Category: Roosevelt

Earth Month 2022 Activities & Events @RooseveltU

This April is #RUEarthMonth2022, and there are lots of ways to go green at Roosevelt as part of our university sustainability efforts, whether you’re on or off campus — from attending talks and webinars by invited speakers to hearing presentations by current students to joining in the student org RU Green’s activities to performing acts of community service.

Throughout April — Student Survey on Sustainability: If you’re a current RU student, please take a few minutes to complete this survey on campus sustainability issues. The survey is part of a student team project on sustainability leadership in this spring’s SUST 250 Sustainable University course. Thank you for your participation and input!

Wed 4/13 5:30-6:30pm — RU Green Information Forum on Pipelines: Join students in RU Green in learning about pipelines infringing on Indigenous lands and rights, as well as some other issues of environmental racism. RSVP and event details here.

Mon 4/18 thru Fri 4/22 — Spring 2022 Roosevelt Student Research and Inquiry Symposium: a week-long virtual event featuring a mix of live sessions, poster presentations and pre-recorded oral & performance studies presentations on a wide range of topics. Student presentations will be posted on the site during RSRIS week. Register for sessions ahead of time (not required) to receive a link to add the event to your calendar. Check the schedule here.

Tues 4/19 11am-12:15pm — SUST 250 Campus Sustainability Presentations: Join the students of SUST 250 The Sustainable University as two teams present their projects on the dining center and student orientation, with time for Q&A from the audience. Attend live in WB 616 or by Zoom. Details here.

Tues 4/19 5:00pm — RU Green Beach Cleanup: Help clean up trash on the beach and celebrate the Earth by getting out and enjoying the lakefront with students of RU Green. Let off some steam by throwing seed bombs throughout the city where the ground could use a bit of love. Bring your UPass and meet in the WB Lobby, after which we will take the 29 bus to Ohio Street Beach. Email RU Green for more info.

Wed 4/20 2:00pm — Environmentalism in Illinois: RU Green hosts special guest speaker Iyana Simba from the Illinois Environmental Council for a special presentation environmental justice in Illinois and Chicago. Iyana Simba is the City Programs Director at the Illinois Environmental Council; an advocate and organizer around environmental justice issues, especially clean water access; and a member of Environmentalists of Color Network and the Chicago Urban League’s Metropolitan Board. Event will be live at RU in AUD Ida B. Wells Lounge and streaming on Zoom. Event info here; zoom link also can be found at https://linktr.ee/rugreen.

Thur 4/21 11am-12:15pm — SUST 250 Campus Sustainability Presentations: Join the students of SUST 250 The Sustainable University as three teams present their projects on athletics, sustainability leadership, and waste, with time for Q&A from the audience. Attend live in WB 616 or by Zoom. Details here.

Fri 4/22 2:30pm — Music in the Park: Unwind before finals by getting outdoors and listening to nature-themed orchestral music performed by Chicago Center of Performing Arts (CCPA) students. This event will be an immersive art and nature experience taking place around Maggie Daley Park. If weather is bad, this event will be held at the Maggie Daley Play Gardens located at 337 E. Randolph St. Sponsored by RU Green and the Center for Arts Leadership. Email RU Green for more info.

Fri 4/22 — Earth Day Service Opportunities & Events throughout Chicago, sponsored by the Chicago Conservation Corps (C3) and other organizations. Check out the many events listed here by C3 as well as these by the Cook County Forest Preserves. Help clean up parklands, restore natural areas, and meet conservation-minded and nature loving sustainability nerds from across the city. Fun and rewarding in a deeply spiritual and dirt-under-your-nails kind of way!

