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Projects Updates for theme: Education

  2. Meeting with F&S representatives

    Associated Project(s): 
    NRES 285: Sustainability Metrics and Evaluation Techniques

    Warren Lavey met with John Prince and Morgan Johnston to discuss the intentions for this course.  We reviewed the summer conversations with Jordan Williams and Claire Grogan about the Business Instructional Facility and the Occupancy Sensors.  There are a lot of projects that could be identified for this class to consider, and F&S would prefer to suggest projects with existing information and contact people.  Morgan agreed to provide a list by October 21 of potential projects for the class to review.

  4. Morgan Johnston speaks with ESE 360, Rob Kanter

    Associated Project(s): 
    Support sustainability courses through guest lectures

    Rob Kanter is teaching a class about environmental writing.  Rob is known for his Environmental Almanac work, and began teaching this class last year.  A year ago, Morgan Johnston gave a presentation overviewing the work that is happening with the Climate Action Plan.  This year, rather than a presentation, the students did a group interview.  There were twenty students.

  5. University Sustainability Program

    Associated Project(s): 
    Provide incentives for sustainability education

    From: JElderJR@aol.com [mailto:JElderJR@aol.com]
    Sent: Monday, May 06, 2013 9:23 AM
    To: dhales@secondnature.org; mmadia@secondnature.org; tnelson@secondnature.org; anaik@secondnature.org; SUSTAINABILITY@aacc.nche.edu; DGROWE@oaklandcc.edu; keniry@nwf.org; FitzgeraldP@nwf.org; paul.rowland@aashe.org; julie.elzanati@igencc.org; brockadler@gmail.com; David@CEDD.org
    Subject: University Sustainability Program

    Dear colleagues,

    I am writing to ask for your help in reauthorizing the University Sustainability Program (USP) at the Department of Education.  It is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which is set to expire this coming August. This is the only federal sustainability education funding program in existence, and it is imperative that we keep it alive. 

    As you know, USP only received partial funding one year, as part of the FY2010 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education appropriation (generating over $4 million in grants for sustainability projects). This fact makes USP vulnerable to being dropped out of the new reauthorization bill.

    USP's original House sponsor, Representative Earl Blumenauer, has proposed to make a push for funding USP as part of the FY14 federal budget, and has recently sent a "Dear Colleague" letter (attached) to House Members asking them to join him in this request. He would be the first to admit that securing funding for USP in these tough times is a long shot at the moment. But he feels that a push for FY14 funding will at least help to start building momentum for reauthorization now by getting USP back on Congress's radar screen. And while it is also likely that action on the new Higher Ed act will be delayed beyond the August expiration date, hearings on the bill are being held now, and so we need to get our position regarding USP on record in a timely manner.

    Towards that end, I have drafted two letters of support (attached), one for a FY14 appropriation and one for reauthorization, which I hope you'll help circulate to your networks for co-signing by college presidents and national NGOs. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. I have put a somewhat arbitrary deadline of May 30 for signing on. If you need help drafting a cover note for these letters, I'll be happy to help. We generated over 300 signatories the last time around, and I'm hoping we can do better this time.

    Many of us worked hard to get USP passed five years ago, and a time will come when we have a good shot at getting it more fully funded. So it would be a major setback to have it fail to be included in the new higher education bill, and then have to start all over from scratch in trying to get a new authorization bill passed.

    Thank you as always for your help!

    Best wishes,

    Jim

    James L. Elder, Director
    The Campaign for Environmental Literacy
    14 Jersey Lane
    Manchester, MA 01944
    www.FundEE.org
    www.GreenRibbon.org
    978-526-7768 (office)
    978-609-2892 (cell)

     

  6. Educating Future Leaders_Funding Award and Acceptance

    Associated Project(s): 
    Teaching Sustainability Workshop aka Prairie Project [ARCHIVED]
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    This is a two-part project. Part 1 is the development of a K-12 sustainability education online resource, probably in the form of a website. There are many existing online educational resources for teaching about sustainability in K-12 education, but they are scattered and some of the information is poor quality and some is difficult to find. Part 2 is a proposal for funding “new” course development and delivery. The course would cover both content information related to sustainability and methods for teaching it. Students would complete a major project that could involve either K-12 education or on-campus UI student education.

  8. Guest Lecturers, staff and student teams work together

    Associated Project(s): 
    Curriculum

    Staff gave a guest lecturer presentation to the Urban Planning / Civil Engineering UP430 class, regarding active transportation programs; met with a student team from Professor Rockett’s renewable energy course to discuss rooftop solar opportunities on campus; and gave a guest lecturer presentation to an Architecture class about the iCAP and sustainability initiatives on campus.

