EnviroNews Newsletter of Santa Clara University Environmental Studies Institute Volume XXVIII
Fall 2008
The College of Arts and Sciences held its Fall Convocation on September 16, and recognized our very own─Michelle Marvier as the recipient of the Bernard Hubbard, S.J., Creative Collaboration Award. According to the convocation program, this award is “In recognition of having established a well-deserved reputation for excellence in educating students by including them in professional research projects or creative activity, thereby transcending traditional teaching models to reach the heart of the research and creative process and, in this collaboration, for having inspired other scholars and artists.” Following the fun-filled tradition of keeping the awardees a secret, last year’s recipients, Christine Bachen & Chad Raphael of the Communication Department provided the audience with tantalizing clues about the recipient until it was quite clear who this year’s winner was. “A colleague tells us that she “has a knack for finding interesting things to work on, and applying her analytical skill set (which is incredible) and creative thinking to them in ways that move fields forward,” said Christine in her speech. Congratulations Michelle!
NEWSFLASH ESI received a $20,000 Grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Program to create a Wild Zone at Ulistac Natural Area. *Wild Zones are a new land-use concept that offer possibilities for un-structured and self-designed play, creativity, and socializing.
Campus Sustainability Day “MISSION SUSTAINABLE” October 22, 2008 2:00-4:00 p.m. Commons at Kennedy Mall What’s Inside… Winter 2009 Courses….........................................2 ESI Seminar Series................................................2 Study Abroad in Costa Rica.................................3 Sierra Nevada & Costa Rica Photo Gallery……4 From the Office of Sustainability…………….....5 From the Office of Sustainability Cont’d……....6
New Upcoming Winter 2009 Courses ENVS 1B Critical Thinking & Writing: Analyzing Environmental Rhetoric This course, reserved for freshmen participating in the Sustainable Living Undergraduate Research Project, SLURP, will explore rhetoric surrounding current environmental issues. This course is a special pilot for the new university core. Students will be enrolled in a two-quarter sequence that will not only fulfill their first-year writing requirements, but will give them the opportunity to explore issues of environmental criticism with a variety of media. All students taking this course will live on the SLURP floor as part of the CyPhi Residential Learning Community, and have the opportunity to participate in a unique community dedicated to promoting a culture of environmental sustainability within the University. (4 units)
ENVS 140 Sustainability Outreach This course aims to deepen students' understanding of sustainability. Students participate in an outreach program designed to facilitate sustainable development at bay area high schools. Each high school’s efforts will be a microcosm of sustainable development and a leadership learning experience for the high school students and SCU students─their mentors. Readings and in-class discussions will also enhance students' ethical understanding of sustainability. (1 unit)
Also this Winter: ENVS 11: Introduction to Environmental Science ENVS 12: Introduction to Environmental Studies ENVS 20: The Water Wars of California L&L ENVS 50: World Geography ENVS 101: Capstone Seminar L&L ENVS 110: Statistics for Environ Science L&L ENVS 120: Intro to Environ Law & Regulation ENVS 122: U.S. Environmental Policy ENVS 142B: Environment & Nature Writing (Baja) ENVS 144: Natural History of Baja ENVS 145: Environmental Technology
Environmental Studies Institute SEMINAR SERIES Fall 2008 FRIDAYS AT NOON Kennedy Commons (Unless noted otherwise) October 10 Global Warming Solutions Steve Smith, Professor of Operations & Management Information Systems, Leavey School of Business at SCU
October 20 (Monday Seminar) SCU's Green Energy Power Purchase with Silicon Valley Power Dan Lieberman, Senior Manager, Utility Partnerships, 3Degrees *Part of Campus Sustainability Week
November 7 Spring Break in Baja! ESI Student Panel (Casa Italiana Commons)
Seminars are 12:00 pm1:00 p.m. in Kennedy Commons. Join us for coffee and cookies at 11:45 a.m. If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodations please call 408-551-7086 at least 48 hours before the event date. Visit our website at www.scu.edu/envs
Additional Speaker Presentations at SCU: Ethics at Noon Thursday, November 6 12:001:00 p.m. Kennedy Commons Climate Change, Prosperity, and Big Ideas: The Moral Imperative of Creating a New Politics of Sustainability
We now have 90+ Environmental Science & Studies Majors! Help us reach 100 by declaring today!
Michael Shellenberger, co-author of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility; Respondent: Peter Kareiva, SCU Environmental Studies Institute and The Nature Conservancy. 2
Hey Reader… What did YOU do this summer?
These students chased monkeys and hung out in rainforests!
Nine undergrads, many from non-envs disciplines, designed and completed independent research projects on primate behavior and rainforest ecology in Costa Rica. Instructors (Michelle Bezanson- Anthropology and Sean Watts- ESI) encouraged projects that combined plant and behavioral ecology. “Being in the field is an incredible opportunity to get to know people on a different level than you do here at school. I got to know some of my closest friends in the field, and learned more there than I ever did in a classroom. And, of course, you can't complain when your alarm is a howler monkey howling outside of your room in the morning…,” said Jessica Reimer, SCU graduate and Teaching Assistant for the course. Course Descriptions: ENVS 134: Plant Ecology in the Tropics This course is primarily focused on plant community ecology, including instruction in evolution, systematics, biogeography, plant defense, and pollination/dispersal syndromes… it just happens to incorporate some field work in a tropical rainforest! Because the course has both a Californian (mediterranean-type climate) and Costa Rican (pre-montane rainforest) component, labs compare the community ecology and diversity of similar landscapes in each region. Extensive training in field methods prepares students for these labs and the development of each student’s proposal for final projects. ANTH 197: Field Course: Primate Behavioral Ecology
In this course we emphasize on-site anthropological field research with practical experience in the basic techniques of observation and field data analysis. Lectures emphasize core theoretical concepts in primatological research with examples from field studies of New World primates. Each student conducts independent data collection to produce a completed scientific paper where they are the sole author. They can use these results to present in classes, at a conference or research symposium, or to develop future projects.
