustainability with the use of native, low maintenance plants as well as vegetables, edible herbs, and fruit trees. The Re_Home is an exemplary embodiment of sustainability and its permanent home will serve as a showcase in sustainability education.