  9. Undergrads and Graduates work on Sustainability Projects

    Associated Project(s): 
    Independent Student Projects

    Working with James Scholar in Barbara Minsker’s engineering class to make recommendations related to sustainability for the Grainger crosswalk on Springfield.

    Staff hosted interviews with about a dozen Rhet 105 students about various sustainability topics.

    Urban Planning masters student Marcus Ricci is doing a GIS project about bike parking capacity in relationship to the buildings they serve.

    The LINC U of I Bikes section sent out a bike sharing survey and had a great response rate, a summary will be available by the end of the spring semester.

  11. Students and Faculty Work Together on Education in Sustainability

    Associated Project(s): 
    Curriculum

    F&S worked with the College of Business’ Director of Information Management to provide detailed solar data from the Business Instructional Facility to a graduate student in ECE.

    A team of MBA students in Madhu Viswanathan’s course worked with the Campus Bike Project to make recommendations about how the Campus Bike Project could become financially self-supporting.

    Scholarship of Sustainability 10-part series began.

    The Engineering 315, Learning in the Community UI Bikes (UIB) section submitted their project proposal for what the class will be working on this semester.  The UIB class has divided into three groups which will tackle three different bicycle-related projects this semester: 1.) the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and several targeted focus groups; 2) the development of an online, interactive campus bicycle parking map using Google Maps; and 3) testing out various marketing tactics to encourage bike riders to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.

  12. Sustainability Curriculum and Workshop Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Course Development or Modification

    Engineering 315, Learning in the Community (LINC), has a number of course sections dedicated to sustainability this semester, including UI Bikes (UIB), for which Facilities & Services is serving as the Project Partner. The UIB section has two student project managers and 13 undergraduate students, who will be focusing on three bicycle-related projects this semester: A. the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and targeted focus groups; B. the development of a campus bicycle parking map; and C. testing various marketing tactics to try to encourage students to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.

    F&S and the Campus Bike Project (CBP) met with an MBA class who agreed to help the CBP become fiscally self-supporting through improved marketing. There are two student teams who will review this topic in the context of all bicycle-related topics for campus.

    Logistics are underway for the Spring, 2012 offering of the Teaching Sustainability Workshop (previously the Prairie Project).  There will be an opening reception and keynote speaker on Friday, April 13 at Levis Center and the workshop will be held on April 14, 2012 at the Japan House.  The call for applications went out on January 25 with applications due by March 9.  In two days, we had already received 11 applications and are now up to 15.  This is the quickest response we have had to date.

    The Scholarship of Sustainability Series is currently being offered for the third year.  The series is connected with 4 courses from 3 different colleges in addition to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  Attendance each Thursday is expected to be around 100 people as the enrollment in the 4 courses are full (and the series will not be videotaped.)

    Last fall, the SSC suggested an MOU with the Office of Sustainability regarding the hiring of a curriculum specialist to work one-on-one with faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum.  The OS submitted a letter of inquiry for committee response on January 27, 2012.

  13. Sustainability Coalition and Sustainability Council Make Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Co-curricular Sustainability Programs

    The Sustainability Coalition met with Chancellor Wise on January 30.  The students delivered a PowerPoint presentation describing what they would like to see from the Office of Sustainability, including specifically an OS with authority and capacity, a full time director, and an entity separate from the proposed Center for a Sustainable Environment.  They shared sustainability structures from other universities to help illustrate this point.  The Chancellor did not promise anything, but indicated she would take their input into consideration.

    The Sustainability Council comprised of senior leadership and two student members also met on January 30.  Though there were other agenda items, the focus was largely on the proposed Center for a Sustainable Environment, its structure, leadership, etc.  There was also discussion regarding the possibility of an Office of Sustainability separate from the Center, and questions about where those resources would come from.

    In continuation of the ACES conversations that began in the fall, staff met with Dr. Jeff Brawn, Head of NRES.  He indicated that NRES sees themselves as “cheerleaders” for the sustainability efforts on campus and they look forward to working with the OS over the coming months and years.

