Roosevelt students — Registration for summer and fall classes is currently underway, so now is a great time to contact your advisor, map out your schedule, and get a spot in the classes you need. Check out the line-up of SUST offerings on the SUST blog for this summer and fall, and click on selected titles below for detailed course previews.
Sustainability Studies courses offered in Summer 2016:
SUST 210 Sustainable Future (online, May 31 – Aug 15, Prof. Pickren)
SUST 390 Writing Urban Nature (Chicago, May 23-27, yours truly)
Sustainability Studies courses offered in Fall 2016:
ACP 101 Our Sustainable Future (MW, 11am-12:15pm, Prof. Bryson)*
SUST 210 Sustainable Future (MW, 11am-12:15pm, Prof. Pickren)
SUST 210 Sustainable Future (8-week online, 8/29-10/21)§
SUST 220 Water (T, 2-4:30pm)
SUST 230 Food (14-week online, 9/12-12/10)
SUST 240 Waste (Th, 2-4:30pm)
SUST 310 Energy & Climate Change (W, 2-4:30pm, Prof. Pickren)
SUST 320 Sprawl (14-week online, 9/12-12/10, Prof. Pickren)
SUST 330 Biodiversity (Field Museum, Th 9am-1pm, Prof. Kerbis)
SUST 330 Biodiversity (8-week online, 10/29-12/17)§
SUST 350 Service & Sustainability (Eden Place Farm, T 12-3pm, Prof. Bryson)
SUST 390 Environmental Literature & Rhetoric (TTh, 12:30-1:45pm, Prof. Cryer)
* First Year Seminars are open to new full-time undergrads with 12 or fewer hours in transfer credit.
§ These 8-week accelerated online courses are open to all students and synced with the Flex-Track adult degree calendar. They may be taken back-to-back during the 16-week semester.
Roosevelt University journalism professor John W. Fountain and nine students in his JOUR 392 Convergence Newsroom class will be in Flint, Michigan, this weekend to report on the Flint water crisis. They’ll also have the opportunity to cover the Democratic candidates’ debate, broadcasting live from Flint on Sunday evening.
To follow along with the students’ experiences, just watch Twitter this weekend for the hashtag #RUinFlint.
For questions or more information, contact Dr. Marian Azzaro, Chair, Department of Communication (mazzaro@roosevelt.edu).
Just as I began a four-week unit on climate change in my SUST 340 Policy, Law, & Ethics course here at Roosevelt (see pdf of syllabus) and in a space of just five days this past week, seismic quakes within the landscape of the US Supreme Court have shaken the nation’s fragile commitment to combating climate change by reducing carbon emissions and underscored the increasingly high political stakes of a tumultuous presidential campaign year.
This map shows which states supported the stay on Obama’s emission restrictions plan for US power plants (in red) and which opposed the stay (yellow). Source: NY Times
As reported this past Wednesday, 10 Feb 2016, by the NY Times, “The Supreme Court’s surprise decision Tuesday to halt the carrying out of President Obama’s climate change regulation could weaken or even imperil the international global warming accord reached with great ceremony in Paris less than two months ago, climate diplomats say” (par. 1).
Journalist Coral Davenport goes on to note that “The court did not block the rule permanently, but halted it from being carried out in the states until legal challenges against it have been decided, a process that could take a year or more. Legal experts said the justices’ decision to stop work on the rule before any court had decided against it was unprecedented and signaled that the regulation might ultimately be overturned. That could set back the United States’ climate efforts for years, although there would still be a chance for Washington to meet its commitments by 2025″ (par. 5).
Then, just a few days after this split 5-4 vote on this unprecedented stay, the Supreme Court was thrown into unexpected uncertainty by the sudden death of its longtime conservative firebrand, Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away on Saturday at age 79, thus immediately igniting a political firestorm over the process for filling the Court’s vacancy within the context of the impending presidential election.
Tuesday we begin our three-week discussion of Naomi Klein’s 2014 book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.
With the already-tempered enthusiasm of the recent Paris climate accord now battered by these latest upheavals on the US political and legal landscape, it’s hard to imagine a more timely and important conversation to be having right now in our universities and communities.
