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.

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.

Appalachian State University Sustainable Development

Interdisciplinary studies has always seemed the way to go to get a good rounded education. It is part of the reason that I chose geography as my "discipline." Geography is the bridging discipline between the arts and sciences and therefore allows study across a wide expanse in order to get closer to the whole story. So when I heard about the interdisciplinary study program - entwined with sustainable development - at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, I was all ears. I found out that though others see it the same as I do, there are still many hurdles to overcome.

A visit to the sustainable development program at Appalachian State University, a beautiful university set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina netted an informative interview with Prof. Cynthia Wood who graciously discussed the integration of sustainable development into the curriculum.

A Visit to Michigan State University

Terry Link is the Sustainability Director at MSU. Here he shares with me what many other universities in Michigan are a part of, Michigan Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (MiHEPS), but unfortunately EMU is not a member. Shouldn't we be? You betcha.

Among the many sustainable project are MSU are

• recycling
• green roofs (they have one)
  
• taking a bio-based waste from a local bio-plastics firm to burn in their power plant
• they have a sustainability report for the campus
  
• Student project involving sustainable ideas
  

The website is www.ecofoot.msu.edu