No one was prepared for how fast the world changed. Most of us were just expecting that it wouldn’t reach us. We went about our lives and hoped for the best. Then our world was turned upside down. uncertainty swept the globe and higher academia was no exception.
At Bucknell, we are committed to serving our students with the best education that we possibly can. This includes research intensive and hands-on courses. So where did that leave us in the face of the pandemic? In a tough spot to say the least. But our faculty, staff and students rose to the occasion.
One of these classes was ENST212/UNIV215: “Stream Ecology and Restoration: The Science Behind Fly Fishing” taught by Matthew Higgins, Katie Billie, and the BCSE’s Benjamin Hayes and Sean Reese. Benjamin Hayes noted the challenges and payoffs stating,
The COVID crises hit just as the outdoor labs began and I thought it impossible for the students to feel satisfied with completing a field intensive course remotely. But it turned out to be fun making in-the-stream and underwater videos for them and they seemed grateful for the effort.
Like many across the university, they had to get creative. And their hard work paid off. The class was a success. Here are some highlights on the class and what it was all about…
We want to congratulate all of the students, the faculty, and staff across campus for their flexibility, their ability to adapt quickly, and their outstanding work in such unprecedented circumstances. Here’s to a brighter future ahead.
On Thursday, April 24th, the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC) announced the recipient’s of the 2020 Campus Sustainability Champion Award. “This award is given to students, faculty, administrators, and staff of PA colleges and universities who’ve made meaningful contributions benefiting social, economic and/or environmental sustainability on their campus, in their community, or in society at large.”
And the winners are…
Professor Mark Spiro:Professor of Biology at Bucknell
“Mark Spiro has been active in Bucknell’s sustainability efforts for two decades. In addition to teaching Biology 150, “Plants, People, and the Environment,” he co-led the Landscape group for the 2008 Campus Greening Report and co-founded the Bucknell Arboretum project, which he has co-directed since. These efforts created a highly impactful collaboration between faculty, staff, and students that has helped the campus landscape become more biodiverse and sustainable. He also played a leadership role in establishing the Lewisburg Community Garden, a university-town collaboration that, among other things, provided opportunities for local residents to have their own gardens, run a summer camp for children, co-hosted Community Harvest, a weekly hot meal program, and provided thousands of pounds of fresh produce to local food banks. More recently, Mark spearheaded an effort to establish a campus farm for teaching and campus food production. After years of planning and organizing, the farm was finally established in 2018 as a five acre living laboratory. Over 800 students in 32 classes visited the farm in its first year to learn about regenerative agriculture, soil carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and other sustainability-related topics.” ~ Pagreencolleges.org
Professor Neil Boyd:Professor of Management at Bucknell & BCSE Faculty Steering Committee member
“Neil Boyd has been an ardent supporter of sustainability for many years. He was the inaugural faculty sustainability director at Lycoming College, where he championed changes in campus culture, created an interdisciplinary minor in sustainability, and developed sustainable management courses in the Business Administration program. At Bucknell, Neil is a member of the President’s Sustainability Council, and he led the process for the Freeman College of Management to become a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education. As the PRME Coordinator he led strategic sustainability planning efforts, and he continues to help stimulate environmental and social sustainability curricula and cultures within the College. Neil serves as an advisory board member for the Bucknell Center for Sustainability and the Environment, and he helped to develop the Coal Region Field Station that promotes pedagogy, scholarship, and service for social change in several municipalities in the lower anthracite region. Neil has supported additional efforts to grow civic engagement in the classroom and at the University, and he has published extensively on social and environmental sustainability topics in the fields of management, public management, and community psychology.” ~ Pagreencolleges.org
Ashley Vecchio ’20:Managing for Sustainability Student & student intern for the Office of Campus Sustainability at Bucknell
“Ashley Vecchio, a senior Managing for Sustainability major, demonstrates excellent leadership, drive and commitment in coordinating students, faculty and staff involvement on campus sustainability activities. She has unwavering motivation and dedication to planning and implementing sustainability events. She was responsible for a successful “Sustainable Move Out” event that helped in the diversion of over 15 tons of solid waste from the landfill in 2019. In 2020, Ashley successfully coordinated the planning and implementation of a campus wide, student-led sustainability innovation competition, “the Green Tank,” where groups of students self-organized and used real campus data to create project pitches for promoting campus environmental sustainability. This competition was sanctioned by Bucknell University through the administration’s commitment of using capital from the Green Fund to finance the winning projects. As a senior intern with the Office of Campus Sustainability, Ashley demonstrated leadership by supporting fellow students in delivering their expected results in advocating for sustainable behaviors on campus. She is a team player that delivers on her assigned individual and collective performance targets. She is also a student member of the President’s Sustainability Council (PSC). The PSC has the overall executive leadership responsibility and oversight of sustainability at Bucknell.” ~ Pagreencolleges.org
Each of these individuals have demonstrated, through their work, a strong dedication to advance sustainability on their campus and/or in their communities. The Bucknell Center for Sustainability & the Environment is pleased to congratulate them on their esteemed accomplishments and efforts in sustainability and look forward to their work in the future.
Prospective college students have a plethora of options in choosing a their higher education institution and there are many factors that weigh in on that decision. The most basic of these are of course probability of acceptance based on their grades, the availability of chosen programs and majors, and of course an ever-increasing worry of cost. But how do students factor in an institution’s commitment to green initiatives, if at all?
