Attending the 2011 ASLE Conference

Tomorrow I head down to Bloomington, Indiana, to participate in one of my favorite professional conferences — the biannual meeting of ASLE, the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. As a scholar whose work straddles the humanities and natural sciences, and as someone teaching in RU’s newly-developed Sustainability Studies program, I’m always delighted to attend this energetic and intellectually-stimulating gathering of writers, teachers, scholars, artists, and activists. All of them are committed to advancing the cause of environmentalism, but from a myriad of perspectives and methods. Plus, we always manage to take a good field trip or two in between the formal conference proceedings.

This year’s ASLE meeting is hosted by Indiana University, and my journey this week will mark my first visit to that university as well as to Bloomington — another reason I’m looking forward to the adventure.

Indiana University's campus in Bloomington, IN

I’m very familiar with the “other Bloomington” of the Midwest — the one in Illinois where I went to college at Illinois Wesleyan University and which I still visit periodically with my family — but I’ve always had a notion to see this much-touted community that was the setting for the wonderful 1979 film, Breaking Away.

I’m taking part in a roundtable-style panel entitled “Sustainability Education: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Approaches” that includes faculty participants from colleges and universities all across the US. My fellow panelists are presenting on topics ranging from teaching sustainability and literature in Appalachia, to designing interdisciplinary courses on climate change, to the creation of a sustainability blog that showcases student writing and art, to exploring ways in which sustainability can be infused throughout the general education curriculum for undergraduates.

My own presentation focuses on the new Sustainability Studies (SUST) program here at Roosevelt University. The program grew out of an experimental course on urban sustainability I team-taught back in the spring of 2009, an experience described in an essay from the July 2010 issue of Metropolitan Universities. As a new undergraduate degree housed in Roosevelt’s College of Professional Studies, the nascent SUST program just finished its third semester and has approximately 25 majors enrolled at Roosevelt’s two campuses (Chicago and Schaumburg, IL) and taking online courses. The curriculum’s core is a series of interdisciplinary courses that integrate the natural and social sciences with the humanities and address key issues and themes such as water; food; waste; biodiversity; energy and climate change; sprawl and transportation; and policy and ethics.

Three things strike me about our program as relevant to this panel’s discussion of sustainability education. The first is the institutional context in which our program emerged at RU, since many colleges and universities are considering ways to incorporate sustainability into their curriculum, whether as new ways to teach existing courses or in the shape of new courses and/or programs. In our case at Roosevelt, the university had some “vacant land” within the undergraduate curriculum which provided us with an opportunity to propose and develop this new major. While RU has well-established programs in biology and chemistry, there were no majors in environmental policy, studies, or science. My home college has an entrepreneurial orientation, and thus the development of the SUST curriculum received strong in-house support from our dean. It was favorably received by university-wide faculty committees, as well, in part because we took pains to show how the program was meant to complement existing science programs, rather than compete/conflict with them. By developing solid cross-college relationships with faculty colleagues in biology, chemistry, environmental science, math, and business, we hope to engage in future collaborations on many levels. One promising example of this is that SUST faculty were invited to participate in the current revamping of RU’s environmental science minor.

A second observation is how sustainability education contributes to an institution’s overall work to improve its physical operations and thus serve as a model of a sustainable community (a process I describe in my “Sustaining Sustainability” essay circulated previously). We at RU are behind many other US colleges and universities (such as Dickinson College, as chronicled by Professor Ashton Nichols), but we have become galvanized recently around a common goal of improving the sustainability of our two campuses and connecting this improvement as much as possible to our teaching, research, and service-learning activities. In this respect, sustainability education — whatever form it takes in a particular institution — can be an powerful force in getting people (from college administrators to alumni to community members) to see the ethical importance and economic benefits of reducing resource use, reducing waste, recycling materials, conserving water and energy, fostering local food production, and educating eco-literate citizens.

Lastly, there’s the transformative potential of technology, field experiences, and service-learning for sustainability education, all of which are exciting areas of inquiry and experimentation that can revitalize our teaching and stoke the inherent enthusiasm we’ve observed in our students for the ideas and practical applications of sustainability. In line with the College of Professional Studies’ tradition of serving adult / non-traditional learners (quite often parents juggling work, family, and school), we use technology to offer courses in a mix of formats — face to face, fully online, hybrid, and weekend — a course delivery approach which, though challenging to manage, greatly increases student access to our program. Just as significantly, our Sustainability Studies @ Roosevelt University blog, authored and maintained by my colleague Carl Zimring, serves triple duty as a teaching resource, marketing tool, and go-to news source about environmental issues impacting the Chicago region.

