The Telecommuting & Commuter Program intern met with supervisor Sarthak Prasad on Friday, April 23rd, 2021 to discuss updates on the program and goals for the upcoming week. Over the past week, they emailed over 10 different universities to fill out the google survey and/or schedule an interview to gain more personal insights and research. They also emailed the updated questionnaire to the IHR department, however, the department had to reschedule the meeting to May 5th. In addition, Audrey has begun creating the final deliverable presentation via PowerPoint for the transportation SWATeam meeting on April 30th. In the coming week, she will reach out again to the universities that have not yet filled out the google survey, and finish the final deliverable presentation.

Attached are the meeting minutes for the Transportation SWATeam meeting on 4/16. The agenda is as follows:

• Commuter Program & Teleconferencing Policy Internship Update
• Campus Fleet Replacement Plans Initiative Update
• EV Task Force Draft Recommendation
• Campus Opportunities: CTAC Meeting, Campus Bike Census Spring 2021.

The Bike Census Spring 2021 Event on April 28, an event which seeks to accurately portray biking on the CU campus, is searching for volunteers. No prior experience is required; just show up to the VIRTUAL Training Session at 9AM and go from there!

The Telecommuting & Commuter Program intern met with supervisor Sarthak Prasad on Tuesday, April 6th, 2021 to discuss updates on the program and goals for the upcoming week. Over the past week, they created a questionnaire for the Illinois HR department and a questionnaire for when they begin interviewing other universities about their respective telecommuting programs. Tomorrow, they hope to collaborate with the transportation SWATeam to get feedback on their proposed questions. This week, they plan to investigate telecommuting policies at other Illinois universities (UIC, UIS, ISU) and various Ivy League institutions. They will then plan to narrow down the best schools to reach out to and gather necessary contact information.

The Telecommuting & Commuter Program intern met with supervisor Sarthak Prasad on Friday, March 12th, 2021 to discuss updates on the program and goals for the upcoming week. They both attended the Transportation SWATeam meeting on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 and introduced the new role to the group. Moreover, they decided to focus on the telecommuting policy since it is currently more time-sensitive than the commuter incentive program. During the next week, the intern will research telecommuting policies at other Big 10 universities and report them in an updated excel sheet. Once this research has been completed, they will begin conducting interviews with the universities that have telecommuting policies to receive better input. 

Meeting minutes are attached!

The Daily Illini published an article about the impacts of covid-19 on the campus sustainability efforts. One key message is that, even with some delays associated with the pandemic, we are still determined to move forward.  The conclusion of the article says: 

Mohamed Attalla, executive director of Facilities and Services, said there are lots of initiatives to reach carbon neutrality in terms of energy and hopes to reach 400,000 metric tons of CO2 this year.

Attalla said the addition of a third solar farm, advances in geothermal energy and research in carbon capture contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and that long-term, COVID-19 should not be a problem.

“Maybe we’re behind a little in implementing some projects, but we’ll be able to catch up,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a long-term impact on the iCAP implementation.”

White also said she doesn’t anticipate any long-term problems with achieving the iCAP goals and believes it’s important for the University to lead by example when it comes to sustainability.

“I really believe that accomplishing the iCAP goals is something we can do, we need to do and we will do,” she said. 

“Climate change isn’t waiting for us,” Edwards said. “(The University is) the laboratory for science, for humanities, for arts …  all those kinds of things show what is possible of humanity.”

“If we’re going to call ourselves leaders, then we need to lead,” he said.

https://dailyillini.com/covid-10/2020/12/08/covid-19-pandemic-impacts-un...

Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 11/18.

Discussed were the following topics:

• Establishing a telecommuting/teleconferencing policy.
• Discussing working with an interdisciplinary health intern in IHR to tackle research/application of teleconferencing/telecommuting policy and commuter program.
• Establishing an EV Task Force through the Parking Department to re-assess campus EV needs.