Did You Say Sustainability?
Sustainability is commonly equated with recycling and conservation, but it is much more. Members of the College community have repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to the concept of sustainability. Significantly, this past March with the encouragement of the Students for Sustainability—which obtained over a thousand signatures and the support of the School of Humanities and Sciences Faculty Senate—President Williams signed the Talloires Declaration, an agreement among university leaders to increase awareness and action in support of a sustainable future. IC is doing much to support the pledge made by President Williams.
The School of Humanities and Sciences has been a major root of the growing movement on campus. Last fall, faculty, staff, and students from the Departments of Biology, Physics, and Chemistry, as well as the Office of Facilities formed the Center for Natural Sciences Sustainability Group. The group is “committed to finding ways to operate with less environmental impact and to provide educational opportunities for students and community members to engage in this vision,” according to assistant professor of physics Beth Ellen Clark Joseph. This year, faculty from disciplines across the school are seeking to develop comparable programs that are appropriate for their own programs and buildings.
Jason Hamilton, assistant professor of biology and a leading player in the sustainability movement, wants to “infect the whole College with a sustainability focus.” Among his many efforts, this summer Hamilton and his colleague Susan Swensen, associate professor of biology, ran the first session of the Finger Lakes Project. During this program, 30 faculty from across the campus were introduced to the concepts of sustainability and engaged in a process to help them teach sustainability to their students. Hamilton, Swensen, and other colleagues from the biology and physics departments have taken their show on the road to classes across the IC campus and to professional programs across the country. Hamilton was a featured speaker at the Association of College and University Housing Officers–International. A group of biology and physics faculty will make presentations at the Association for Sustainability in Higher Education and then for the American Conference of Academic Deans at the American Association of Colleges and Universities annual conference.
Additionally, IC is considering a faculty-led proposal to install a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine for electricity generation. Clark Joseph has taken a lead role in this effort. The wind turbine could provide approximately 5 percent of the College’s electricity. Importantly, the wind turbine would provide a laboratory for teaching, as well as make a prominent statement within the community. Clark Joseph is active with the Tompkins Renewable Energy Education Alliance as the group works to increase the acceptance of wind turbine visibility in the community. Performing feasibility studies, organizing tours, seeking state and local approval, and acquiring funding have made the efforts for establishing a wind turbine a long, albeit worthwhile project.
The College won a National Science Foundation grant in 2002 entitled Applying Science to Sustainability. The grant was coauthored by professor of politics Tom Shevory, associate professor of biology Susan Allen-Gil, and Liz Walker of EcoVillage at Ithaca. The grant, which allowed four years of funding for educational projects, will expire this summer, but the College has stepped in to provide continuing support for minigrants to develop curriculum in the area of sustainability. This year, the breadth of involvement has spread far beyond the expected disciplines in the sciences. The minigrants for 2006 included requests to enhance curriculum in areas from women’s studies and psychology to math and international programs. Associate professor of art history Lauren O’Connell applied for a minigrant to work on a two-week course segment on architecture across cultures, while assistant professor of writing Cory Brown applied for a grant to integrate sustainability and environmental content into his course in poetics.
Beyond the classroom, students have begun sustainability projects across campus and in the community. There are areas near the Center for Natural Sciences that are being used to test plants for alternative landscaping approaches. Once the appropriate varieties of plants are chosen, it is anticipated that the College can decrease its acreage of lawn—with its high maintenance requirements—and still remain beautiful. Also this past year, students researched, designed, built, and installed a solar fountain in the Muller Chapel pond. And they designed and helped build a bus shelter and root cellar at EcoVillage at Ithaca, and a solar trailer that provides power for IC faculty and staff who work during community events such as Colleges on the Commons and the Relay for Life.
Over the past two years, the School of Humanities and Sciences has directed and funded the exciting programs in the Sustainability Café series. Associate professor of biology Susan Allen-Gil directed the program in its first year, and assistant professor of history Michael Smith assumed the role this past year.
