Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy at UIC

April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

The Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy (SISE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago is an intense interdisciplinary program for graduate and senior-level undergraduate students. From August 9-17, participants from diverse academic backgrounds will be immersed in a broad spectrum of sustainability and energy related topics: policy, economics, health, science, engineering, environment, urban planning, business, and entrepreneurship.

Senior SUST major Jeff Wasil, who works as an environmental engineer and who will graduate from RU this spring, was accepted to last summer’s Sustainability Institute at UIC. Jeff was part of an interdisciplinary research team of undergrad and grad students who designed and proposed an “intelligent sewer system” meant to reduce Chicago’s stormwater runoff. The team’s final presentation can be viewed here:

Wasil et al. UIC Inst Presentation Sum2011 (pdf) (4MB file — right-click to save to your computer first)

The theme of the SISE 2012 program will be “Election 2012: Energy, Economics and Environment.” Using the presidential election as the point of departure for a critical analysis of national energy and sustainability issues, students will be enveloped in discussions about national challenges such as energy security, economic recovery and growth, US competitiveness, and climate change. Students will divide into teams to propose innovative solutions that rely on combinations of technology, policy and entrepreneurship. The positions of the two political parties are likely to be quite distinct and the public debate lively, providing ample inspiration and engagement for the SISE2012 program. Following its treatment of US energy needs and perspectives, SISE will turn to world energy, addressing the energy relationships between the US and other regions and nations.

Admission to the Summer Institute is highly competitive with only eighty open seats. Students from across Chicago and the country are invited to apply. Prospective students are asked to submit an application and resume for consideration.

UIC is accepting applications from now until the beginning of June. Find out more information here, or contact Thomas Lipsmeyer at (talaan@uic.edu) for questions concerning the program.

RU’s Wabash Building Reviewed by the Chicago Tribune’s Blair Kamin

April 26, 2012May 21, 2012

The new 32-story Wabash Building has gotten a lot of buzz within the Chicago architecture scene the last few months as its official ribbon-cutting on May 5th approaches. Today’s lengthy review in the Chicago Tribune by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic Blair Kamin, though, is a watershed moment in the building’s emergence onto the Chicago skyline — as well as the region’s educational landscape. As Kamin writes,

[T]here is reason to think that Roosevelt University’s striking new $123 million tower in downtown Chicago (left) will amount to something more than an eye-grabbing envelope.

The 32-story tower, which flaunts a zig-zagging silhouette and an equally arresting skin of blue and green glass, represents Chicago’s latest innovation in skyscraper design. It is a vertical campus, stacking everything from a student union to lecture halls to dorm suites within a single, all-encompassing structure.

Located at 425 S. Wabash Ave. and known simply as the Wabash Building, the tower is the nation’s second tallest academic building after the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. More important, it marks the first time that the dramatic expansion of colleges and universities in Chicago’s Loop has made a major mark on the city’s vaunted skyline. Happily, that impact is worth celebrating.

The tower’s powerfully sculpted exterior soars memorably above the mighty wall of historic buildings along Michigan Avenue (left), including Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler’s adjoining Auditorium Building, which has served as Roosevelt’s home since 1947. It achieves a genuine, artful dialogue between past and present.

As noted elsewhere in Kamin’s review, as well as in Laura Janota’s “Growing A Green Campus” essay in the Fall 2010 Roosevelt Review alumni magazine, the Wabash vertical campus is a LEED-Silver building that incorporates a host of sustainable features — from recycling facilities to energy- and water-efficient fixtures to sustainable building materials. As such, it is an integral part of RU’s continuing efforts to green its physical campus, from its buildings to its exterior landscapes (in the case of the 22-acre Schaumburg Campus).

Peotone Airport Controversy Takes Off

April 21, 2012April 21, 2012

Today US Representative (IL-D) Jesse Jackson, Jr. will visit eastern Will County with a contingent of supporters and symbolically turn over a few spadefuls of earth in a supposed “groundbreaking” ceremony for the long-contested South Suburban Airport. Airport critics, I’ve learned, plan a protest demonstration today near the site of Jackson’s ceremony. As reported yesterday by the Chicago Sun-Times,

[Jackson] will be joined by ministers who will bless the ground — but not by other elected officials, many of whom consider the symbolic groundbreaking premature. No airline officials will be there to say they think it’s a good idea.

Gov. Pat Quinn has endorsed the airport and his administration has been buying land and negotiating with the FAA to eventually get clearance, but Quinn will not be attending.

