Category: Health

Apply for REU Fellowships for Summer 2025

Hey RU students — especially SUST majors and minors . . .

The annual Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has literally hundreds of PAID summer research fellowships in the US that you can search for and apply to. These are well-compensated and you learn a ton doing one of these fellowships as a rising junior or senior.

This REU database is searchable by geographic region, general research area, and keyword. When I did a simple search for “sustainability” I got 50 hits. Check it out!

If you’re wondering, “Have any recent SUST majors got one of these awesome fellowships?” — the answer is yes. Here’s a cool post by Kiera Carpenter (BA in SUST ’24) who completed one of these REUs at the Chgo Botanic Garden in the summer of 2023.

Remember, you can’t get one of these gigs unless you apply!

RU Students: SGA Mental Health Referendum Vote Extended thru Th 4/25!

Important Earth Week Update — Voting Period Extended! This Th 4/25 is the LAST DAY for RU students to vote on the Mental Health Referendum (ending at midnight) and the SGA needs 400 or so votes (yes or no, just total votes cast) for the referendum tally to count. About 120 more votes are needed by the end of Thursday 4/25!

Message from Roosevelt’s Student Government Association:

Dear RU students — The Student Government Association (SGA) would like to inform you about an important re-vote of the upcoming Mental Health Referendum and Student Government Executive Board election for fall 2024!

SGA is proposing a referendum to introduce a $150 per semester fee aimed at expanding face-to-face mental health and physical support services on campus. This fee will be used exclusively to bolster existing mental healthresources and create a more comprehensive and accessible support system for all students.

To vote please see Laker Connect — this link takes you to a page where this is a link for voting on this referendum.

  • Voting Yes for this referendum will create a new in-person counseling center at Roosevelt University for the Fall 2024 semester. This includes up to 12 counseling sessions (in-person or virtual) with the same mental healthprovider and expanding services (in the future) to include physical healthservices on campus. This will include increasing counseling fees from $27 a semester to $150 for full in-person counseling services per semester.
  • Voting No on this referendum will mean no new counseling services, and the current mental health resources will remain the same including TimelyCare. This means that your counseling fees will remain at $27 with only digital resources.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to the SGA leadership:
Olivia Van De Ven (ovandeven@mail.roosevelt.edu)
Madeline LaFrombois (mlafrombois@mail.roosevelt.edu)

Vote and make your voice heard!

The Joseph Loundy 2022 Human Rights Symposium @RU: History, Health, & Sustainability (this Wed 11/30)

When we look to history, there is much to be learned about human rights. We may find that local and global movements were born from particular events — often traumatic, and with great political, health and environmental impacts. Can the past inspire change for the future through activism and advocacy?

Please join the Roosevelt University community for the Joseph Loundy Human Rights Project’s 2022 Symposium and Luncheon on Wed 11/30 from 11am to 1pm in WB 418 at RU’s Chicago Campus. Distinguished guest panelists will explore the intersection of history, health policy and environmental sustainability, and how each individually and collectively can promote human rights and social justice.

Students will also present work from three related courses in RU’s College of Arts & Sciences: Public Health Issues and Ideas, taught by professor La Vonne Downey; Service and Sustainability, led by professor Mike Bryson; and Transatlantic Perspectives: Representing History and Trauma, co-taught by professors Margaret Rung (RU) and Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld (Tilburg University, the Netherlands).

Featured Distinguished Panelists:

  • Mike Beard, global health director for the Better World Campaign
  • Diana Sierra Becerra, assistant professor of history at University of Massachusetts Amhurst
  • Gina Ramirez, Midwest outreach leader for the Natural Resources Defense Council, board president of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, and RU alum (MA Sociology ’14)

SUST 350 Service & Sustainability Student Team: “2022 Strategic Sustainability Planning @RooseveltU”

  • Kiera Carpenter, SUST junior
  • Sophia Gallo, SOC senior
  • Kayla Nelson, PSYC senior

This event is free! RSVP here for the symposium and lunch: https://alumni-giving.roosevelt.edu/loundy-project-2022-symposium

Can’t attend in person? Join in the conversation on the livestream via Zoom!

