Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2004)
University urged to improve its sustainability measures Three speakers discussed the importance of sustainability programs on campuses nationwide BY JON ITKIN FREELANCE REPORTER Three influential figures in the world of environmental issues spoke at the University on Thurs day night as part of “campus sus tainability month.” Will Toor, the mayor of Boulder, Colo., director of the University of Colorado Environmental Center and a doctor of physics, spoke about successes other colleges have had in reducing their environ mental impact. He said there is a myth on some campuses that the sustainability movement is a “spe cial interest” and not an interdisci plinary problem. Toor said the vast majority of sustainability programs are gen erated at the local and state levels, and within communities them selves. “Right now there is a leadership vacuum in the federal government. They are not paying attention to sustainability issues,” he said. Toor cited global climate change, the approaching end of the “oil age” and the decline of natural ecosystems as the main reasons why sustainability is a necessary concept. Implementing these programs not only improves quality of life, it also makes a campus more at tractive, more successful as a place of learning and more financially sound, he said. He used examples of schools that have constructed buildings to optimize energy use and save money on heating and electricity costs. Some schools have added small student fees to generate mon ey for wind and solar power. Oth ers have increased parking fees while rewarding faculty members who don’t buy parking passes, Toor said. The University of Colorado at Boulder, the California university system, the New Jersey university system, Lewis and Clark College and Oberlin College have all made major changes to make their oper ating systems more sustainable, Toor said. Associate Professor Bob Doppelt spoke about using a “systems ap proach” to sustainable thinking. Using colorful illustrations and graphs, Doppelt said too often peo ple employ a "quick fix” mentality on sustainability issues, thinking that scattered, small efforts are solving the problem. Doppelt said the best way to deal with these issues is to consider the connections between issues across time and space. “Martin Luther King said, ‘1 have a dream.’ He didn’t say ‘1 have a strategic plan.’” he said. Doppelt said incorporating sus tainability into the curriculum, research and public service is the best way the way to address the is sue at the University. Fie is teach ing a course on systems thinking next semester. Joshua Skov, the third and final speaker, is the research director at Good Company, a local firm that consults large institutions on sus tainability issues. He said society needs to shift away from antiquated “big ideas” and toward a new way of thinking. He said citizens need to reclaim shared areas in the world, such as natural resources, the . broadcast spectrum and scientific research — that they need to address problems when there is a clear, if unproven, threat to humanity, and that they need to recognize the benefits of healthy ecosystems. Skov cited a study that valued ecosystem-related services at $33 trillion in 1997. “If something is irreplaceable, maybe (a dollar amount) doesn’t have much meaning,” he said. The three speakers took ques tions. Heidi Richterich, an environ mental studies major, said she was interested in the simple methods the speakers suggested to fund sus tainability programs. “It’s remarkable how you can do little things, how Lewis and Clark raised fees a little bit to create pro grams that help in the long term,” she said. Jon Itkin is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald POP OPEN A COLD ONE. (THEN HEAT IT.) tt&r * *** IT FILLS YOU UP «•*<*¥«« ^ p ^ ^ ^ ^ A11 Y F P R /\ l 0 your iTT-d-ependent student newspaper JE_ Danielle Hickey | Photo editor Tia Dumas, academic adviser of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, helps herself to a plate of food at the Weaving New Beginnings event on Thursday evening in the EMU Ballroom, which celebrated multicultural diversity. Education: Expert argues desegregation not complete Continued from page 1 and open their doors to children of all races. Though the decision is most often associated with schoolchildren, it had direct legal implications for public institutions of higher educa tion as well. Brown v. Board of Education expert Raymond T. Diamond, who is the keynote speaker at the convo cation, said there were at least 17 states that mandated racial seg regation in institutions of higher ed ucation before the Brown case. They too were required to allow people of all colors to apply to their institutions. However, he added that the goal of desegregating public education has not been reached. “Education in this country is not by and large desegregated at the ele mentary and secondary level,” said Diamond, who is also a research pro fessor of law at Tblane University. Hallock said much of this segrega tion occurs because “living patterns have become segregated.” Some have similar criticisms of in stitutions of higher education. Fresh man Jontae Grace said he didn’t feel the goals of Brown had been reached at the University. “I feel that we’re progressing but that we have a long way to go,” he said. “We need more students of color.” “The legal equality is intact, but the social equality hasn’t progressed as much as people would have thought," said University philoso phy professor Naomi Zack, who will participate in the panel discus sion today. “One remedy for that is affirmative action.” Affirmative action has been an issue of controversy, especially with the recent Supreme Court cases involving the University of Michigan. “(Affirmative action) tries to ad dress institutional equality, which is the fact that people are not equally prepared (for college),” Zack said. Freshman Josue Pena said the is sue of affirmative action is a diffi cult one. “It has a lot of good points, but some people think it’s unfair,” he said. Zack said the fairness of stan dardized tests used in college admissions has also come under fire, with many claiming the tests are biased against students outside the mainstream, white, middle-class culture. “We’ve heard for years that the tests are biased,” she said. She added that one study found that students of color actually did better than white students on difficult SAT questions because they did not contain words from the white main stream lexicon. “(Students of color) do worse on the easy questions because the pre vailing words on the easy questions are going to come out of the main stream white society,” she said. While part of the event will exam ine the shortfalls of the Brown deci sion, it will also celebrate the great strides that were made in public edu cation because of the decision. Diamond said the landmark deci sion ultimately, “disestablished a sys tem of racial caste in the country.” Pena said he feels the decision opened up huge opportunities for himself and other students of color. “I think it’s definitely the reason I’m in college now as a student of col or,” he said. moriahbalingit@dailyemerald.com