In the past week alone, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek both threw cold water on the idea that there is any market for a third airport 30 miles south of Chicago’s Far South Side.

Jackson fought for years against former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson — both when she was in the state Senate and later when she was a member of Congress representing Peotone — on the topic of Peotone.

Jackson has named his own board to oversee the construction and administration of the airport, which he thinks will bring jobs to the south suburbs and as far north as the South Side.

But Will County officials say they should be the ones running any airport in their own backyard.

Halvorson sided with the Will County officials. U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who succeeded Halvorson, and Will County Board member Cory Singer scheduled a rival news conference Saturday, then switched that to a Monday conference call, to offer their take on the airport.

“If the airport is going to be in Peotone, Will County should absolutely have control over it,” Kinzinger spokeswoman Brooke Hougesen said. Kinzinger is expected to call attention to the recent controversies at the firm Jackson wants to oversee the building of the airport, Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin. The Canadian government raided the firm’s offices last week after its CEO resigned following reports that a consultant tried to smuggle Moammar Gadhafis’s son into Mexico.

Jackson’s persistent enthusiasm for the airport’s construction as a job-creation engine for the South Suburbs was recently buoyed by his re-election to Congress, but conflicts with longstanding political claims by Will County Executive Larry Walsh and other leaders that the county should control the airport, not Jackson’s hand-picked commission. It also flies in the face of grassroots protests by eastern Will County residents of the project as a wasteful, urban sprawl-inducing boondoggle that will destroy prime Illinois farmland, create congestion, and increase air and water pollution.

As if that weren’t enough, the champions of Peotone Airport — including Jackson, Governor Pat Quinn, and the Illinois Department of Transportation — have not produced compelling evidence of sufficient demand from major airline carriers for a third metro airport. This fact was underscored on Thursday, April 19th, at the City Club of Chicago, as reported by the Chicago Tribune:

United Continental Holdings Inc. CEO and Chairman Jeff Smisek says “there’s no demand” for a third airport in the Chicago area.

Smisek spoke Thursday to the civic organization City Club of Chicago. Smisek said any benefits from a proposed third Chicago-area airport near Peotone would damage O’Hare International Airport. Smisek also says it’s more important to modernize air traffic control systems at O’Hare rather than add runways.

It’s hard to imagine how the ill-fated Peotone Airport project, which I’ve written about extensively for the Joliet Herald-News since 2006, can take off given this powerful political opposition. Nevertheless, instead of devoting time and energy to truly beneficial public service activity to mark Earth Day — such as helping clear invasive species from our forest preserves, or taking a stand against continued threats to our air and water supplies — Jackson will be pointlessly turning over a few spadefuls of dirt today in a Will County farm field in a grandstanding attempt to bring attention to his airport fantasies.

Many of those same fields have been purchased by the State of Illinois in an airport land-acquisition plan over the last ten years that has netted 2,471 acres of prime Illinois farmland at the cost of $ 34,014,383 and change (of taxpayer funds) — all without FAA approval of the Peotone Airport project. And with the pool of willing sellers just about dried up, the State has resorted to eminent domain condemnation proceedings against local farmers and landowners in order to stake out the needed land footprint for the phantom airport’s first construction phase.

It’s truly hard to think of a more absurd and unjust example of Illinois’ political follies than this. And yet, the show goes on.

“Living Downstream” Screens Tonight at RU’s Chicago Campus

April 20, 2012May 21, 2012

In anticipation of Earth Day, Roosevelt University will host a screening tonight (Friday, April 20th) of the acclaimed environmental documentary feature film, Living Downstream, which features the life and work of writer, ecologist, and environmental activist Sandra Steingraber. As explained on the film’s website:

This poetic film follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. After a routine cancer screening, Sandra receives some worrying results and is thrust into a period of medical uncertainty. Thus, we begin two journeys with Sandra: her private struggles with cancer and her public quest to bring attention to the urgent human rights issue of cancer prevention.

But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey—the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. We follow these invisible toxins as they migrate to some of the most beautiful places in North America. We see how these chemicals enter our bodies and how, once inside, scientists believe they may be working to cause cancer.

Several experts in the fields of toxicology and cancer research make important cameo appearances in the film, highlighting their own findings on two pervasive chemicals: atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, and the industrial compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Their work further illuminates the significant connection between a healthy environment and human health.

At once Sandra’s personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land, and water.