7/31 Update on Covid-19 & Fall 2020 Planning @RooseveltU

Roosevelt University’s Coronavirus (Covid-19) Emergence Response website provides the university community with up-to-date information about this rapidly changing situation. This includes a helpful section on Learning and Working Remotely for students and faculty. Please check this site frequently for new information on classes and campus operations. RU students also should check their student email accounts frequently for announcements from the university as well as their professors.

7/27/20 Weekly Recap: please read this info posted on 7/31/20 for Covid-19 related info on RU’s upcoming Fall 2020 semester.

COVID-19 Website Update

Updated quarantine guidance along with updated FAQs were posted to the COVID-19 website. Please keep in mind there are still many unknowns and the information is subject to change given the current state of public health.

Fall 2020 Athletic Competitions Postponed

Earlier this week, Roosevelt University announced its postponement of 2020 fall sport intercollegiate athletic competitions as the result of ongoing public health concerns related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Roosevelt will begin work immediately to plan the resumption of competition in those impacted sport programs during the 2021 spring academic semester. Read More

Return to Campus Information Session Recordings

Thank you to all the members of the Roosevelt community who attended our Return to Campus Information Sessions. If you were unable to attend, please view the recordings below:

Upcoming Return to Campus Information Sessions and Discussions

Current Students, Campus Life and Residence Life
Hosted by Jamar Orr, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Wednesday, August 5 at 12 p.m. CDT
For current students and family
Click here to RSVP

Human Resources Protocols and Procedures
Hosted by Toyia K. Stewart, Vice President for Human Resources
Thursday, August 6 at 10 a.m. CDT
For Roosevelt faculty and staff
Click here to RSVP

Stay in Touch. Update Your Contact Info.

We want to make sure you are receiving important updates from Roosevelt. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure your contact information is up to date by submitting this form.

Kind Regards,
Roosevelt COVID-19 Response Team

covid19info@roosevelt.edu
Roosevelt COVID-19 Website

Remote Participation Guide for Students @RU

Roosevelt University has created a Coronavirus (Covid-19) Emergence Response website to provide the university community with up-to-date information about this rapidly changing situation. This includes a helpful Student Remote Participation Guide. Please check this site frequently for new information on classes and campus operations. RU students also should check their student email accounts frequently for announcements from the university as well as their professors. All Spring 2020 classes are fully online format for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester.

Students — I hope this note finds you healthy and safe, whether in your home or your RU dorm room. Please continue to take care of yourself and your loved ones during this pandemic crisis. I know keeping up with your classes is a difficult challenge to face on top of everything else. Do your best, but also reach out to your profs if you need help, have questions about the course, or seek flexibility with an assignment due date.

In the meantime — hang in there, get your rest, eat well, stay in as much as possible (except for healthful walks, as you can manage), and do your best to adapt to this strange and disconcerting new reality. I’m (virtually) right there with you, working from my home office at Chez Bryson in Joliet IL, and tending to my own family during this difficult time. If you need help with your studies, internet access, academic advising, etc., please see RU’s Student Remote Participation Guide and other Services on the Covid-19 Response site.

Sincerely,
Prof B

A Note to Students / RU Updates on Covid-19

Roosevelt University has created a Coronavirus (Covid-19) Emergence Response website to provide the university community with up-to-date information about this rapidly changing situation. Please check it frequently for new information on classes and campus operations. RU students should check their student email accounts frequently for announcements from the university as well as their professors. All Spring 2020 classes will resume in fully online format on 3/23.

To my students:

I hope this note finds you healthy and safe, whether in your home or your RU dorm room. Much has changed in these last two+ anxiety-riddled weeks. I’m sure you’ve been checking your RU email and following the university’s Emergency Response Site to get the latest updates on what’s happing at Roosevelt. Please continue to do so — but more importantly, take care of yourself and your loved ones during this pandemic crisis.