​Sat 4/23 10am-5pm — Earth Day Climate Summit: Hosted by the Sunrise Movement at Benito Juarez Community Academy (1450 W Cermak Rd, Chicago, IL 60608). “Be in community with other young folks ready to bring change to our City and beyond! In Chicago, we have an opportunity to set a precedent for how cities should be led, and set a future for all Chicagoans to thrive. In order to achieve this, we need to work collaboratively with groups, coalitions and organizations across the City that are making intersecting demands for Environmental, Social, Economic and Racial Justice, to help guide a new batch of energized youth, 14-35 years old!” Event info and registration at linktr.ee/rugreen or bit.ly/earthday-summit. Email RU Green for more info.

Mon 4/25 12-2pm — Rooftop Garden Cleanup: Come to the rooftop garden on the 5th floor of the Wabash building (in the back of the fitness center) and help prepare the garden for the growing season! Make sure to wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Email RU Green for more info.

Tue 4/26 9:30am-12:15pm — Bubbly Creek Cleanup: Join students in Prof. Mike Bryson’s SUST 250 Sustainable University class @RooseveltU on a community service field trip to Canal Origins Park on Chicago’s Near Southwest Side. We’ll continue our yearly tradition of picking up litter along the riverbanks of Bubbly Creek where it meets the South Branch of the Chicago River. Enjoy great views of the Chicago skyline, fresh air, and a gratifying sense of fun and companionship as we work together to clean up our adopted city park! Event info here.

Tue 4/26 4-5pm — RSC Webinar on Prison Justice and Sustainability: Join this informative webinar sponsored by the Resilience Studies Consortium on the relationship between sustainability and prison justice. Features speakers from the Sustainability in Prisons Project, the University of Puget Sound’s Freedom Education Project, the Evergreen State College’s Gateways for Incarcerated Youth, and Evergreen State College’s Justice Involved Student Group. Organized by the Resilience Studies Consortium, Evergreen State College, and Roosevelt University. Event info here.

Wed 4/27 11am-12pm — Resilience in Times of War in Europe: Join this informative webinar sponsored by the Resilience Studies Consortium on the crisis in Ukraine and its relation to the country’s present resilience and future sustainable development. Speaker Andrii Holovko is a professor of management and marketing at the Ukrainian National Forestry University, and a longtime colleague of our RSC member institution in Germany, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Zoom info TBA.

Wed 4/27 5pm — Trivia Night Fundraiser: Come to AUD Ida B. Wells Lounge and compete with your peers for a chance to win sustainability themed prizes by correctly answering questions about environmental justice in a fun trivia night event! Get a team of 5 or less together and register for the event beforehand by going to https://linktr.ee/rugreen and clicking on “Trivia Night Registration.” We will also be collecting donations for Indigenous Environmental Network; please consider donating if you can. Event info here.

Fri 4/27 1-3pm — Schaumburg Bioblitz: As part of the City Nature Challenge 2022, we are hosting a bioblitz. Let’s find all the species we can on Roosevelt University’s Schaumburg campus. All Roosevelt community members are invited to take part. Make an iNaturalist account to upload observations. Meet at the volleyball court (north side of parking lot). Open to members of the Roosevelt University community: students, staff, faculty, alumni. Contact edangremond@roosevelt.edu with questions. More info on the City Nature Challenge here: https://www.chicagowilderness.org/page/citynaturechallenge (you can participate on your own too!). Event info here.

Elevate Your Education this 2022 Summer in SUST 390 Rooftop Garden @RooseveltU

This coming summer semester (2022) the Sustainability Studies program will reprise our popular and innovative special topics course, SUST 390 Rooftop Garden, at the Chicago Campus. The class will utilize RU’s unique 5th-story rooftop garden on its LEED Gold-certified Wabash Building as a living classroom for a hands-on, place-based, get-your-hands-dirty learning experience.

  • Title/number: SUST 390 Rooftop Garden (section 10)
  • Semester offered: Summer 2022 (10 weeks from May 31 thru Aug 8)
  • Location: Chicago Campus
  • Day/time: Online learning commences 5/31, with garden workdays and field trips to selected urban farms/green rooftops in the Chicago region scheduled by the instructor according to students’ availability.
  • Pre-req: ENG 102

SUST majors and minors may take this class to fulfill an upper-level SUST 3xx requirement, but 390 also is open to students at large seeking an experiential learning course, needing a general education course, or desiring elective credit.