Project Titles: Daniel Bates: Edible and medicinal plant use in the premontane wet forest of Primavera, Costa Rica. Kate Bradley: Predator-sensitive foraging in whitefaced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) based on DBH and canopy cover. Kelly Ferron: Focal fecal follow of fascinating feces: the fundamental function of primate frugivores in the rainforest. Christina Hagerty: Leafcutter ants: a systematic and observational study of pheromone usage. Laura Lander: Aggressive behavior in white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) Christopher Melisi: The effect of microhabitat type on dendrobatid populations (Dendrobates auratus, Dendrobates pumilio). Annika Meyer: Effects of frugivory by Alouatta palliata on various Costa Rican tropical rainforest plant species. Stephanie Rodriguez: Vigilance: Predator-sensitive foraging in mantled howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata). Kristin Sterling: Canopy density and animal interactions with the river. In addition, two SCU graduates served as teaching assistants for the course and continued data collection on their projects from the previous summer. Jessica Reimer: The effects of the white-faced capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinus) on seed dispersal within a neotropical forest. Hailey Trefethen: Frequency and types of play in white-faced capuchin immatures.
Check out the Photo Gallery on page 4 for trip pics!
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Class Photo with Pinion Juniper in Background
Hognose Viper (Porthidium nasutum)
Sierra Field Methods Poison Dart Frog (Phyllobates)
Canopy Tour
Canopy Tour
Boat Ride Tortuguero Panchito! 4
From the Office of Sustainability Recycling expansion: The University now recycles plastics #1-7! Items now accepted in co-mingle recycling include: recyclable glass, plastics #1-7, tin, and aluminum (please rinse before recycling). Items like yogurt containers, iced coffee cups, salsa containers, and food jars can now be recycled at SCU! Please place these items in containers labeled "co-mingle recycling,” "recycling,” "glass,” "plastic,” and "aluminum."
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are also added to the list of recyclable materials at SCU. CFLs can be recycled at residence hall service desks or sent to Facilities via intercampus mailing envelopes. CFLs, along with batteries, ink cartridges, cell phones, and cell phone chargers will be sent to Planet Green, a company that responsibly remanufactures and recycles these items.
While there are exciting changes for next year, other recycling procedures will remain the same. • Paper Includes white and colored paper, junk mail, cereal and snack boxes, shoeboxes, newspapers, and magazines • Corrugated cardboard Includes clean pizza box tops. Please flatten cardboard before recycling • Electronic waste (e-waste) Includes anything containing a battery or electric cord Visit www.scu.edu/sustainability/stewardship for more information. E-mail recycling@scu.edu with any questions or comments. SCU Purchases Over 11 Million KilowattHours of Clean Renewable Energy
The purchase was made through Santa Clara Green Power, a 100 percent renewable energy program sponsored by Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the City of Santa Clara’s municipal electric utility. This action underscores the University’s ongoing commitment to renewable energy, and establishes the University as the largest purchaser in Santa Clara’s nationally acclaimed green power program. Want to learn more about the University's Green Power partnership and how individuals and businesses can support renewable energy? Attend the October 20th ESI Seminar on Renewable Energy─part of Campus Sustainability Week.
Environmental Ethics and the Culture of Sustainability at SCU
Meghan Mooney, a rising senior, recently completed an anthropological study on the culture of sustainability at SCU. As a result of her research as the Undergraduate Fellow in Environmental Ethics with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Meghan presents a benchmark of cultural beliefs and discourses as related to sustainability at SCU. Her main research questions were: 1. Is sustainability an issue of personal and ethical importance to the community? 2. How does the SCU community define and understand sustainability? 3. What do people think it means to be an environmentalist, do they consider themselves environmentalists? 4. Is there a strong or direct link between institutional programs and the values of the individual? Learn more about the Environmental Ethics Fellowship and read Meghan's paper. http://www.scu.edu/sustainability/education/fellowship.cfm
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SCU renews membership with AASHE─Students, faculty, and staff benefit
SCU recently renewed its membership with AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. All SCU community members are eligible to access AASHE's members only resources. To register, visit www.aashe.org and click on member login.
One of the best ways to keep current on the evolving landscape of campus sustainability is to subscribe to AASHE Bulletin, a weekly compilation of the latest sustainability news, resources, events, and opportunities at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. To subscribe, go to: http://www.aashe.org/archives/bulletin.php.
Part of Campus Sustainability Week Design SCU's Community Garden Create your “ideal” education garden Tues. 10/21 5-6 pm AND Thurs. 10/23 3-4 pm Should All SCU Students Be Vegetarians? Student discussion Thurs. 10/23, 5-6 pm EnviroNews is prepared by Leah Nakasaki. Comments or Suggestions? Send to lnakasaki@scu.edu.
www.scu.edu/envs
Environmental Studies Institute Santa Clara University 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053
Phone: (408) 551-7086 Fax: (408) 554-2312 ESI Email: esi@scu.edu Website: www.scu.edu/envs
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