I want you to know that I recognize that this is a very stressful and uncertain time for all of us, and I will endeavor to be flexible as the rest of our semester continues. All RU classes are scheduled to recommence online this coming Monday, 3/23. While for many classes this will entail significant and somewhat inconvenient changes, as well as unexpected challenges, I am fully confident that in our SUST 101, 220, and 340 courses we will have a rich learning experience for the remainder of our course.

Today I simply wanted to check in with you, send you general words of encouragement, and invite you to email me questions if you have them. I will also set up “Water Cooler” discussion forums in all my Bb sites for general conversation and course-related questions for each class.We will endeavor to create and maintain a sense of community online as best we can.

In the meantime — hang in there, get your rest, eat well, stay in as much as possible (except for healthful walks, as you can manage), and do your best to adapt to this strange and disconcerting new reality. I’ll be (virtually) right there with you, working from my home office at Chez Bryson in Joliet IL, and tending to my own family during this difficult time. If you need help with your studies, internet access, academic advising, etc., please see RU’s Student Remote Participation Guide and other Services on the Covid-19 Response site.

Sincerely,
Prof B

The following is quoted directly from the latest post on the RU coronoavirus site, as of 3:24pm on 20 March 2020.

Dear Roosevelt Community,

Today [Friday 3/20] at 3:00pm Governor Pritzker has issued a ‘Stay At Home’ order for Illinois residents effective Saturday, March 21 at 5pm through Tuesday, April 7.  Keep in mind, while this is a serious mandate to protect ourselves, families, friends, neighbors and fellow citizens, residents can still go to the grocery stores and pharmacies and put gas in their cars.  All local roads, including interstate highways and tollways will remain open to traffic.

Illinois’s Stay At Home Order

The order allows the following to remain open:

  • Essential services to continue: healthcare operations, grocery stores, food banks, convenience stores and other establishments engaged in retail sale of canned food, dry goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, pet supply, fresh meats, fish and poultry, and other household consumer products
  • Operation of gas stations, auto supply and repair businesses
  • Banks and other financial institutions
  • Hardware stores
  • Restaurants that serve food only for deliver and carry-out
  • Home-based care for seniors, adults and children
  • Laundromats, drycleaners
  • Mailing and shipping services and other

Social Distancing at Roosevelt

Here at Roosevelt we have already been taking those steps by practicing all forms of social distancing, including by moving classes online and providing students with guidance and resources around maintaining their coursework while not in the classroom. In an abundance of caution and social responsibility, we have also canceled or rescheduled a number of scheduled events.

Now that the stay at home order is in effect, we write to provide you with information regarding services and resources that will continue to be available at Roosevelt.

Students in Residence Halls

  • The Wabash Building and the University Center remain open and accessible for all residential students. If you have not notified the office of residence life that you intend to remain in the halls, please do so immediately by emailing reslife@roosevelt.edu.
  • The dining center in both buildings will remain open.
  • Only essential residence life, building maintenance and campus security staff will remain on campus.
  • For a full list of student services that remain available via phone or online, please visit the COVID-19 website.

Classes

  • There will no longer be scheduled in-person classes. All classes will be held online.  Please check Blackboard, your email, and the COVID-19 website for updates.  As previously communicated, online classes will begin as scheduled on Monday, March 23rd.
  • Roosevelt has 24 hour/7 day a week technology support. Go to roosevelt.edu/helpdesk and if you are unable to resolve the issue through knowledge base, you can submit a ticket or call 312.341.HELP (4357).  For Blackboard and Zoom related help email blackboardhelp@rooesvelt.edu.

Payroll

  • Payroll for faculty, administrators and staff will continue to process, as scheduled, and will be paid by direct deposit. If you do not have a direct deposit form on file, please contact Heather Williams at hwilliams15@roosevelt.edu
  • Direct deposit is strongly encouraged and those who have not established direct deposit could experience lengthy delays in getting paid.