RU President Ali, staff, and students harvest greens from the WB Rooftop Garden during the #AmDreamConf service day, 15 Sept 2016 (photo: RU Media)

Course Theme: Rooftop Gardens, Campus Sustainability, and Urban Agriculture

Diana Ramirez (BA ’17) works the garden plots on the WB Rooftop Garden, July 2017 (photo: M. Viveros)

Gets your hands dirty in this ten-week hybrid course which focuses on the unique urban ecosystem, the green rooftop, and features work in and stewardship of the fifth-story Roosevelt University WB Rooftop Garden in downtown Chicago. Students will learn about the relationships among food, biodiversity, waste, urban agriculture, green space design, and campus sustainability leadership through multiple modes: reading, participating in online discussions, taking field trips, and working in the RU garden during the summer late spring / early summer planting and growing season.

Course requirements and activities include online interaction through Blackboard; participation in garden workdays as scheduled by the student and instructor; and field trips to other urban community gardens and farms, whether rooftop or street-level. Participation in this course constitutes a significant contribution to the sustainability of RU’s Chicago Campus, and helps our community make progress on our 2015-2020 Strategic Sustainability Plan.

Moses Viveros sowing seeds in the rooftop garden, August 2017 (photo: D. Ramirez)

The RU Rooftop Garden in Chicago was started in the spring/summer of 2013, the first growing season after the opening on the Wabash Building in fall 2012. Since then, it has been funded and managed by the Department of Physical Resources, with work being done primarily by student interns and volunteers from the Sustainability Studies Program in the College of Arts & Sciences.

For questions and more details about this course, please contact Vicki Gerberich (vgerberich@roosevelt.edu), adjunct professor of Sustainability Studies; or Mike Bryson (mbryson@roosevelt.edu), professor & director of Sustainability Studies.

Maria Cancilla (BPS ’18), Prof. Vicki Gerberich, and Michelle Giles (SUST senior) during #AmDreamServiceDay 2018 (photo: M. Bryson)

Donate to the Winter Clothing Drive @RooseveltU 3/14-3/21

Students are hosting a (winter) clothing drive in collaboration with Roosevelt’s BSU, ALAS, RU Proud, and RU Generation Action. We encourage you to donate winter items but will also be accepting other types of clothing as well. This is a great opportunity to go through your closets and do some Spring cleaning in order to benefit both the environment and Chicago’s queer Black and Brown populations. Below you’ll find more info about the drive.

When: March 14-March 21

Where to drop: AUD/WB Entrances, WB 2nd Floor Cafeteria, WB 14th Floor Res Halls, AUD 2nd Floor Fainman Lounge, AUD 10th Floor Library, and AUD 526 Sust Office

Why: Donating to Brave Space Alliance’s winter closet and QT shop in partnership with Casa Al-Fatiha provides clothing for Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous people and/or members of the LGBTIA+ community in need

What can be donated: Pre washed, gently used, free of stains/rips winter coats (plus sizes in high need), scarves, hats, gloves/hand warmers, long johns/warm underwear, sweaters/sweatshirts/t-shirts, pants, shorts, skirts, dresses

Questions: Contact Sophia Gall0, RU Green President (rugreenclub45@gmail.com)

Apply for the Mansfield’s 2022 Fellowship for Activism and Community Engagement (thru 3/2/22)

The Mansfield Institute Fellowship for Activism and Community Engagement (FACE) will fund a second cohort of 15 Roosevelt University undergraduate students from any college or discipline. The cohort-based summer fellowship includes funding for a 3-credit Social Justice in Action internship-based course in May 2022. In addition to tuition, fellows will receive a stipend of $2,500.

Following their course work in late May, Fellows will work in a social justice–focused community-based organization in Chicago for 10 hours per week, for 10 weeks over the summer starting in early June. Fellows will have an opportunity to work with past Fellows, attend University events together, and have opportunities to present work at conferences.

