In her opening remarks at the Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference (OHESC) at Portland State University, Institute for Sustainable Solutions Director Jennifer Allen encouraged attendees to think of ways to “link arms and harness our assets together in a way that we can really move the needle on [sustainability efforts].”

With public-private partnerships that promote urban mobility, the integration of energy and sustainable design, ecosystem services work and watershed stewardship, collaboration is the hallmark of Portland State’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, which is charged with advancing sustainability research, education and outreach at the university.

A higher education sustainability conference in this region provides a unique look at partnerships that exist among public and private sectors that would normally compete with each other. For a full list of speakers and presentations, see the conference program. Slides from each presentation will be posted by the end of February.

Portland-based AASHE staff members Margo Wagner (marketing & communications) and Judy Walton (publications) attended the January 31-February 1 event, recording their takeaways on the theme of collaboration:

1. Music Provides Common Ground Across Cultural Divides in Sustainability

Portland State University professor Albert Spencer, an Eastern Kentucky native and “proud grandson of a coal miner” is working to create curriculum that will encourage sustainable energy careers in Appalachia. His approach? Bluegrass music.

When it comes to conversations about energy, there is a large cultural divide between Spencer’s urban, middle-class, environmentally-focused, liberal Portland students and the rural, working poor, conservative demographic of Appalachia. “But both places loves bluegrass!” exclaimed Spencer during his session, “Using Bluegrass Music to Power Sustainable Energy in Appalachia.”

By studying Steve Earl’s “The Mountain” and Taylor Made’s “West Virginia Underground”—“beer drinkin’, butt-kickin’ music,” as Spencer calls it—PSU students gained a different perspective and empathy for how Appalachians feel about outsiders telling them how to live and what’s “right.” Spencer hopes to take the course online for students in Appalachia to help achieve his ultimate goal of slowing the capital flight from the region.

2. Finding Common ‘Sustainability’ Language is Key to the Movement

Nichole Martin didn’t like the word “sustainability.” She felt excluded from the conversation and wondered how, as a woman of color, she fit into “this big movement about how we can sustain” that seemed full of messages about eating organic food, recycling, shopping locally and other language targeted to white people of privilege.

After talking with her parents, she realized her own connection with the word: “My parents have been sustaining for a long time. It’s called trying to survive.”

During the conference, Martin shared her experience of inviting people of color into the sustainability conversation through a series of seminars on the Portland State campus focused on race and sustainability. The goal of the series, which ended up being hugely popular, was to find common language that could lead to communities finding their own ways to get involved with the movement.

The common sustainability definition to come out of the series: “A person’s capacity to continue.”

“Exploring the social side of sustainability changed my life,” said Martin, who now serves as a program assistant for Portland State University’s Solutions Generator, which works to “inspire students as change agent leaders capable of envisioning, implementing and assessing holistic sustainability solutions on campus and in the community.”

3. Sustainability Industry Partnerships Keep Institutions Competitive

The energy efficiency industry is expanding with a national investment of $1.5 billion per year and Oregon is attracting graduates as a national/global center of excellence for energy efficiency and design, said Energy Trust of Oregon’s Fred Gordon during the session, “Energy Efficiency: Powerful Creator of Green Jobs for Professionals.”

This all sounds good but there is a current disconnect between this growing industry and Oregon’s state universities. “Here’s an industry that is a big part of the climate change solution, a space that is tailor made for PSU—we have a stake in the ground around urban sustainability—and we’re not able to meet the demand for jobs in this industry,” said session panelist Erin Flynn, associate vice president for strategic partnerships at Portland State.

In terms of national education and training, said Flynn, there are lots of technical programs at two-year colleges in the energy efficiency industry, but there is an opportunity right now to pioneer curriculum that will prepare economists, business managers and specialists in this field.

Portland State currently offers a popular smart grid course and a green building lab, and is now working to weave these disparate pieces into “something meaningful for students and industry,” said Flynn. “…the demand is clear, the industry is ready, and it seems like the kind of opportunity to be intentional about, to jump on.”

As a punctuation to this message, luncheon keynote speaker David Kenney, president and executive director of Oregon BEST (Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center), showed how connecting Oregon industry to university research teams adds value and enhances competitiveness for Oregon firms, boosts state revenues, helps the state recruit new clean technology companies, and grows and improves university research. Oregon BEST, a nonprofit established by the Oregon Legislature, invests in key clean tech research projects and facilities that can create economic impact and attract research dollars to Oregon universities. Kenney opened and concluded his talk with these words: "Some of you, perhaps not all, should become clean tech inventors, innovators or entrepreneurs. We need you."

4. Collaboration Helps Impact the Campus (Triple) Bottom Line

At Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, a collaborative effort is transforming the campus into a "living lab." With support from President Mary Spilde, faculty, staff and students are working together on projects that benefit the campus while enhancing student learning and faculty/staff research. The college's new Institute for Sustainable Practices helps connect courses (Lane CC has six sustainability-focused degree programs) with campus facilities and infrastructure spaces that become real-world "labs." Energy management and water conservation instructors Josh Manders and Sarah Whitney described three levels of student involvement with these spaces from simple tours, to data collection and monitoring projects, to analysis of "real problems with real equipment," which generates "real solutions." Mike Sims, recycling and surplus property coordinator and Anna Scott, energy analyst, described how these collaborative projects "provide students with opportunities to impact the campus (triple) bottom line."