Campus Facilities

  • All university buildings and offices are closed, or moving fully online, until further notice, with the exception of the following: campus safety, office of residence life, dining services and university facilities.

What we know today is that we will continue to make decisions in order to keep our community safe and healthy during this local state of emergency.  We will keep you updated on the impact this mandate has on our community as we get the information.

Please continue to visit this site for all the information, updates and resources and email us at COVID19info@roosevelt.edu if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Ali R. Malekzadeh, Ph.D.
President

Lois Becker, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

#RUinFlint this Weekend

JohnWFountainRoosevelt 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).

New Book on Rachel Carson by Robert Musil

Rachel Carson and her Sisters coverThis looks to be an excellent new book on Rachel Carson and many other women scientist/writers/activists who have profoundly shaped environmental discourse and policy in the US. Notably included here is Sandra Steingraber, who recently spoke at Roosevelt University during the Great Lakes Bioneers conference on Nov. 1st. As the book’s website from Rutgers University Press notes:

In Rachel Carson and Her Sisters, Robert K. Musil redefines the achievements and legacy of environmental pioneer and scientist Rachel Carson, linking her work to a wide network of American women activists and writers and introducing her to a new, contemporary audience. Rachel Carson was the first American to combine two longstanding, but separate strands of American environmentalism—the love of nature and a concern for human health. Widely known for her 1962 best-seller, Silent Spring, Carson is today often perceived as a solitary “great woman,” whose work single-handedly launched a modern environmental movement. But as Musil demonstrates, Carson’s life’s work drew upon and was supported by already existing movements, many led by women, in conservation and public health.

On the fiftieth anniversary of her death, this book helps underscore Carson’s enduring environmental legacy and brings to life the achievements of women writers and advocates, such as Ellen Swallow Richards, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Terry Tempest Williams, Sandra Steingraber, Devra Davis, and Theo Colborn, all of whom overcame obstacles to build and lead the modern American environmental movement.

Contents:

1 Have You Seen the Robins? Rachel Carson’s Mother and the Tradition of Women Naturalists

2 Don’t Harm the People: Ellen Swallow Richards, Dr. Alice Hamilton, and Their Heirs Take On Polluting Industries

3 Rachel and Her Sisters: Rachel Carson Did Not Act Alone

4 Rachel Carson, Terry Tempest Williams, and Ecological Empathy

5 The Environment Around Us and Inside Us: Ellen Swallow Richards, Silent Spring, and Sandra Steingraber

6 Rachel Carson, Devra Davis, Pollution, and Public Policy

7 Rachel Carson and Theo Colborn: Endocrine Disruption and Public Policy

Epilogue

Love Canal: a Still Unfolding Legacy of a Toxic Waste Community Disaster

Love Canal barrels of wasteThis week the New York Times features a “retro report” on Love Canal, one of the most infamous environmental disasters in US history and the incident that spurred the creation of the EPA’s Superfund program.

Far from a closed book, the legacy and implications of Love Canal are still playing out. Of great significance in the history of the American environmental justice movement, Love Canal also demonstrates the difficulty and complexity involved in scientifically assessing the health impacts of environmental toxins on a relatively small population.

Love Canal map

The above map is one of the many images collected in the online resource, Lessons of Love Canal, developed in 2003 by the Boston University School of Public Health. As noted in the site’s introduction:

Many community groups around the U.S. request health studies to examine associations between environmental contamination and perceived health problems. Love Canal and other community battles have taught us that how studies are conducted and by whom is crucial to deriving useful and credible information. At the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), we push for community concerns and insights to be part of the study process from the beginning to the end.

Some Love Canal studies have become models for the way we do community environmental health studies today. We hope this collection of lessons learned over three decades of controversy at Love Canal represents initial steps toward building a resource for future community-based studies.