Eligibility:

  • Open to all Roosevelt University undergraduate students in any college or major
  • Students must have between 45 and 72 credit hours completed on March 2, 2022
  • GPA of at least a 2.0
  • Be able to participate fully in fellowship activities including course work, internship work, and ongoing cohort activities throughout the year

Deadlines:

  • The application process opens on February 1 and closes on March 2, 2022.
  • Applicants will be notified by March 16, 2022.

To apply, visit the Mansfield Institute Fellowship for Activism and Community Engagement (FACE) webpage. For questions or more information, please contact Prof. Heather Dalmage (hdalmage@roosevelt.edu), Director of the Mansfield Institute.

Mansfield Institute Kickoff Event on 2/1: Fellowship for Activism and Community Engagement

Join Roosevelt’s Mansfield Institute on 2/1/22 to recognize our current Fellows for Activism and Community Engagement and community partners. Attendees will hear about the program experience of current fellows, learn about the 2022 program, and meet our community partners. Register here! All Roosevelt students from any college or major with at least 45 credits are eligible to apply for the fellowship program. The selected 2022 fellows will take part in the Social Justice in Action internship-based course, a three-day seminar, and work with a social justice-focused, community-based organization for which they will receive a summer stipend. For more information, contact Prof. Heather Dalmage, Director of the Mansfield Institute (hdalmage@roosevelt.edu).

Environmental Sustainability Committee Meets on 12/13 @4:30pm

RU’s Environmental Sustainability Committee will convene virtually on Monday 12/13 from 4:30-6pm for an open discussion of campus sustainability projects, issues, concerns, and goals. We will get an update on a recent student sustainability forum held on 11/29, share information with each other from across departments, and identify potential projects and initiatives for the Spring 2022 semester.

The ESC is an open committee that welcomes participation across colleges and departments from all members of the RU community: students, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni. Of special focus this year is the updating of our 2015-20 Strategic Sustainability Plan. We also are pleased to report that Roosevelt’s membership in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) provides anyone with an active RU email address full access to AASHE’s online resources.

Hope to see you there on 12/13! If you cannot attend, please take a moment to email any ideas, questions, and/or suggestions to the ESC (see contact info below).

Zoom info: https://roosevelt.zoom.us/j/94378920390

RSVP / questions / suggestions to Prof. Mike Bryson (mbryson@roosevelt.edu), Dept. of Sociology & Sustainability, CAS

Eden Place Founder Michael Howard Addresses the Resilience Studies Consortium on Environmental Justice

Mr. Michael Howard, CEO and co-founder of Eden Place Farms and Nature Center in Chicago IL, will address the Roosevelt and Resilience Studies Consortium (RSC) communities on Tuesday, 26 Oct 2021, at 11am CST on the topic of “Sustaining Environmental Justice in a Pandemic.” Please join the faculty and students of SUST 350 Service & Sustainability at Roosevelt University and ENVS 397 Environmental Justice at Western Colorado University as they host Mr. Howard’s virtual presentation and a Q&A session. This presentation is made possible by the generous funding of the RSC — thank you!

Michael Howard’s life passion is to improve the quality of life for the citizens of the Fuller Park community on Chicago’s South Side, both financially and environmentally. As Founder and CEO of the Fuller Park Community Development (FPCD) organization in the 1990s, he has worked to address housing, education, and environmental issues that have kept this generally African American and low-income community in poverty and disrepair.

In the late 1990s, Michael and his wife Amelia Howard led the effort to clean up a three-acre vacant lot near their Fuller Park residence that was piled two stories high with illegally dumped waste. With help from many in the community, the site was cleared of debris and restored into a thriving green space called Eden Place — still the only nature center on the entire South Side of Chicago. In the early 2010s, Eden Place opened its farm operation about a half-mile south of the nature center. They host community events, market their produce to local restaurants and farmers markets, and provide ecology, urban farming, and nutrition workshops to citizens of Fuller Park and beyond.