Following up on Roosevelt’s campus-wide strategic sustainability planning effort in 2015, the SUST Program will offer a SUST 390 honors seminar entitled The Sustainable Campus this coming Spring 2016 semester. Taught by SUST Program Director and Professor Mike Bryson, the class will meet at the Chicago Campus on Wednesdays from 2:00 to 4:30pm, and begins January 20th, 2016. Pre-requisites: ENG 102 and Honors standing.
The Sustainable Campus: More than Just a Cool Building
RU’s distinctively blue Wabash Building (constructed 2012), a LEED-gold structure that complements the National Historic Landmark Auditorium Building (foreground) at the downtown Chicago Campus.
What are colleges and universities doing to make themselves more sustainable institutions? How can their efforts serve as laboratories for innovation and models for larger communities, from small college towns to sprawling suburbs to bustling big cities? What have Roosevelt University and other area institutions accomplished the last few years in creating more sustainable campuses, and where are they headed in terms of sustainability planning, operations, academics, and community relations?
This seminar focuses on the microcosm of the university as a lens through view to explore how communities are striving to save energy, conserve water, reduce waste, encourage active transportation, restore biodiversity, foster environmental literacy, develop innovative curricula, and connect with local communities. Seen in this context, the Sustainable Campus is always a work in progress, yet has the capacity to model sustainable development strategies that may be applied to communities large and small (such as the suburb of Schaumburg IL, the focus of the RU student online project, Schaumburg’s Sustainable Future).
SUST students planting trees at Eden Place Nature Center, Chicago’s South Side, 2 Dec 2014 (M. Bryson)
Making the Plan Real
While we will analyze case-studies of other US colleges and universities that are well on the path toward sustainability, this section of SUST 390 will concentrate on Roosevelt’s efforts since 2010 to green its operations and curriculum, which last year included a series of university-wide sustainability planning workshops during the Fall 2014 semester. As a follow-up to the approval of RU’s Strategic Sustainability Plan in Spring 2015 and the submission of RU’s first STARS self-assessment in Fall 2015, our class will undertake several student-led projects to advance the plan’s priority initiatives in its four thematic areas:
RU honors students in SUST 240 Waste conduct a waste audit of RU’s AUD and WB buildings, fall 2014 (M. Bryson)
Energy and Climate
Waste and Natural Resources
Education and Outreach
Economics and Governance
Students in SUST 390 The Sustainable Campus thus will get an in-depth and hands-on perspective on the university’s sustainability efforts and, through their project planning and implementation, make an important and lasting impact in helping the university realize its vision of becoming a more sustainable institution, both inside its walls and throughout its connection with Chicagoland communities.
For more information on this upcoming course, please contact Dr. Mike Bryson via email (mbryson@roosevelt.edu) or phone (312-281-3148).
I would like to extend a warm welcome to my students, advisees, and colleagues to the 2015-16 academic year at Roosevelt. Here’s to an excellent Fall 2015 semester! With the recent migration of the SUST program from RU’s College of Professional Studies to the College of Arts & Sciences, my office has moved a few blocks south on Michigan Avenue, from the Gage Building to the Auditorium Building (AUD 829). As noted on my Contact page, phone and email are the same as ever. Please drop by and say hello when you get a chance. And check out this post from the SUST Blog for what’s ahead this year in our program.
On a lakefront hike with students in ACP 101 Our Sustainable Future, 26 Aug 2015 (photo: E. Choporis)
Happy Earth Day! Here at Roosevelt, we’ve got some great events to mark the day, which I will start with a humble but well-intentioned two-mile bike ride to my train station in Joliet for my morning commute to Chicago, in honor of #RUEarthWeek2015 (pdf). Then, after dutifully putting in a few morning hours in my office, I shall repair to the Wabash Building (425 S. Wabash Ave, downtown Chicago) for these activities:
1-2pm (WB 1317) — Join me on Twitter (@MikeBryson22) for an #RUjusticechat on the relations between campus sustainability efforts and social/environmental justice. You can chat from wherever you are in the world . . . but if you’re in my neck of the woods, stop by WB 1317 for some F2F interaction and home-made cookies!