Date: Friday, April 20th, 2012
Time: 6:00-8:30pm
Place: Roosevelt University, Chicago Campus, Auditorium Building (430 S. Michigan Ave)
Room: Congress Lounge (2nd floor)

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so please reserve your spot by RSVPing to Prof. Mike Bryson (mbryson@roosevelt.edu or 312.281.3148). A discussion with RU faculty will follow the screening, and light refreshments will be available. Sponsored by the Sustainability Studies Program in the College of Professional Studies at Roosevelt University.

Sustainability Internship Deadline Extended to 4/16

April 9, 2012

This semester my SUST 210 honors class is working on a community-based research project in collaboration with the Chicago non-profit organization, The Institute for Cultural Affairs, based in Uptown. Along with students from several other Chicago colleges and universities, we are researching and mapping sustainability initiatives throughout each of the city’s 77 community areas. The work continues this summer, so the ICA is seeking motivated and interested students for 40 unpaid internships on this tremendous and valuable city-wide project. Here are the details! — Mike Bryson

Application deadline now extended to Monday, April 16, 2012

The ICA Summer Internship Program, “Accelerate 77” is an opportunity for undergrad and graduate students to participate in preparations for the September 15, 2012 Share Fair event that will highlight, connect and accelerate local sustainability initiatives at the community level throughout Chicago neighborhoods. During the 2011-2012 academic school year, 180 students from six Chicago-based universities have participated in the first phase of the Accelerate 77 project by doing fieldwork in 54 of the 77 Chicago community areas. This summer, students will have the opportunity to take the Accelerate 77 project to the next level developing their skill-set through hands-on community based projects and acquiring skill in facilitation and enabling participatory group processes.

This spring ICA will be interviewing for 40 intern positions – flexing the program timetable between June and August. The positions range from:

* community documentation and engagement of sustainable initiatives,
* designing and planning the September 15th event celebrating the 231 initiatives (three initiatives from each of the 77 communities),
* marketing and public relations for the Accelerate 77 project and share fair event, and
* website support for the community documentation, interchange and post-event collaboration.

Out of the 40 intern positions, the program will offer eight students an intensive leadership development course that will provide hands-on experience of co-leading teams in collaboration with eight ICA resource guides.

More information on leadership development opportunities and the Accelerate 77 project can be found at this page on the ICA website.

New application deadline: Monday, April 16th, 2012

For more information, check out these documents:

Nina Winn
ICA Program Coordinator
nwinn@ica-usa.org
Office: 773.769.6363, ext 301

Karen Snyder
ICA Volunteer and RU alum
snyder@consultmillennia.com
Home office: 773.506.2551
Cell: 773.758.2551

SUST 350’s Workday at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm

April 6, 2012April 6, 2012

This past Wednesday was the third week for my SUST 350 Service & Sustainability class doing work at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm in Cabrini-Green. We help out on a variety of chores and projects at the farm on our Wed afternoon work sessions. Last week we pulled weeds, sifted compost, and harvested thousands of pumpkin seeds from some of last year’s leftover pumpkins. This week we sifted more compost, pulled weeds, and began work on constructing the 2nd hoop house for the farm. Here are some photos I took during that day’s activities.

Our class sessions on Wednesdays start with a discussion from 3-4pm, during which students give short “Farm Reports” on different urban farm operations around the country, and the class as a whole discusses that week’s assigned readings from Lorraine Johnson’s excellent book, City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing. Then, we get together with Growing Power’s Youth Corps kids from the neighborhood, do a few warm-up activities for exercise and community-bonding, and hit the chore list for that day. Our work session ends at 5:30 so students can get to their next class — but most of us are reluctant to stop because it’s so much fun . . . especially when you can work together getting your hands dirty for a good cause.

Here are a few photos from this week.

Josh gives his Farm Report at the picnic area, which doubles as our outside classroom.

Starting work on the farm's 2nd hoop house.

Rows of soil, built onsite from compost, sit atop the old basketball court -- ready for upcoming spring planting.

Steph (L) and Maria sift compost from the worm bin. The result is beautiful, rich, fine soil collected in the tub below the screen; the leftovers are added back into other composting bins.

Watering the compost bins at bit now and again helps speed the decomposition process; these bins can produce good compost in 6-9 months. Not your typical agricultural landscape, eh?

Growing Power’s Urban Farm in Milwaukee

April 3, 2012April 3, 2012

For its first field trip experience this spring, my SUST 350 Service & Sustainability class on urban agriculture, social justice, and community development ventured up Lake Michigan’s western shoreline to the great city of Milwaukee. Our destination was the flagship urban farm operation of Growing Power, the non-profit urban ag enterprise established in 1995 by pro basketball player-turned-urban farmer Will Allen.

