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 seeLaker Connect — this link takes you to a page where this is a link for voting on this referendum.
Voting Yesfor 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 Noon 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.
Next week 4/15-19, all students have the chance to vote on a Mental Health Referendum for RU students. Below is an infographic about the issue and referendum — SGA is holding a Referendum Info Session on Zoom on Tu 4/16 at 2pm.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
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
This week the New York Timesfeatures 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.
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.
Last Thursday the Illinois EPA held a contentious public meeting on Chicago’s SE Side to hear residents’ concerns and complaints about the massive piles of petcoke — a waste by-product of tar sands oil refining done in nearby Whiting, IN — being accumulated along the industrialized banks of the Calumet River, in close proximity to the East Side and Deering neighborhoods of Chicago.
A Chicago community meeting the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) hosted to discuss a proposed construction permit for KCBX Terminals Company quickly escalated into angry shouting from Southeast Side residents fed up with the firm storing large piles of petroleum coke, or petcoke, near their homes.
KCBX, which is controlled by the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, stockpiles the petcoke, a byproduct of oil refining, along the Calumet River on Chicago’s far Southeast side. The thick, powdery petcoke is sent to KCBX from a BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana. East Side and South Deering residents have been sounding the alarm for some time now that petcoke dust is blowing into their neighborhoods and getting into their homes.
“No one asked us if we wanted to have these piles dumped in the first place. They just did it,” Southeast Side resident Sue Garza told the IEPA officials at the packed two-hour meeting, held at the East Side United Methodist Church. “We have been the toxic dumping ground here for over 100 years. We don’t want it anymore.”
Brad Frost with IEPA’s office of community relations said KCBX is seeking a revised construction permit from the agency in order to bring new equipment, including 10 portable conveyors, a stacking conveyor and a portable hopper, to its site at 10730 S. Burley Ave. According to Frost, the company is not looking to increase its input or emissions.
“They can’t handle their [petcoke] dust now,” resident Guillermo Rodriguez fired back. “How is it not going to increase?”
Residents grew frustrated with IEPA officials, pointing out that the community is against the company’s activities and noted that issuing such a permit would allow for its site expansion.
“It is very simple,” said community member Martin Morales. “We don’t like it. We don’t want it. (Petcoke pollution is) making us sick. What else do you need?”
One person later shouted, “Move the piles! Who cares about the conveyors?” Another said, “If you’re the protection agency, protect us!”
“How many people have to get sick before you do something,” asked resident Ken Keefer. “Is there a certain number that have to come down with asthma or cancer before you do something? This has been going on for two, three years. And this is the first time you guys have shown up.”
Frost said the IEPA would take into account the comments made at the meeting, but noted that the IEPA has received very few formal, written complaints about specific issues involving the site.
One man fired back, “We can’t even open our windows because of the soot.” Later, the audience began to chant, “Move the piles!”
“Answer the question. When are you going to move the piles,” a gentleman asked the officials, which promoted another person to exclaim, “When we’re all dead!”
“Obviously there a lot of people here concerned about the facility,” Frost stressed. “We need to see [formal] complaints. That’s one thing we use to determine whether there are problems at sites.”
Frost did make a point, however, to stress that even though the agency has received few formal complaints, the IEPA is pursing enforcement against the company.
Earlier this month, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit on behalf of IEPA against KCBX over alleged air pollution violations. In a statement, Madigan said the toxic mounds at KCBX’s storage site “are growing by the day without the appropriate protections to ensure nearby residents’ health and safety.”
Chicago residents from the far South Side protest the siting of petcoke waste along the Calumet River at an IEPA public meeting on Th 14 Nov 2013 (photo: Progress Illinois)
Community members asked lawyers from the attorney general’s office, who attended the meeting, what else could be done to more quickly shut down the facilities and get rid of the petcoke mounds. The officials stressed that the current case is pending, and it has to go through a formal legal process.
Additionally, a group of Southeast Side families filed a lawsuit at the end of October against KCBX and a few other companies that store petcoke. The lawsuit came on the heels of notices of air pollution violations the IEPA recently issued to Beemsterboer Slag Co., which also stockpiles the coal-like waste product along the Calumet River.
BP is in the process of modernizing its Whiting refinery and plans to to boost the amount of petcoke it produces at the facility to 2.2 million tons of a year.
Tom Shepherd with the Southeast Environmental Task Force told the crowd that the current issues the community is experiencing is only “the tip of the iceberg.”
“There’s going to be at least three times more than is over there today,” he said. “Today we’re getting 700,000 tons a year, but once that coker goes online, it’s going to increase to 2 million tons a year. That’s 6,000 tons a day.”
“Imagine how many trucks, barges and trainloads are going to be coming through our neighborhood,” Shepherd continued. “If they’re getting a permit for 10 additional conveyors over there, that means that they’re going to increase ten-fold, but we heard three-fold. That’s scary enough.”
The audience really got peeved when they learned the IEPA has to make a decision regarding KCBX’s permit next week. IEPA officials wouldn’t say whether they would be extending the review period for the permit, approving the permit or denying it.
“You’re here a week before,” Rodriguez later asked. “Where were you when this all started, when this began? Where were you then? Who’s protecting our water source? They’re pumping water out of that lake and they’re spraying their piles. That runoff goes where? It goes into our streets. It goes into our drinking water. If you think this is a good idea, let’s put it in your backyard.”
Residents called on Ald. John Pope (10th), who attended the meeting, to speak, but then heckled and interrupted him. Pope made a point to stress that he has been working with elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to see what can else be done about the piles.
“As much as we all are passionate about the problems, there’s got to be a formal process, and it starts unfortunately with the complaints,” he added. “I know everyone’s complained in the past, but there’s got to be formal complaints lodged.”