Still plenty of room in this new one-week-intensive summer course! Pre-session is next Wed., May 6th, at 4:3pm in Gage 218. For more detailed information on my summer intensive course, check out this Writing Urban Nature preview; and share a pdf version of the image above via email.
Last Monday, as a warm 60+ degree (F) day enveloped downtown Chicago in a splendid preview of spring, my students and I hiked from Roosevelt’s Gage Building in the Loop to the lakefront, where we strolled southward to that great edifice of natural history and biodiversity, the Field Museum. Once there, we met up with Carter O’Brien, the Museum’s sustainability manager (who basically created the job over a number of years after spearheading the FMNH’s recycling program). Carter gave us a comprehensive walking tour of the museum’s grounds, community garden, and loading dock.
SUST 210 visits the FMNH with Carter O’Brien (front left), the museum’s sustainability manager (aka “green guru”)
Along with many of staff and researchers at the FMNH, Carter has spearheaded the museum’s efforts to green its practices in energy consumption, waste management, food service, recycling, transportation, exhibit design, and gardening. Despite being an institution dedicated to studying and conserving the world’s rich trove of biodiversity, the Field Museum until recently was not at all sustainable in its own operations, an irony not lost on environmental advocates such as Carter and many of his museum colleagues. Now the FMNH is a recognized leader in transforming old buildings into sustainably-managed facilities, as it recently garnered a LEED Gold rating on its operations and maintenance from the US Green Building Council, only the 2nd existing museum building in the US to do so, and it has just received a $2 million grant to redevelop its grounds within Chicago’s famed Museum Campus in ways that enhance biodiversity, water conservation, and public education.
Carter brought us inside through the seemingly ancient (and surprisingly small) loading dock, thorough a phalanx of heavy doors, narrow passageways, and claustrophobic elevators (all part of the FM’s 19th Century charm), and to the Botany research division, one of the four major research/collections areas of the museum. There we met up with the equally ebullient Dr. Matt Von Konrat, who has many titles at the museum but is best known as an early land plant botanist (which means he studies mosses and liverworts both here and abroad) and the Head of Botanical Collections at the museum.
Dr. Matt Von Konrat in the Botany Collection at the FMNH (photo: M. Wasinka)
Dr. Von Konrat was kind enough to set up a sampling of preserved plant specimens from the Museum’s vast collection, which when arrayed on a huge wooden table represented a journey of 500 million years of land plant evolution. Many of these examples had special significance as type specimens, which are recognized as being archetypal examples of the species that are used for benchmarking certain key identifying characteristics.
Photo: M. Wasinka
One plant, a particularly tiny moss, held special significance in a recent court case about Burr Oak Cemetery scandal in the far South Side Chicago neighborhood of Dunning. Cemetery caretakers dug up several hundred human remains and dumped them in a mass grave in order to sell additional plots in the cemetery over a several year period. The moss was part of forensic evidence analyzed by Dr. Von Konrat that proved the involvement of cemetery employees in this heinous crime. The story illustrates the profoundly important role that environmental evidence can play in forensics, and the potential value in aligning the study of botany (and sustainability) with that of criminal justice.
After both of these splendid tours, my students and I ventured forth into the public area of the museum — its exhibits, naturally! — where we inspected the notable (and LEED Gold certified) conservation exhibit, Restoring Earth, which documents FMNH efforts to conserve natural and human communities in South America as well as restore local prairie, woodland, and wetland ecosystems here in the Chicago region.
RU students paddle the North Branch of the Chicago River, Fall 2012 (M. Bryson)
This May 2015 one-week-intensive section of SUST 390Writing Urban Nature is an environmental literature and writing special topics course distinguished by in-the-field explorations of various natural and urban environments. The class provides a unique immersive experience in “nature close at hand” at sites of ecological and cultural significance in the Chicago region. Strong emphasis on close observing place and people; walking and exploring landscapes and neighborhoods; and reflecting on / discussing compelling ideas, stories, and images of urban nature, broadly defined.
Assigned readings will include selections from May Watts, Reading the Landscape of America; Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac; Joel Greenberg, Of Prairie, Woods, and Water; blogs such as City Creatures and The Nature of Cities; and other texts. The reading list will be distributed well in advance of the class so that students will have time to read ahead prior to the week’s explorations and discussions.