  14. Sustainability Studies in the Humanities Initiative

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainable Studies in the Humanities
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    This proposal seeks funding to establish the Sustainable Studies in the Humanities Initiative. This initiative is also being underwritten by the College of LAS and the School of Earth Systems, Society and the Environment, with the primary objectives of creating new courses offered in the humanities related to sustainability and contemporary environmental issues. The Committee feels that the humanities, in particular, are an area underserved by formal coursework options related to sustainability, and is thus supportive of this initiative. The funds provided by the Committee will allow for the creation of three additional courses (beyond the four otherwise possible through this initiative), as well as allow for the creation of a unifying web presence for the initiative. The Student Sustainability Committee is in favor of funding a grant in the amount of $8,500.

  15. BLUE Community Involvement info

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Infrastructure
    Green Infrastructure Conference
    CEE 598 SUS with Barbara Minsker [ARCHIVED]
    Building a Lasting University Environment (BLUE) [ARCHIVED]

    The F&S Environmental Compliance Department is always working towards enhancing environmental management and sustainable practices on campus and in the community.  Community collaboration and education are important components of stormwater management practices and fulfill requirements of the University’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permit (MS4). 

    The Office of Public Engagement awarded Environmental Compliance a grant to construct a rain garden for the Robeson Elementary School in Champaign, Illinois. This project demonstrates contemporary stormwater management practices that mitigate playground flooding.  The project engages students by incorporating the rain garden into the school’s curriculum.  Environmental Compliance collaborated with professors, students, landscape architects, local businesses, and Unit 4 administration to design and construct the rain garden. 

    The 2011 Green Infrastructure Maintenance Conference addressed native plantings, rain gardens, porous pavements, and green roofs.  The event was hosted by Environmental Compliance and the Landscape Architecture Departments and sponsored by the Office of Public Engagement along with the MS4 Technical Committee.

    The 2010 John Street Watershed Class was a collaboration between the University of Illinois and the City of Champaign to address neighborhood flooding.  Environmental Compliance participated by lecturing and assisting in the construction of two rain gardens. 

  16. Prairie Project Instructional Workshop Funding Agreement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Prairie Project Instructional Workshop [ARCHIVED]
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    The Prairie Project is a faculty development workshop with the objective of preparing faculty (and aspiring faculty) to teach on issues of sustainability and to introduce such material into existing campus coursework. The project will reach an interdisciplinary group of 18 faculty members who teach courses reaching thousands of students, and helping achieve campus objectives around sustainability education. This workshop will also serve as a pilot project for larger workshop activities in future years. Committee funds will be used to provide a modest honorarium for participants, who undertake to make modifications to a course that they will teach next year. This workshop is being hosted by the campus Office of Sustainability, and funding support in equal amounts is also being provided by the Office of Sustainability and the Environmental Change Institute. Thus the Committee recommends funding this program in the amount of $5,000.

  17. Course Development and Enhancement (ECI) Funding Agreement

    Associated Project(s): 
    ECI Educational Funding
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    For FY2010, the Student Sustainability Committee chose to solicit proposals for the development or enhancement of courses related to sustainability jointly with the Environmental Change Institute. Such a program allows the Committee to select proposals to support, while leaving project management and administration to a better-suited entity. The program received ten proposals for consideration, out of which the following six proposals were chosen for funding:   ENGR 298 – LINC Bike Sharing – Prof. Bruce Litchfield - $5,000   LA 390/590 – Landscapes, Sustainability, & Human Health – Prof. Bill Sullivan - $2,420   PHYCS 150 – How Nature Works – Prof. Scott Willenbrock - $4,790   GEOG 130 - Social Science Approaches to Environment-Society Relations – Prof. Tom Bassett - $5,000   ME 470 – Senior Design – Prof. Stephen Platt - $4,000   BADM 532 / 533 – Sustainable Product and Market Development for Sustainable Marketplaces – Prof Madhu Viswanathan - $5,000   The ECI is committing $13,420 in support of an additional course and matching SSC allocations to two of the above courses. All courses participating in this program will meet program requirements established by the ECI and SSC, submit materials to the ECI for archiving and participate in the ECI’s annual symposium. Thus the Committee recommends funding this program in the amount of $26,210.

  18. MechSE Sustainability Senior Design Funding Agreement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Independent Student Projects
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    Students in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering have been working on projects to improve the sustainability of our campus. The Department has requested support to carry out to projects (designing a sump pump water collection and use system, and assisting with the retro-commissioning of Siebel Center), which will are high-impact projects and will involve students. Thus, the Student Sustainability Committee is in favor of funding them to the amount of $6,000 ($4,000 for the water project, and $2,000 for the retro-commissioning project – with the expectation that Computer Science will underwrite the remainder).

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