Growing Power's flagship farm location in Milwaukee

Since the mid-2000s, Growing Power has expanded its operations to several sites in Chicago, including the Chicago Lights Urban Farm (CLUF) in Cabrini-Green, which is the service learning partner organization / work site for our SUST 350 class this semester.

Our objective in visiting Growing Power’s Milwaukee location was to get a hands-on introduction to one of the most celebrated sustainable urban farm operations in the US. We began our day with a picnic lunch at our urban farm site in Chicago, where we broke bread with CLUF/Growing Power staff and Youth Corps high school student interns. Then, we piled into a rented school bus and headed up to Growing Power’s site on Milwaukee’s Northwest Side, where we got a superb and information-packed 90-minute tour of the entire two-acre facility by Amy, a tour facilitator and full-time employee of the farm.

Growing Power is an example of a hybrid urban farm that is focused on developing sustainable urban farming practices in the production of vegetables (especially baby greens salad mixes), fish (primarily tilapia), animal products (goat milk and meat, eggs and poultry), and compost.

Their food is sold to area restaurants, at the Growing Power on-site farm stand, and at various “Market Basket” locations in Milwaukee where fresh food is hard to find. All of their growing soil is produced on-site by a sophisticated and large-scale composting system, which includes an impressive vermiculture operation that uses worms to process plant “waste” into nutrient-rich soil. Growing Power is a pioneer is using closed-loop cultivation systems in which wastewater from the aquaponic fish-growing tank flows through hydroponic plant beds, where various vegetables and flowers take up the excess nutrients from the water; the cleansed water is then returned to the aquaponics tanks, to start the cycle again.

Here, perfect soil is created by worms. Dirt is the great equalizer, the foundation of agriculture -- no matter one's race, color, or creed.

Aquaponic tank, replenished by water filtered by the hydroponically-grown plants in the upper level

The farm also harvests renewable energy from several solar panel arrays, and uses the heat bio-generated from interior composting bins to warm its several large greenhouses and significantly reduce heating costs during the cold Wisconsin winters.

For a more detailed account of our group’s tour, check out the field trip notes taken by Maria Cancilla of our SUST 350 class at the pdf link below and the photos I took of our tour. Also see Growing Power’s website for a wealth of information about the farm as well as virtual tours of its facility.

Growing Power Tour Notes 2012-03-24 (pdf)

Growing Power’s Milwaukee and Chicago facilities are prime examples, but by no means the only ones, of the burgeoning urban farming movement in cities and suburbs across North America. Students in this inaugural section of SUST 350 in Roosevelt’s Sustainability Studies program are working on a community-based research project about the Cabrini-Green neighborhood’s history, present assets, and future prospects. Two-thirds of our class meetings take place at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm in Cabrini-Green, a half-acre urban farm that began as a small community garden built atop a derelict basketball court in 2002. Here we are working side-by-side with Youth Corps teenage interns from the neighborhood to work compost, weed planting beds, harvest seeds from last year’s crops, build a new hoop house, and do whatever else needs to be done in the farm’s early spring work season.

This farm is an inspiring example of how sustainable agriculture in inner-city neighborhoods can contribute to positively to the physical environment, economic activity, educational opportunities, and social fabric of its community. Its example can be a spark for imagining other urban farming projects that could be implemented in underserved communities throughout the greater Chicago region — such as my hometown of Joliet, IL, located 40 miles southwest of Chicago’s Loop.

Vermiculture compost bins inside a greenhouse at Growing Power

The production of compost at Growing Power's 2-acre site is incredible; we called this pile "Mount Compost"

Our group from Roosevelt University and the Chicago Lights Urban Farm

RU Internship and Career Fair on April 12

April 2, 2012

Roosevelt University will host an Internship and Career Fair at the Chicago Campus on April 12 from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Congress Lounge. Students will have the opportunity to speak directly to employers who have opportunities available immediately. This is also a good chance for those students who still need summer internship options to get that opportunity that they desire. Students must dress to impress and bring plenty of resumes, questions, and a positive attitude. Those who need to polish their resumes or brush-up on interviewing skills contact the Career Development office for help at (312) 341-3560.

For more information, contact Chris Willis, Assistant Director, Employer Relations and Internships, at cwillis@roosevelt.edu.

Michael Bryson

Professor & Director of Sustainability Studies @RooseveltU, Chicago IL