Daily activities will consist of field excursions to sites of interest in Chicago’s urban landscape; discussion of assigned readings; quiet time for personal reflection, journal writing, and photography; and potential service work for local environmental organizations. Students’ daily journal and photo archive will provide material for a personal/critical reflection essay (due one week after the class ends) that incorporates text and image, critically analyzes selections from the course reading list, and reflects on the student’s individual experience in the class. Collectively, the class will produce an online project (“Chicago’s Urban Nature”) as part of the SUST at RU Blog that features creative/reflective writing that reflects upon their experience and incorporates both text and image.
SUST students visit the North Park Village Nature Center, Fall 2012 (M. Bryson)
Potential sites we will explore include Chicago’s lakeshore parklands and public spaces, the Chicago River (on foot and/or by canoe), neighborhood parks of cultural and ecological significance, nature centers on the North and South Sides, selected urban farms within the city, and the natural and industrial lands of the Calumet Region on the far South Side. The week’s schedule is still under development, but the varied locations will give students an opportunity to explore many seldom-seen parts of the city within a unique learning context. Most of these activities will be free, though a small fee may be charged to cover certain trips (e.g., canoe trip on the Chicago River). Public transportation will be used to access most sites. Carpooling options will be discussed at the May 6 pre-session (see below).
Who Should Take this Class
SUST students working at the Eden Place Nature Center on Chicago’s South Side, 2 Dec 2014 (M. Bryson)
SUST 390 Writing Urban Nature is cross-listed with ENG 340 Writing Urban Nature and PLS 371 Humanities Seminar II. SUST majors can take SUST 390 Writing Urban Nature for major credit as a SUST core course, as a Relevant Elective within their major, or as a general elective. Students who have taken a previous version of SUST 390 are eligible to take this version for credit. English majors may use this as an upper-level ENG credit or as an elective course in SUST or ENG. Students in the PLS Flex-Track program may register for PLS 371 for Humanities II credit as an upper-level general education course, or take SUST 390 for elective credit.
Registration Information
SUST 390-X1 Writing Urban Nature — CRN 30666 / Pre-req: ENG 102 with a grade of C- or better
ENG 340-X1 Writing Urban Nature — CRN 30689 / Pre-req: ENG 220 with a grade of C- or better
PLS 371-X1 Humanities Seminar II — CRN 30690 / Pre-req: PLS 370 or concurrent; admission to Flex-Track program for adults or advisor consent
Meets May 18-22 from 10:30am to 5pm at RU’s Chicago Campus. Required pre-session on May 6 from 4:30-6pm, room TBA. Some additional work online required; final assignment due May 29.
For more information, contact Prof. Mike Bryson (mbryson@roosevelt.edu or 312-281-3148).
During the Fall 2014 semester at Roosevelt University, undergraduate students from two of my Sustainability Studies classes — SUST 210 Sustainable Future (online) and 240 Waste & Consumption (honors) — contributed over 30 blog posts on news and topical developments in urban/suburban sustainability in the Chicago region, thus continuing the site’s blogging tradition when we launched the site as a SUST 210 student research project on Earth Day 2011.
In addition, these classes conducted in-depth research on sustainability efforts and waste-related environmental justice issues in several dozen communities, both locally and across the US. The fruits of this research will be posted in coming weeks to the Community Profiles and Environmental Justice sections of this site, so stay tuned for what will be a significant expansion of the SSF website. To date, the Schaumburg’s Sustainable Future (SSF) project includes 163 blog posts and 100 in-depth essays on a wide range of sustainability issues, problems, and solutions. The vast majority of this content is student-authored, which is a cool demonstration of the value of the site as a learning tool and educational resource.
Members of my SUST 240 Waste & Consumption honors seminar (Fall 2014) on a field trip to Canal Origins Park and Bubbly Creek, Chicago IL (Sept 2014)
Roosevelt students — Registration for summer and fall classes is currently underway, so now is a great time to contact your advisor, map out your schedule, and get a spot in the classes you need. Check out the line-up of SUST offerings on the SUST blog for this summer and fall, and click on selected titles below for detailed course previews.
