Virginia Tech Launches Environmental Informatics Major
(U.S.): Based in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, the new undergraduate major will bring together information technology, data analysis, natural resources, geospatial science and ecological modeling.
2 North Carolina State U Buildings Earn LEED Certification
Receiving LEED Silver certification, the university's James B. Hunt Jr. Library features a green roof to assist with rainwater runoff, solar thermal panels and a robotic book retrieval system that enables the library to be 40 percent smaller. The Eastern 4H Center, which earned LEED Gold certification, includes insulation made from recycled denim, recycled ceramic tile, concrete exterior panels, a rain garden and bamboo flooring.
Bowling Green State U to Install Bike Shelters
Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the new bike shelters not only help encourage biking to campus, but also trap stormwater run-off with green roofs of succulents and sedums.
Chatham U, EARTH U Partner for One-year Grad Degree Programs
EARTH University graduates now have the opportunity to enroll in one-year master’s degree programs at Chatham’s School of Sustainability and the Environment. The one-year Master of Sustainability and Master of Arts in Food Studies programs are designed specifically to prepare EARTH graduates to address sustainability and food system challenges.
Cornell U Opens Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture
Developed from a need to help farmers adapt to changing climates, the institute will act as a clearinghouse for research, climate monitoring, decision‐support tools and applications at the intersection of climate and agriculture. An early step will be developing a website for disseminating and gathering information on farm-level impacts and trends, losses and gains resulting from warming and extreme weather. Allison Morrill Chatrchyan, who most recently served as environment and energy program leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension, will step in as the institute's first director effective September 1.
Elmhurst College Receives $28K Composting Grant
Awarded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Food Scrap Composting Grant Program, the funding will allow the college to purchase a grinder that will help divert up to 900 gallons of compostable material and food scraps from the landfill per week.
Indiana U-Purdue U Indianapolis Names Diversity Vice Chancellor
Karen Dace, who most recently served as deputy chancellor in the Division of Diversity, Access and Equity at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will become the university's next vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion effective September 3. In her role, Dace will oversee the Multicultural Success Center and Adaptive Educational Services, as well as facilitate the institutionalization of structures that advance equity and diversity on campus.
Rollins College Earns Fair Trade Status
Thanks to a student-led effort, the college is committed to purchasing fair trade products and encouraging its vendors to provide sustainable products created under fair working conditions. The school will also incorporate fair trade principles part of its curriculum.
U Iowa Student Leaders Focus on Affordability, Workforce Access
Student government leaders recently met with the Iowa governor to discuss college affordability and workforce development for graduates who want to stay in Iowa. The students will travel the state this summer to talk with legislators about extending the tuition freeze another year and ways that the state can help connect graduates from area universities to in-state job opportunities.
U New Hampshire Student Turns Recycling Prgm into Nat'l Nonprofit
The launch of a new nonprofit, PLAN: The Post-Landfill Action Network, is a national expansion of the university's student-led Trash 2 Treasure program, which to date has salvaged more than 100 tons of usable materials, recycled over 2,000 electronics, and donated more than five tons of food and clothing to local shelters. Trash 2 Treasure co-founder and recent graduate Alex Fried founded PLAN to work with student groups, administrators and sustainability offices to reduce campus waste nationwide.
U Rhode Island to Lead National Climate Change Education Project
The university's Graduate School of Oceanography has received a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to serve as the national hub for a Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance. The school will work to build a network of climate change scientists, educators, communication professionals and government and private-sector stakeholders to educate the public about the science of climate change and its implications.
U Wisconsin-Oshkosh Breaks Ground on $7M Biodigester Facility
Funded by the UW Oshkosh Foundation, the new biogas production facility at the state’s largest dairy farm will be able to generate 1.4 megawatts of electricity using livestock waste to generate, capture and combust methane. The biodigester will also be used by the university's environmental science, microbiology and sociology students as an off-campus laboratory.
2 Cornell U Student Teams Win EPA P3 Award
Soliciting student projects that protect people’s health, the environment, encourage economic growth and use natural resources efficiently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award honored students working on a cookstove fuel/biochar project in Kenya and a water filtration project. Each winning team now qualifies to receive a grant of up to $90,000 to further develop their design.