Another key feature of the SUST curriculum is its emphasis on field experiences to supplement classroom and online instruction. In my SUST 210 Sustainable Future and SUST 220 Water courses, as well as other classes, I take students out to various sites in the city and suburbs where they can talk with experts, gather and analyze empirical data, examine innovations in sustainable design and planning, and engage community members in environmental/social justice issues. Recent field trip sites have included the Chicago Center for Green Technology, the Field Museum of Natural History’s zoology collection and laboratories, the Chicago Wilderness “Wild Things” biannual environmental conference at University of Illinois at Chicago, the Chicago River, and local nature preserves and restoration sites. Many students describe these trips as powerfully transformative experiences that introduce them to places they never knew existed, educate them about social and environmental problems in a way no course reading or lecture could, and dramatically shift their perceptions about the status and potential of urban natural resources.

Closely connected to these field experiences are the service-learning activities we are currently engaged in as well as planning for the future. These run the gamut from students in our SUST 330 Biodiversity class working side-by-side with Field Museum scientists analyzing data and cataloguing specimens, to SUST 230 Food students contributing their labor to local urban farms. Service-learning is the explicit focus of SUST 350 Service & Sustainability, a course I will debut next spring as “Urban Farming, Community Development, and Social Justice.” Students here will learn about one of the most important components of sustainability, food production and consumption, in the context of urban neighborhoods and ecosystems. By doing hands-in-the-dirt labor at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm operation in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood, they will gain direct knowledge of modern organic/urban agricultural systems as well as learn about pressing urban social justice issues such as food deserts, gentrification, pollution, environmental racism, and persistent poverty.

An Urban Nature Adventure

This past Saturday, June 11th, students in my PLS 392 Seminar in Humanities online summer course at Roosevelt University took an “urban landscapes” field trip to Chicago’s near Southwest Side, where we visited two city parklands: Canal Origins Park on South Ashland Avenue, and Stearns Quarry (aka Palmisano) Park on Halsted Street. This afternoon field trip was a chance for us to discuss the history and ecology of these locations and their relation to Chicago’s urban landscape, as well as think about the visual aesthetics of these areas, the integration of nature and culture in urban environments, the importance of parks to city communities, and how such areas can serve as windows into the rich history of Chicago.

PLS 392 students help clean up Canal Origins Park before our walking tour of this urban parkland along the Chicago River, June 2011 (photo by M. Bryson)

We began our afternoon by meeting at Canal Origins and, before starting our walking tour of this 2002 riverfront parkland, picking up several bags’ worth of litter along Ashland Avenue near the park’s entrance. (Thanks to my students for pitching in like troopers!) Canal Origins provides impressive views of the present-day juncture of the Chicago River’s South Branch and Bubbly Creek, and commemorates the origin of the I&M Canal, which was constructed from 1836 to 1848. Use of the canal peaked in 1882 (when over a million tons of cargo were transported), but construction of Sanitary & Ship Canal in the late 19th century spelled the eventual demise of the I&M, as did the advent of railroad transport in the latter third of the 1800s.

The old canal, though, has made a comeback the during the last 30 years though the establishment of the I&M Canal Heritage Corridor by Congress in 1984 by Congress, which celebrates and promotes the Canal as natural resource, wildlife corridor, recreation destination, and source of cultural memory and historical preservation. Here at this area of Chicago, the canal is filled in and is covered by Interstate 55. Visitors to the park can see it only in their imaginations.

This walkway from the entrance of Canal Origins Park leading to the river symbolizes the canal’s walls, and features artwork by Chicago high school students. Unfortunately, now the displays are heavily tagged with graffiti (photo by M. Bryson)

To the west, the South Branch soon morphs into the Sanitary and Ship Canal, begun in 1892 and completed in 1900. This canal marked the permanent reversal of the Chicago River for improved sanitation (via dilution) and navigation, and continues to be used heavily to this day for commercial transportation. North of the S&S Canal is the filled-in waterway formerly known as the West Fork of the South Branch, which flowed southwestward until it ended at the Continental Divide separating the two watersheds that meet here in the Chicago region (those of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes). Here was located Mud Lake, between Kedzie (to the east) and Harlem (to the west), which earlier voyageurs could paddle across in wet years to travel between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is at Harlem Avenue, north of the canal, and it commemorates the history of the portage made via Mud Lake. The Stickney Wastewater Treatment plant, the world’s largest, now sits where the fickle waters of Mud Lake once were.