The Need for Green
The world’s climate and sustainability issues have steadily been coming to light. Awareness of these issues and the need for solutions is increasing each year. With corporate conglomerates, small businesses, and government entities making changes toward being “green”, it’s obvious that higher education would need to adapt as well. In 2006, Arizona State University opened the first School of Sustainability in the country, offering Undergraduate and Graduate degrees in Sustainability-related career fields. Many colleges and universities followed suit and began not only offering sustainability career choices, but making strides toward a greener campus. In 2007, Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT was the first college in the nation to be named an EPA Energy Star campus. As per their Sustainability 2020 plan, they are also aiming to “adopt 100% renewable energy and reach climate neutrality by the end of the decade.”
Each generation of high school seniors is more aware of the issues at hand and being part of the solution has become a trending core value. Among the many factors weighed in their choice of college, a college’s commitment to sustainability and green initiatives has become one of them. But just how much has this affected their choice?
Just the Facts
Since 2003, The Princeton Review’s College Hopes & Worries Survey has been vital in gathering information annually to identify the main hopes and concerns about college from students and parents alike. In 2008, The Princeton Review found the need to also identify the impact of green initiatives on college decisions and so added an additional question: “If you (your child) had a way to compare colleges based on their commitment to environmental “green” issues (e.g. practices concerning energy use, recycling, etc., or academic offerings), how much would this contribute to your (your child’s) decision to apply to or attend a school?“.
In that year, they surveyed a total of 10,388 people (8,776 students and 1,612 parents). A whopping 63% said they would “value having information regarding a college’s commitment to the environment and that it might impact their decision to apply to or attend the school.” Of that 63%, 23% said “this information would “strongly” or “very much” contribute to decisions about which schools to apply to or attend.”
Fast forward to the 2019 Survey and the trend is clearly increasing. Although they surveyed less people compared to 2008 (11,900 total/ 9,282 students/ 2,618 parents) the numbers showed that this is an important factor in the decision of what college to go to.
A majority (64%) of respondents said having information about a college’s commitment to environmental issues would contribute to their application decisions with 23% indicating it would contribute Strongly.
The Princeton Review’s 2019 College Hopes & Worries Survey Report
Numbers don’t lie and it’s obvious that green initiatives in relation to college choice is at a steady incline. I predict that it will only continue to climb in the next 10 years as colleges and universities start delivering on their carbon neutrality and sustainability plans and as more sustainable technology becomes available with a better return on investment.
For the second year, the Bucknell Center for Sustainability & the Environment has been fortunate to have an AmeriCorps VISTA housed in our Place Studies Program in support of the Coal Region Field Station to help take action in Coal Region communities that face food insecurity, poverty, and economic challenges.
What is the AmeriCorps VISTA Program?
AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs, made up of three primary programs that each take a different approach to improving lives and fostering civic engagement. Members commit their time to address critical community needs like increasing academic achievement, mentoring youth, fighting poverty, sustaining national parks, preparing for disasters, and more.”
The goal of the Growing Change VISTA program is to foster healthy futures through building community capacity for initiatives that promote local food security and access in the Mount Carmel and Shamokin areas. The VISTA’s role is to develop effective strategies for building and sustaining community capacity in local food access and education initiatives that involve young people, working with the support of the Mother Maria Kaupas Center and Anthracite Region for Progress (ARP), while also creating and building upon opportunities for Bucknell faculty and student involvement in the related initiatives. Projects include supporting and growing community gardening and related partnerships, strengthening food pantry networks, and related programming, such as nutrition education, in the Mount Carmel and Shamokin areas.
Passing the Torch
Hannah Buckley, who made great strides with the Mount Carmel Community Garden, food pantries in the Coal Region, and the schools in the region, was succeeded by our newest VISTA, Mathew Santa on July 22, 2019. You can find Hannah’s work HERE.
Matt Santa and Hannah Buckley in front of the new garden beds built under Hannah’s leadership to expand the Mount Carmel Community Garden. Hannah passes the proverbial torch.
Matt is a recent graduate of Susquehanna University and hit the ground running with a tour of sites and meeting some community partners in Mount Carmel and Shamokin. Since then, Matt has done work with the Mount Carmel Community Garden, the Mount Carmel School District, and several Shamokin food pantries. Just some of the work he’s done includes:
Mount Carmel Community Garden
Working towards creating and implementing a garden committee.
Developing possible collaborations and projects with the Mount Carmel after-school program.
Mount Carmel School District
Collaborating with Pete Cheddar, Superintendent and former school Principal, on the possibility of applying for various recycling grants.
Shamokin Food Pantries
Following up on what Hannah established in the previous year and continuing the quarterly Shamokin/Coal Township Food Resource Collaboration Meetings, involving various organizations including food pantries, CSO (Central Susquehanna Opportunities), and the United Way to collaborate and share ideas and solutions to various issues that each organization may be facing.
From these meetings, a brochure was created listing information about various food resources for those in need.
In his dedication to his work, Matt Santa and Place Studies Program Director, Dr. Shaunna Barnhart attended the CCNYPA Fall Workshop at the University of Scranton on October 3rd. The Workshop brings together VISTA members, supervisors, and community partners from across Pennsylvania and New York to learn more about the breadth of projects underway and discuss ways to strengthen and grow project work going forward.
Professor Shaunna Barnhart and Matt Santa at the CCNYPA Fall Workshop at Scranton University.
There is much more work to be done, increasing positive change and gaining traction in the coming months. With the dedication of VISTA, Matt Santa, Place Studies Program Director, Shaunna Barnhart, and our community partners and volunteers, a positive impact is sure to come and change is on the horizon.