Harvard U Housing Project Achieves LEED Platinum
The newly renovated Graduate Common Area maximizes daylight and incorporates efficient LED lighting. Twenty-seven percent of the project’s construction materials were manufactured within 500 miles.
Historic Harvard U House Awarded LEED Gold
Originally constructed in 1807, the university's Fay House at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study now features ground source heat pumps to provide building heating and cooling and LED lighting. Eighty-seven percent of the existing structural walls, floors, and roof were preserved including the restoration of the wood windows and original hardwood floors.
Lehigh U Embarks on Community Native Planting Project
The latest project to come from the South Side Initiative, a group of university and surrounding community members that aims to foster democracy and improve quality of life, includes the transformation of a former railroad bed into a scenic meadow of native vegetation.
Oregon Lawmakers Roll Out 'Pay it Forward, Pay it Back' Plan
The Oregon state legislature has unanimously approved a plan to provide free tuition to those students attending a community college or public university. In return, students will pay back the state with a percentage of their incomes after graduation. The state's Higher Education Coordinating Commission will develop a pilot program and lawmakers will decide whether to implement the program in 2015.
San Diego State Holds Rainbow Flag-Raising Ceremony
To show its support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities on campus, the university recently held its fourth annual Rainbow Flag-Raising Ceremony. The university offers a minor in LGBT studies and has announced plans for a new LGBT studies major next spring.
Student Loan Rates Double
With no action by Congress to prevent the increase on July 1, the interest rate for federally subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduates has doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Congress may act later this month to reverse the increase.
Texas A&M U System Announces New Center for Solar Energy
In addition to housing a renewable power generation system that will power the A&M-Central Texas campus, the nearly $600 million center will act as an incubator for practical and emergent technologies relating to renewable energy and photovoltaic solar technologies.
U Arizona Harvests Campus Seed Pods for Flour
The university's Campus Arboretum has installed nets onto the trunks of mesquite trees to harvest the seed pods, which Dining Services will incorporate into dishes served on campus. Olives and citrus fruit will also be harvested in similar projects.
UC Santa Barbara Installs Natural Area Signage
Funded by Associated Students, Coastal Fund and the university's Housing and Residential Services, the eight new interpretive signs inform visitors and answer common questions about stormwater management and whale migration as they travel through designated natural areas on campus.
U Maryland Students Create 'Connect4Climate' Video
"Right here, right now, together" is the slogan for this video by a group of students in the university's "Contemporary Social Problems" class. The video is part of a larger student campaign advocating serious action to fix the climate problem that brought the group to the Connect4Climate event in Washington, D.C. in March.
U Mississippi Turns Racial Incident into Teachable Moment
After a Mitt Romney rally led by University of Mississippi students last November turned racial, assistant to the chancellor for multicultural affairs Donald Cole recently turned the incident into a teaching moment. Cole, who himself experienced discrimination as a student at the university, addressed the emotions and concerns surrounding the rally head on with this fall's 120 incoming freshmen and their parents. "The idea again is that learned men show their differences by rhetoric, show their differences by persuasive arguments," the NPR story quotes Cole saying during his speech. "Learned men don't fight."
U Wisconsin-Oshkosh Residence Hall Earns LEED Gold
Horizon Village features a green roof, a geothermal ground-source heat pump for heating and cooling, geothermal hot water production and a designated area for interior bicycle storage. Additionally, the limestone façade from the building formerly on site was recycled for reuse in the fireplace surround in the student lounge.
Wilfrid Laurier U Announces New Sustainable Food Systems Center
Led by Alison Blay-Palmer, associate professor of geography and environmental studies at Laurier and leader of the Nourishing Ontario research and community outreach project, the center will open opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration in local and sustainable community food initiatives with the goal of creating positive change through food.
Wilfrid Laurier U Celebrates Aboriginal Day with Teaching Garden
The Mino-kummik Aboriginal Community Garden, named after the Ojibwa word for "good, bountiful earth," features a vegetable and fruit garden, aboriginal medicinal garden, ceremony space and rain-harvesting cistern for irrigation. A local nonprofit will hold workshops with local residents to illustrate sustainable practices of saving rainwater for later use.
York U Students Divert Nearly 27K Pounds of Waste from Landfill
The FreeStuff tables set up in each undergraduate residence during April and early May, where students were able to swap unwanted items, helped saved nearly 27,000 pounds of waste from the landfill this year. At the end of the move-out period, leftover items were donated to a local charity.