After touring Canal Origins Park, we walked a few blocks south to the Ashland stop of the CTA Orange Line, where suburban students enjoyed the novelty of an L ride one stop to the north to Halsted Street, where we disembarked and walked a couple of blocks south to Stearns Quarry Park.

RU students walk the trails at Stearns Quarry Park in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, June 2011 (photo by M. Bryson)

This extraordinary urban greenspace finished in 2009 is a cutting-edge example of city park design with nature in mind. Its meandering walking trails provide a different kind of view as one walks along, from the terraced wetlands that filter water circulated between the park’s fishing pond to its entrance fountain; to the old walls of the limestone quarry, which operated here from the late 1830s to 1970, when the site became a landfill; to the neighboring churches and houses of the Bridgeport neighborhood; to the dramatic scene of the Loop’s skyline, as viewed from the grassy-topped mound of the park. Throughout the park, native vegetation provides natural beauty, efficient water retention, and ample wildlife habitat — and many other sustainable design features make this truly a 21st century parkland.

A view of the terraced wetlands in Stearns Quarry (photo by M. Bryson)
A closer view of the one of the wetland’s terraces; red-winged blackbirds and barn swallows were in abundance here (photo by M. Bryson)
A view of the stocked fishing pond at the bottom of the quarry, as well as the its limestone walls — a most unusual sight within the city of Chicago (photo by M. Bryson)

Those seeking an off-the-beaten-path Chicago experience should consider visiting Stearns Quarry Park, which is easily accessible via the CTA (Orange Line and #8 bus) as well as car, with free street parking available next to the park. An excellent audio tour is provided by the Chicago Park District, as well.

The mound at Stearns Quarry Park affords impressive views of Chicago’s downtown skyline, only a few miles to the northeast (photo by M. Bryson)

Killing Turfgrass at RU’s Schaumburg Campus

After April’s prescribed burn of the detention pond wetland, more changes in the Robin Campus landscape are in progress this May. The following update is from landscape architect Bill Bedrossian, of Bedrock Earthscapes, who is heading the campus redesign project in Schaumburg:

The month of May will be a transformational month for the Robin Campus landscape. Per our Sustainable Site campus landscape plan created over the last year, low input native plantings will be replacing much of the high input and resource intensive turf grass areas. Over the next few weeks, those who visit the Robin Campus will begin to see much of the turf grass in open areas and on the parking lot islands turning brown. Last Friday, eight of the thirteen acres of turfgrass were treated with a contact herbicide that will kill the grass. The open areas will then be seeded in mid to late May with native prairie mixes. The parking lot islands will be planted with native grasses using seed, plugs or plants. A few native flower beds will also be installed on the west parking lot islands. Native seedings take three years to fully establish as they build their root systems for the first few years before displaying their characteristic top growth.

This year, you will see primarily cover grasses and a few showy natives late in the season. More native plants will be evident in the second summer, and then by the third year the seeded areas should start to look like a healthy native plant community. As the new seedings and plants are getting established, we ask that you begin to watch with interest to see if you can identify our new native plants as they begin to get emerge, and please, use care to avoid walking over the newly planted native areas.

Students Garner Awards at Annual Ceremony

A warm congratulations to all the honorees at the annual College of Professional Studies awards ceremony, held on April 28th at the Chicago Campus’ Gage Gallery. Special kudos to SUST majors Jessie Crow Mermel, who won an Honorable Mention in the creative writing contest; and Kristina Lugo, who was inducted into the Alpha Sigma Lambda adult student honor society.

Details and photos are available on the College of Professional Studies blog — check it out here. And thanks to all my students this semester for your hard work and great contributions to class discussion. Enjoy this summer!

Gage Gallery Event: Stories of the Haymarket Martyrs

RU’s Department of History and Philosophy and the Gage Gallery, in partnership with the Illinois Labor History Society, are hosting a reception and lecture with Mark Rogovin, editor of The Day Will Come: Honoring Our Working Class Heroes, Stories of the Haymarket Martyrs.

Time/place: Friday, April 29 at 5:30 p.m. in the Gage Gallery, 18 S. Michigan Avenue.

