Thanks to Russ Pierson, for transcribing this session! Join the AASHE 2011 Transcription Project and help spread the great ideas presented at the conference!

Creating Sustainable Social Change: Student Engagement on Environmental Justice on Campuses
AASHE2011, 1:15 PM, Room 317 Sunday, October 9

Susan Beckett, CU Environmental Center
Sarah Dawn Haynes, CU Environmental Center
Erika Kociolek, AASHE/Duke University
Andrea Zaragoza-Ballesteros, AASHE/ University of Colorado at Boulder/ CU Environmental Center

Susan
Introductions
A series of panelists sharing the ways in which Environmental Justice is addressed on campuses as an opportunity for education, engagement and sustainable change in both the campus community and the surrounding areas. This panel will focus on the importance of student engagement on the matter, which offers the opportunity for a better relationship between the academic institution and the greater community by creating leaders and meaningful relationships for sustainable social change.

The panelists focused on "What Worked?" and "Lessons Learned," using the Environmental Center at Colorado University (Boulder) as a living example.

Sarah Dawn Haynes
Environmental Center History
• Flagship campus: Boulder
• Founded by students 42 years ago
• 9 FT staff, over 100 student employees, 409 student volunteers

Definition of "Environmental Justice:"
"No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other." -Majora Carter

Federal definition:
No population, especially the elderly and children, should be forced to shoulder a disproportionate environmental burden.

CU's Progress Points:
• Grad students host environmental justice lectures
• Hired 2 student coordinators, formed after school program
• Student government leaders submitted monthly editorials on environmental justice
• Steering Committee formed (and then later restructured)
• Diversity outreach focused on creating campus alliances
• Community energy connections
• Food and environmental justice week

Andrea Zaragoza-Ballesteros
Steering Committee: What worked?
• Set solid foundation
• Student government representatives shed light on e student government bureaucracy
• Raised awareness among participating students
• Provided a "sounding board" for EJ coordinators with regard to what CU and the greater community need?
• Gave students a voice

Steering Committee: Lessons Learned
• Most members not actively engaged
• Students already overcommitted
• Students from all level needed, new students intimidated
• High turnover and lack of continuation and documentation

After-School Programs: What Worked?
• Legitimized environmental justice through approval from Denver Public Schools
• Working with a recognized organization = good community access
• Developed relationships with students
• Sustainability, justice-centered curricula
• Helped identify students for a "Computers to Youth" project

After-School Programs: Lessons Learned
• Not enough documentation
• Mixed results, some saw it as babysitting
• Difficult to find students that wanted to learn instead of just seeing the program as a "giveaway" with little value.
• No evaluation
• The loss of a key leader with the partner organization meant a loss of credibility in the community.
• School bureaucracy changed, which created new roadblocks.

Community Energy Connections (did Tier 1 Audits): What Worked
• Successful outreach to hundreds of home
• Bilingual student employees and Spanish-speaking population
• Longmont, close proximity to CU
• Credibility through association
• Service learning and skill building opportunity for student employees

Community Energy Connections: Lessons Learned
• Change in staffing, subsequent change in support
• Tiered auditing program changed
• Program often viewed as a handout
• Success was largely dependent on the auditors
• Cultural barriers

Susan

Food and Environmental Justice Week: What Worked
• Spread awareness among students
• Increased interest on topic
• Built community connections with speakers and organizations
• Service projects
• Partnerships on campus

Food and Environmental Justice Week: Lessons Learned
• Students overexposed to events
• Preaching to the choir
• Follow through. The hope had been to create long-term relationships with organizations, but it only happened in a couple of places.
• Only one day of service learning

Big Lessons Learned:
• Training and development is imperative
• From the community, for the community. Better to have the community tell us what they need, rather than other way around.
• Avoid "Band-Aid" projects and "Hero Complex."
• Documentation and continuity

What's Next at CU?
Increase in campus collaborations
• Dennis Small Cultural Center
• Center for Multicultural Affairs
• Volunteer Resource Center
• Institute for Ethical and Civil Engagement
Discussion series and fact campaign
Presentation of CU Diversity Summit
Environmental Justice 101 Training Sessions
Food and Environmental Justice week

Andrea
The CU case is a model of what works, what doesn't.
Stress on continuity.
Project mentality vs change mentality.
Training: train yourself, staff and volunteers
Identify groups you can partner with, both on and off campus

Erika
WORKSHEET
Posted at http://ecenter.Colorado.edu/environmental~justice/links

Q&A
Funding: at CU, funds come from student fees, utility, city, EPA, state agencies
Diversity: there is little diversity at CU
Continuity: now managed by a permanent staff member, mindful of transition, staff accordingly. Introduce old, new people
Evaluation: do a self-evaluation each term

Look for links, additional information on website: http://ecenter.Colorado.edu/environmental~justice/links

Thanks to Zachary Davidson, Program Assistant of NYU Sustainable Initiatives, for transcribing this session! Join the AASHE 2011 Transcription Project and help spread the great ideas presented at the conference!

Break-out Session Presenters:
Rebecca Schroeder, University of Pittsburgh
Eva Resnick-Day, University of Pittsburgh:

Rebecca: Sr. at U Pitt

Eva: A green fund is…

• a set of $ set aside for Sustainable projects on campus
• comes from students
• projects are proposed by students

Rebecca: Importance:

• increase a campus’ sustainability
• provides savings
• provides for communication and collaboration btw students and admin

Rebecca discusses student’s role in understanding sustainability on campus

• 24 hr existence there gives them an advantage

Eva: Green Funds empowers students to make change, and gives tangible skills post-graduation

Rebecca: Where the $ comes from?

