EMUbikes at EMU

EMUbikes comes on Campus!

After months of storage by students and the help of the Ypsilanti Police Department we moved the first bikes for EMUbikes on campus Thursday.

Student help made this all happen and we should all be proud of these students who care about making EMU a healthier and more sustainable campus. By implementing the program we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, open up parking areas for those who live far from campus, and begin a new realm of possibilities for traveling on campus.

The next step is to attract those who are interested in bicycling to help with maintenance and repair for our spring grand opening. We have a space on campus now to work and are eager to find new recruits to work with us, as well as train those who would like to know more about bikes. Please contact this blog if you have interest is working to make EMUbikes a reality.

We also need to find donors who can help us set up our permanent shop in the spring. We need everything! Tires, tubes, locks, helmets, tools, compressor, bike stands, lubricants, shift cables, work bench, vise, and bike specific tools. Yikes! Anyone who has access or knows of tools available please let us know through this blog. Same if you are interested in making EMU a greener campus and would like to donate money to EMUbikes to purchase this equipment.

It is a small step to being greener, but we are moving in the right direction.

So many bikes! So little money, but we will prevail. Believe.

After the hiatus

One lonely bike awaiting refurbishing for EMUbikes. More to come this week!

Still working on sustainable issues. Really not much has happened at the school, but there are some hopeful signs.

EMUbikes seems to be taking shape, and people are riding more bikes generally on campus. We need more bike racks! There is hope as students begin to find the way to sustainability.

We actually got some temporary space last week. the photo is of my bike holding down the fort until we can get transport to transfer the bikes in Jen's yard and at Ypsi police to the space. Then learning how to fix bikes. I have learned a little over the past few weeks, but a long way to go, and a lot to learn. It is hard when we have such limited time and funds. We might have some interested alumni funds, but first I have to make a business plan, and I just don't have that much spare time to first learn what a business plan is, and then to actually write it. But if you want something done, give it to a busy person.

Sustainable development and EMUbikes

Not many people ride bikes at EMU, and sometimes the weather is less than favorable. We can't change the weather (or are we doing it- climate change?) but we can bring bikes to EMU

The sustainable development class was amazing. For the first time many of us who felt like the proverbial fish out of water found others who cared about what is happening on campus, in the world. And as all wanted to do, we are doing something about it.

I began the class with a call to revolution. EMU could not stay the way it was. We could do something about it. Well, maybe we didn't overturn the school, but we have met a lot of interested parties on campus who care about changing the world and our campus, and along the way we came up with a few ideas of things we could do to mark our tenure at the school and in our class. And from this has come our contribution, EMUbikes.

Several students have supported the idea by going to meetings, researching what needs to be done in order to make our dream a reality - bring bikes on to campus for use by all. Right now we are seeking facilities for the program. We have several possibilities that are being studied now. We have several bikes that have been donated and many more coming soon. We will need though some equipment, accessories, and people to work in the maintenance shop. Volunteers accepted!

The other project that students strongly support and we have heard some support from faculty too is a garden, specifically a hoop garden that will grow vegetables 10 out of 12 months a year. This one is going to required more money, but if we start now, we can get this as well. At least the ball has started to roll. But one thing at a time. Let's get EMUbikes rolling and then we can move on to a garden and serving the food on campus. Local food!

Things go crazy

It has been a long time. A lot has happened. The time has gone very quickly and at times crazy. With 4 full classes (including the first sustainable development class) and the completion of a book, well, there has been little free time.

I have not entered anything new, not because nothing was happening, but because too much was happening. Good stuff.

1. I completed the final draft of my book of a sustainable geography of the US and Canada. This took most of my time between the last blog entry and now. It was a hard core anxiety ridden deadline that had to be met, and with far too much work for one person to do. fortunately at the last minute (in relation to the 5+ years working alone with no support) several students came to my rescue. God bless them.

2. The sustainable development class began with the new year, and it has been a refreshing look at the beliefs of a new group growing at our school and within Michigan. They have heartened me immensely.

3. Sustainable development has taken root in several other places on campus. Among them are a group out of the business department aiming for a sustainability center, a resolution before the faculty council to identify and begin corrections of sustainability on campus. There are many professors who are also embracing sustainability, but still no vision to hold them together. i guess there will be more on that in future entries, but it seems that perhaps sustainability is at last taking hold on campus. Though we are still not a part of AASHE, perhaps that is soon to come. There is hope.

New President at EMU - Sustainable a +

They have just posted the first ad for our new president at EMU. Same old, same old.

I have now traveled to many schools and interviewed people at forward and progressive schools that see what the future is - a positive future - one of the main features these schools have is a President who supports sustainability. The faculty and staff speak proudly of their president - the support, the care, the commitment to making their school shine.

Why can't this happen at EMU? Yes, I know we have many a problem, but why not wipe the slate clean of that past, and step into the future, oh, it isn't the future anymore, but the present? Seek a president who believes in sustainability, and give the students a boost, give Michigan, and of course, EMU something to strive for - teaching our students to live in their future. Giving them the tools to make this a better world. With so many other schools preparing their students, why should they have a leg up and our students not at least hear what this all about, and why it is so important for their future?

And so I leave today with a list of issues that our new"sustainable" president should sponsor.
First of all, the ad should change, and focus on the 3 legs of sustainability

• Environment: healthier ecosystems
• Social: social justice
• Economy: stronger economies

The President of EMU should be someone we can be proud of and trust. Someone who believes that sustainability should be a part of:

• Our mission
• Curricula
• Student life
• Research
  
• Facilities
• Purchasing and investments
• Legislative efforts
• Informing the public
• Community Partnerships
• Professional Development

Who can be against such things?
No one.
Then sustainability should be a requirement in our search.

AASHE Executive Director, Tom Kimmerer

It has been a long time coming getting this video up, but things are moving pretty fast right now. My book on a Sustainable US and Canada is in the final draft stage and I am focused on getting this little bit of sustainability to light. Plus!!! The Sustainable development class is a go and I still have lots of work to make this an excellent class for the our student's future.

We were in a hot and humid Lexington, Kentucky in June this year. Tom Kimmerer, who just came aboard AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) in February, kindly submitted to my questions about AASHE, even though he had just come in from riding his bike and didn't realize we would be filming. Sorry about that! But he was gracious and willing to go ahead an educate me and now you as to what AASHE is and its mission.

EMU is not a member of AASHE, but for $1500 a year we could be and share what 300 other schools are doing to make education and our future a better place. I did ask if they took individual memberships but they do not. So its all or nothing EMU! I vote for all.

A Sustainable EMU?

Things are beginning to happen here at EMU. More student and faculty are realizing that we are on the brink of something new and that it is time for the school to be a part of it. The work is far from done, but soon, if we are lucky there will be a resolution given to the administrators to recognize sustainability issues and to create a committee to identify the issues and do something about them. I still think an environmental audit is the first step, and maybe it will actually come to be. Other faculty have been supportive and are doing "Robert's Rules of Order" things that I prefer not to get involved in. I am so happy that they care enough to push in ways that I do not. Let EMU get the message from all angles!

There is slowly building a mass of students willing to take the "Sustainable Development" course that I will be offering next semester. It will be the first time such a course is available at the school, and I am working hard to put together a worthy course to educate those who can see this future, or at least want to understand it.

That is all for now. I have a great deal of work to do, but thought I would relate the positive actions happening on our campus.