Mobilize others on your campus and join this national streamed webcast on October 21st, hosted by Andy Revkin, science reporter for The New York Times.  

Across North America, hundreds of campuses are reducing the environmental impact in their operations, developing curricula and educational experiences that address climate disruption, and incorporating the principles of sustainability into their strategic plans and core missions. Discover how institutions are finding opportunities in the wake of budget cuts and providing the appropriate campus infrastructure and knowledge to finance, plan, operate, and manage low carbon, energy efficient campuses. Learn how these actions are supporting broader community, regional, and national initiatives.

This year’s panelists are leaders deeply involved with change on their campuses, and are also within national organizations and networks. They’ll share their own experiences with green initiatives, as well as those of other campuses, paying special attention to cost control issues and the effects of uncertain revenue. Can higher education afford to not make sustainability its core strategy?

Participants will be able to ask panelists questions throughout the program via text.

Discussion areas:   

• Identify financing mechanisms during this difficult economic time
• Discover how colleges and universities can engage with their local community on sustainability
• Explore examples of how students are driving increasing/beneficial connections between campus and community
• Discuss how and why institutions should support student activism for fiscal, social, and ecological benefits
• Demonstrate effectiveness of re-thinking 'classroom' vs. 'campus' division (e.g. residential ecology programs, college farms, biodiesel production, etc.)
• Gain ideas on keeping momentum in your sustainability program
• Discuss federal policy on sustainability and the implications for higher education

You Should Attend! 

• College and University Administrators
• Sustainability Coordinators
• Students
• Faculty
• College and University Planners
• Others who are interested in, or already working with sustainability initiatives in higher education!

Moderator:

Andrew Revkin, Science Reporter, The New York Times

Andrew Revkin has spent nearly a quarter century covering subjects ranging from Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami to the assault on the Amazon, from the troubled relationship between science and politics to climate change at the North Pole. Revkin has been reporting on the environment for The New York Times since 1995, a job that has taken him to the Arctic three times in three years.  In 2003, he became the first Times reporter to file stories and photos from the sea ice around the Pole. In October 2007, Revkin created Dot Earth, a Times blog on climate, development and the environment (nytimes.com/dotearth). The blog has an audience of over 300,000 monthly readers.

Presenters:

Sarah Brylinsky, Sustainability Education Coordinator, Dickinson College

Sarah Brylinsky’s work on student citizenship and campus sustainability organizing brought her national acclaim in 2008 when she was awarded the AASHE Student Leadership Award, given to the student who has demonstrated the progressive leadership in promoting sustainability in higher education. As a student sustainability coordinator, Sustainably Conscious Living Community resident assistant, and president of both the environmental and feminist student organizations at Ithaca College, she organized student activism around gender and environmental toxicology issues, and published on the role of environmental security in international higher education for NATO. Brylinsky’s work bridges campus and community through projects in social media, radical pedagogy, and ecological planning, in an effort to create educational programs that empower student-citizen voices.

Larry Eisenberg,  Executive Director for Facilities Planning and Development, Los Angeles Community College District.

Eisenberg oversees all planning, facilities development, maintenance, and real estate activities of the Los Angeles Community College District. The hallmark of the LACCD program is its commitment to sustainability, making it presently one of the largest sustainable development programs in the world. Prior to his current appointment, Eisenberg held the position of facilities manager in the Washington County, Oregon Department of Support Services, and associate vice president for physical planning and development for the University of Wisconsin System. Eisenberg currently serves on the sustainability advisory committees of several national organizations including the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Joseph E. Grasso, Assistant Dean, Finance &
 Administration, Cornell University

Joe Grasso is assistant dean for finance and administration at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Prior to Cornell, Grasso was the vice president for administration at Washington and Lee University where he helped to launch W&L's Sustainability Program, and shepherded the signing of the President's Climate Commitment. He has held leadership positions at several other institutions, including Colgate University, the University of Virginia, and Allegheny College where he also led environmental initiatives. Joe serves as the chair of NACUBO's Sustainability Advisory Panel, and he is a member of Cornell's Campus Sustainability Committee. He previously served as the senior budget examiner for the New York State Division of Budget, and various other authorities and agencies, and served as the budget director for the NYS Thruway Authority.

Angela Halfacre, Director, David E. Shi Center for Sustainability and Professor of Political Science, Furman University

For almost fifteen years, Angela Halfacre has been creating or nurturing environmental and sustainability programs on college campuses and within their surrounding communities. Before returning to Furman, her alma mater, in 2008, she spent ten years at the College of Charleston as a political science professor and director of the graduate program in Environmental Studies. At Furman, she teaches courses in environmental policy, sustainability, and research methods. Halfacre also coordinates several curricular and co-curricular programs (teaching and research) related to sustainability on campus and in the local community, and recently provided an ongoing faculty workshop to infuse sustainability concepts into existing courses. Her research and publications examine public perceptions of sustainability issues, community governance, and environmental decision-making. Halfacre coordinates Furman’s Sustainability Planning Council, chairs The Duke Endowment Task Force on Sustainability, and serves on several boards of local and national environmental organizations. She earned her PhD from the University of Florida.  

Partners for Campus Sustainability – We invite you to learn more!

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
www.aashe.org/

American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
www.aascu.org

American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment
www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/

Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium
www.aashe.org/heasc/

National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology Project
www.nwf.org/campusecology

Second Nature
www.secondnature.org/

Society for College and University Planning
www.scup.org

Other questions?

Please contact Kathy Benton, kathy.benton@scup.org.