• Student activities fee, additional fee on tuition (automatic, opt-in, opt-out)
• Automatic pros: you know what you’re giving
• Opt-in: Advantage is that it’s a choice

Eva: Other Sources: relevant academic depts.. FM & housing

Rebecca: donations, fundraising (not best for all $) but good enough, outside grants (seed funding but not good for sole source)

Eva: Turning your green fund into a revolving loan fund

• $ not used can be saved year to year
• Pay-back from projects can’t be correlated just to your investment

Rebecca: Benefits of Green Fund

Real World Project Management experience

Compliment to the academic curriculum

Gives legitimacy to demands of student greeners b/c shows viability of their ideas

Eva: Public recognition to the university

Rebecca: Example of Community Benefit

• Purchased a composter for an urban garden which was used not only by the school but also by the university

Rebecca: Starting a Green Fund

• Beneficial Steps:
  1. Research: Talk to other schools www.pittgreenfund.com
  2. Create a Coalition: Identify allies (talk to relevant departments, students, faculty, staff)
  3. Create an official structure of the fund (how will you get and give your fund) – Use resources from other institutions with established funds
  4. Develop a campaign strategy and pitch your structure
  • go to the top and the bottom
  • get not only student but also administration buy in
    1. Implement Your Program
  • run a pilot program – you can workout the kinks – add this to your frame work – this allows you to evaluate

Eva: Campaign at Pitt

• From a vision and a coalition they went to student government board, who had institutional knowledge
• They didn’t want to go to the Media until they talked to their university administration

Rebecca: After a massive support base

Student Govt. passed a resolution

Rebecca: Student Sustainable Projects Committee:

• Solicit project proposals from students
• These students then decide which projects are the most sustainable
• Committee connects the projects with relevant facets of government

Eva: Progress of the Pitt Green Fund

Created a Handbook (which was institutionalized by Office of Experiential Education)

Go Green Signs (awareness of impact of small personal decisions)

Lo-Flow Aerator Pilot for sinks (reduces water use by 77%) and then was institutionalized for all dorms

Ruling limits use of statistical reasoning in legal arguments

A UK judge in murder trial ruled that Bayes' Theorem and similar statistical analyses can no longer be used to argue for the soundness of evidence in such trials. The Guardian has the story, A formula for justice.

"It's not often that the quiet world of mathematics is rocked by a murder case. But last summer saw a trial that sent academics into a tailspin, and has since swollen into a fevered clash between science and the law.
    At its heart, this is a story about chance. And it begins with a convicted killer, "T", who took his case to the court of appeal in 2010. Among the evidence against him was a shoeprint from a pair of Nike trainers, which seemed to match a pair found at his home. While appeals often unmask shaky evidence, this was different. This time, a mathematical formula was thrown out of court. The footwear expert made what the judge believed were poor calculations about the likelihood of the match, compounded by a bad explanation of how he reached his opinion. The conviction was quashed.
    But more importantly, as far as mathematicians are concerned, the judge also ruled against using similar statistical analysis in the courts in future. It's not the first time that judges have shown hostility to using formulae. But the real worry, say forensic experts, is that the ruling could lead to miscarriages of justice."

A group of UK academics, statisticians, forensic scientists and lawyers have been formed to try to address the problem bad statistical arguments in the courts. "We want to do what people failed to do in the past, which is really get the legal profession and statisticians and probability guys understanding each other's language."

Bayesian networks have become widely used in computing and information systems to model and reason about uncertainty and as prt of the foundation for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining.

Ruling limits use of statistical reasoning in legal arguments

A UK judge in murder trial ruled that Bayes' Theorem and similar statistical analyses can no longer be used to argue for the soundness of evidence in such trials. The Guardian has the story, A formula for justice.

"It's not often that the quiet world of mathematics is rocked by a murder case. But last summer saw a trial that sent academics into a tailspin, and has since swollen into a fevered clash between science and the law.
    At its heart, this is a story about chance. And it begins with a convicted killer, "T", who took his case to the court of appeal in 2010. Among the evidence against him was a shoeprint from a pair of Nike trainers, which seemed to match a pair found at his home. While appeals often unmask shaky evidence, this was different. This time, a mathematical formula was thrown out of court. The footwear expert made what the judge believed were poor calculations about the likelihood of the match, compounded by a bad explanation of how he reached his opinion. The conviction was quashed.
    But more importantly, as far as mathematicians are concerned, the judge also ruled against using similar statistical analysis in the courts in future. It's not the first time that judges have shown hostility to using formulae. But the real worry, say forensic experts, is that the ruling could lead to miscarriages of justice."

A group of UK academics, statisticians, forensic scientists and lawyers have been formed to try to address the problem bad statistical arguments in the courts. "We want to do what people failed to do in the past, which is really get the legal profession and statisticians and probability guys understanding each other's language."

Bayesian networks have become widely used in computing and information systems to model and reason about uncertainty and as prt of the foundation for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining.

Dear AASHE 2011 attendees,

Help us spread the great ideas shared at AASHE 2011 around the world in near real-time by participating in the AASHE 2011 Transcription Project. It's an ambitious project, but if even a small group of people commit themselves to helping out, we can rapidly expand the impact of AASHE 2011 far beyond Pittsburgh!

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Last year, it was exciting knowing that we were making it possible for ideas to reach people who couldn't attend in person! Even people who were in attendance appreciated the transcripts because they allowed them to find out what happened in a concurrent session they missed. And a year later, visitors to AASHE's website are still reading those transcripts!

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