12 Institutions Kick Off Green Chemistry Commitment
Organized by nonprofit Beyond Benign, the Green Chemistry Commitment is a new consortium of universities and industry partners designed to increase the number of green chemists and scientists in the U.S. and the opportunities available to them in the field. Green chemistry encourages chemists and scientists to develop safer, non-toxic, renewable chemistry and materials. A 2011 report from Pike Research forecasts that the worldwide green chemistry industry will soar to more than $100 billion by 2020 from less than $3 billion in 2011.
13 Student Teams Compete in Solar Grand Prix
The student University of Texas at Austin Solar Vehicles Team hosted the recent solar car race, held for the first time at an official Formula 1 track. The endurance race challenges competitors to finish as many laps as they can around the 3.4 mile track during the designated driving hours each day. Students from Iowa State University, Northwestern University, Illinois State University, Western Michigan University, University of Waterloo, Principia College, Missouri Science & Technology, Georgia Tech, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Oregon State University and University of New Mexico were also part of the race.
A Guide to the Supreme Court Decision on Affirmative Action
In Fisher v. University of Texas, the justices sent an affirmative action case concerning the university’s program to achieve racial diversity back to the lower courts for further consideration under a tougher standard of review. The New York Times breaks down the opinion of the court here.
Carleton College Move Out Sale Raises $30K for Local Nonprofits
Community volunteers helped keep unwanted student items out of the landfills, sorting and organizing clothing, kitchen items, mini fridges, printers, bedding, books, and mirrors for the recent "Lighten Up" sale. After raising $30,000 for local nonprofits, the remaining items were donated to the Salvation Army or sent to electronics recycling.
Cincinnati State Starts Sustainable Ag Mgmt Certificate
Starting in the fall, the certificate program will involve students in a new campus food cooperative. Students will train at a local farm, growing the produce for the cooperative that provides 26 weekly boxes of farm-fresh produce to the campus and surrounding community.
Cornell U Student Joins Solar Plane Crew
After designing a pilot drinking water system for solar aircraft makers Solar Impulse, senior Sam Daly has been invited to spend his summer as part of the ground crew for the company, which has a plane that is currently flying across America. The company is scheduled to send a plane around the world in 2015.
Hawai'i Institutions Join EPA Food Recovery Challenge
Hawai‘i Pacific University, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Kapiolani Community College have pledged to reduce food waste as new participants in the national program. Around 35 million tons of food waste was generated in 2010, according to the Food Recovery Challenge website, 97 percent of which was thrown away into landfills or incinerators.
Houghton College to Install 2.5 MW Solar System
The college has signed a power purchase agreement with Smart Energy Capital for the planned solar system, which is anticipated to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent. The energy generated by the system is expected to meet more than one half of the college's electric demands with an estimated savings of $1.3 million over the contract period.
Indiana U-Purdue U Indianapolis Building Earns LEED Gold
The university's Glick Eye Institute features energy-efficient lighting and heat recovery systems, reduced-flow toilets and sinks, native landscaping, occupancy and air-monitoring systems, and a small rain garden feature and detention structure for irrigation through a drip distribution system.
Int'l Sustainable Campus Network Announces Excellence Awards
Recognizing institutions for exceptional sustainability efforts in campus planning, integration with academics, student leadership, and exemplary building projects, this year's program honored the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland), Anglia Ruskin University (U.K.), Zhejiang University (China) and Chatham University (U.S.).
Jacksonville U Receives $10K for Sustainability Education
Half of the Siemens Industry Inc. grant will go toward monitoring and comparing a sustainable versus non-sustainable dorm this fall. Sustainability degree majors will be selected to live in the sustainable side of the dorm, adhering to efficient lighting and HVAC usage, recycling and more. The other side will not have sustainability initiatives in place. In their second year, the students will write a white paper comparing each sides of the dorm. The rest will go toward a rooftop garden where students will train homeless veterans how to garden.
Jamestown CC Science Center Achieves LEED Gold
Sustainable features include a rainwater harvesting system, vegetated roof garden, sun tunnels, water-permeable pathways, demonstration photovoltaic solar array and a geothermal well system. About 40 percent of the project area is a wetland meadow/habitat restoration space.