Guest speakers are international trade unionists. The music will be by the Chicago Federation of Musicians. Drinks are donated by Haymarket Brewery.

Address replies to: Erik S. Gellman, Assistant Professor of History (egellman@roosevelt.edu)

Dramatic View of Today’s Burn at RU

Here’s a photo of this morning’s prescribed burn of the wetland detention pond at RU’s Schaumburg Campus. A historic day — the first such use of controlled burning as a ecological management tool at Roosevelt; but certainly not the last, given the plans underway for revamping the physical landscape of the university.

Image credit: Kenton Franklin, Sustainability Studies major at RU. Click here for a full slideshow of photos from the burn event.

Wetland Burn at RU’s Schaumburg Campus

On Wednesday, April 13, a controlled burn will be conducted at the wetland detention pond on the northwest corner of Roosevelt’s Schaumburg Campus. Burning is an important management tool in ecological restoration of woodlands, prairies, and forests in order to remove invasive plant species and encourage the growth of native plant communities.

This is the first burn conducted at RU’s campus since the university purchased the property in 1996 (the year I arrived at Roosevelt). It is scheduled to begin between 10:30 and 11am, weather conditions permitting. Check back here on Wednesday morning for an update.

Green Fire Film to Screen at RU on Earth Day

On Earth Day — that’s Friday, April 22nd — Roosevelt University’s Schaumburg Campus is proud to host a free public screening of Green Fire, the new full-length feature documentary of Aldo Leopold, a remarkable conservationist, scientist, and writer who helped shape the modern environmental movement in the US and beyond. As the Green Fire website notes, Leopold’s ideas and writings (most notably the 1949 classic, A Sand County Almanac) “remain relevant today, inspiring projects all over the country that connect people and land.” This film is an extraordinary co-production by the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Center for Humans and Nature; its world premier was on Feb. 5th in Albuquerque, NM. RU’s screening will be the one of the first in the NW suburban Chicago region.

We are very pleased to have Gavin Van Horn, Director of Midwest Cultures of Conservation at the Center for Humans and Nature, join us on April 22nd for the Green Fire screening and a post-film discussion. Popcorn and refreshments will be provided — this will be a fun movie night as well as a chance to connect with the environmental community at RU and in the Schaumburg region.

When:  Friday, April 22nd (Earth Day) — 7:00pm
Where:  Roosevelt University’s Schaumburg Campus (1400 N. Roosevelt Blvd), Alumni Hall
Cost:  Free!
RSVP / Questions:  Contact Prof. Mike Bryson at mbryson@roosevelt.edu / 847.619.8735

This public event is co-sponsored by the RU’s Sustainability Studies program as well as the Schaumburg Campus Provost’s Office.

New Deal Service Days at RU

Every spring, Roosevelt students, faculty, and staff get together in groups and fan out over the city and NW suburbs to engage in a variety of service activities. I’ve done this several times over years, sometimes with my small kids in tow — and it’s always a fun and rewarding experience. Here’s a letter to faculty and students from NDSD organizers Yvette Garcia and Tara Hawkins:

New Deal Service Days, Roosevelt’s largest community service event of the year, is now entering its ninth season. Mark your calendar for this year’s event, which will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 8-9 in the Northwest suburbs and Saturday, April 9 in Chicago.

This event offers unique opportunities for you to further social justice and the mission of the University. We encourage you to mention the event and the opportunities for volunteering during your classroom discussions with students and faculty.

This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to work together in honor of the University’s mission by helping the needy in our communities. Years from now, it is unlikely that you will remember your Fridays and Saturdays filled with chores and other personal demands. However, you will remember New Deal Service Days and the positive difference being made in the lives of those who need  our help the most.

For details on how to register, the schedule of volunteering opportunities, FAQs, etc., check out the NDSD website.

“Past is Present” Undergraduate and Graduate Student Conference

Paper submissions for the “Past is Present: History, Social Movements and Justice” undergraduate and graduate student conference are due this Friday, Feb. 25 at 5 p.m. We request students provide a 200-word abstract and author information. All submissions can be emailed to pastispresent@roosevelt.edu. If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Farmer in Sociology (sfarmer@roosevelt.edu) or Eric Gellman in History (egellman@roosevelt.edu).

The Call for Papers is available here: Past is Present — Call for Papers 2011 (pdf)

Address questions and replies to: sfarmer@roosevelt.edu