Since 2014, students in Roosevelt University’s SUST 350 Service & Sustainability class have volunteered one morning a week in a multi-year service project at Eden Place, helping with farm chores, repairing and painting structures, building trails, planting and harvesting crops, and organizing events to support the organization’s mission. In return, Eden Place has taught them much about the process and importance of community organizing, the rigors of urban environmental conservation and farming, and the challenges of fostering sustainability and community resilience in this era of social and economic stress.

Zoom Login Info:

Topic: Michael Howard on Environmental Justice for RSC
Time: Oct 26, 2021 11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://roosevelt.zoom.us/j/97714968242
Meeting ID: 977 1496 8242

For More Information:

Contact Mike Bryson (mbryson@roosevelt.edu), Professor & Director of Sustainability Studies, Roosevelt University

The Resilience Studies Consortium, of which Roosevelt is a charter member, is a network of small liberal arts Institutions dedicated to sustainability and community resilience, place-based educational experiences, and shared academic and co-curricular offerings in ways that empower students with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in a rapidly evolving world.

SUST 350 Students Organize Concert & Fun Fest @ Eden Place Farm (Fri 10/15) & Nature Center (Sat 10/16)

Dear RU community — The students of Prof. Mike Bryson’s SUST 350 Service & Sustainability class have dedicated this past week to planning two pop-up events to help our longtime community partner non-profit org, Eden Place Nature Center and Farm, survive and thrive in these difficult pandemic times.

  • Friday 10/15 Music! “Farm Aid” benefit concert (6:30pm, doors open at 6pm) to save Eden Place Farms (live in person at 4911 S. Shields Ave., Chicago). Live concert is free to attend in person, with suggested donation and mandatory vax proof; make any online donation for livestream access.
  • Saturday 10/16 Family Fun! “Family Fun Fest” event at the Nature Center the following day, Sat 10/16, from 12-4pm to connect with the community and help raise funds. Details below.

Here’s how you can help with Saturday’s Fun Fest!

Where: Eden Place Nature Center (4417 S. Stewart Ave.) — 10min walk from the 47th St station on the Red Line, or EP staff can pick you up at the station if needed

When: Set up from 9:00am-12:00pm , event at 12:00pm-4:00pm , clean-up 4:00pm-5:00pm

What: Looking for at least 1-2 people to manage the raffle/pumpkin pick-up booth and a wristband seller at the entrance during 12-4pm event. Also looking for raffle donations from local businesses, saleable clothing items and/or plants in small pots.

Activities: Train ride and pumpkin/plant pot painting (wristband activities), bake sale, raffle, thrift and houseplant sale, and free games such as jumbo Jenga, basketball, cornhole, etc.

RU Contact People:

  • Alyssa Spleha (aspleha@mail.roosevelt.edu), SUST 350 student event organizer (main student contact for volunteering at event)
  • Gabriel Gonzalez (ggonzalez25@mail.roosevelt.edu), SUST 350 student thrift sale organizer (for dropping off gently used clothing @WB today or Friday)
  • Mike Bryson (mbryson@roosevelt.edu), SUST 350 prof (for general questions)

Eden Place Contact Person:

  • Michael Howard (michaelhow@msn.com), Eden Place executive director and co-founder

If you have some time this week to contribute to this effort, please get in touch with Alyssa or Gabriel to find out how you can help and discuss logistics. The most pressing need is for a couple extra people to help work the entrance and booths at the Fest. However, if you can bring some clean articles of clothing to WB for the thrift sale, that’d be great too. Sorry about the short notice, but we’re doing the best we can on a tight deadline!

All off-campus volunteers would need to complete the RU Travel Waiver Form. Return to me (mbryson@roosevelt.edu) prior to the event. 350-98 RU Waiver Forms 2021Fall.pdf

Peace and thanks to all,
The SUST 350 Service / Eden Place Team