5. Collaboration is Integral to the Student Vision of Sustainability

Developed by students from across higher education institutions in the Northwest during the conference, the OHESC Student Summit Vision includes "expectations of inclusive and collaborative decision making processes, which include students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and the surrounding communities" as part of its definition of a "culture of sustainability." Tangible actions toward a culture of sustainability as outlined in the Vision include:

• a commitment to transparent endowments, socially responsible investments, and a complete divestment from fossil fuels
• establishing a Green Revolving Fund on each campus
• developing a requirement in each major that addresses the intersection of sustainability and the field of study
• creating a system for access to affordable, healthy, and just food, which could include establishing a food pantry and/or garden plots for the campus community’s use
• mandating programs that provide a holistic introduction to sustainability for first year students, new staff, faculty and administrators, which address oppression of both people and the planet

Click here for a full look at the OHESC Student Summit Vision.

This month, we are sponsoring two Saturday seminars on February, 23, 2012, on UMBC’s Campus, Public Policy Building, Room 206.

________________________________________________________

Breakfast Seminar: 

“Completing Your Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation”

Speaker: Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale (PROMISE Dissertation Coach, The Dissertation House)

10AM -12 Noon

RSVP: UMBC’s graduate students are asked to RSVP on MyUMBC here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/16380

Students from other campuses are asked to RSVP as a comment for this post.

Join the blog for The Dissertation House today! http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2013-challenge/.  Any student from any school may join.

These are free activities.

———————————————

Lunch Seminar:

“Radio Research” with Barrett Whitener (Professional Voice-over artist, PROMISE Public Speaking Facilitator)
Barrett Whitener returns once again to work with graduate students on public peaking skills. In this seminar, you will learn how to give a synopsis of your work to an audience, WITHOUT a powerpoint presentation. You will be coached to present your work to an audience as if you were being interviewed on the radio.  This seminar debuted at one of the first PROMISE Summer Success Institutes at the Sheraton Hotel in Columbia. It was very popular, and we are able to bring it back this year. Whitener conducted our “Confident Public Speaking” seminar in 2012. Graduate students from all disciplines are invited to attend this Feb. 23, 2013 Special Saturday Success Seminar.  UMBC’s graduate students are asked to RSVP on MyUMBC here:

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/16381

We’re also co-sponsoring:

“Not Just the Tenure Track” with UMBC’s Graduate Student Chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE-Grads), Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, 4:30 PM, UMBC AOK Library, 7th Floor.

This month, we are sponsoring two Saturday seminars on February, 23, 2012, on UMBC’s Campus, Public Policy Building, Room 206.

________________________________________________________

Breakfast Seminar: 

“Completing Your Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation”

Speaker: Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale (PROMISE Dissertation Coach, The Dissertation House)

10AM -12 Noon

RSVP: UMBC’s graduate students are asked to RSVP on MyUMBC here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/16380

Students from other campuses are asked to RSVP as a comment for this post.

Join the blog for The Dissertation House today! http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2013-challenge/.  Any student from any school may join.

These are free activities.

———————————————

Lunch Seminar:

“Radio Research” with Barrett Whitener (Professional Voice-over artist, PROMISE Public Speaking Facilitator)
Barrett Whitener returns once again to work with graduate students on public peaking skills. In this seminar, you will learn how to give a synopsis of your work to an audience, WITHOUT a powerpoint presentation. You will be coached to present your work to an audience as if you were being interviewed on the radio.  This seminar debuted at one of the first PROMISE Summer Success Institutes at the Sheraton Hotel in Columbia. It was very popular, and we are able to bring it back this year. Whitener conducted our “Confident Public Speaking” seminar in 2012. Graduate students from all disciplines are invited to attend this Feb. 23, 2013 Special Saturday Success Seminar.  UMBC’s graduate students are asked to RSVP on MyUMBC here:

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/16381

We’re also co-sponsoring:

“Not Just the Tenure Track” with UMBC’s Graduate Student Chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE-Grads), Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, 4:30 PM, UMBC AOK Library, 7th Floor.

FROM: Freeman Hrabowski, President, and Philip Rous, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
TO: The UMBC Community
RE: Inaugural Grants from the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation

We are delighted to announce the projects receiving inaugural grants from this fund. These projects build on our faculty’s strong track record of, and commitment to, reimagining what it means to teach and learn. We received a large number of outstanding applications and, unfortunately, could not fund all of the projects. Those selected for awards represent each of our colleges and a wide range of disciplines, and many of them take an interdisciplinary approach to their work.

IMPLEMENTATION AND RESEARCH GRANTS

The Math Gym – A team led by Nagaraj Neerchal, professor and chair of mathematics and statistics, will develop The Math Gym, which will feature “conditioning coaches” and “personal trainers” who will help students keep their foundational math skills in good working order. Moreover, the gym will promote healthy math habits among all our students, drawing a clear analogy between the regular work outs and conditioning needed to maintain both athletic and mathematical skill.

Active Computing Teaching and InnoVation Environment – A team led by Marie desJardins, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, will create ACTIVE, a dynamic “laptop laboratory.” The lab will support innovation in computing courses – with a particular focus on improving the retention and success of women, underrepresented minorities and transfer students. The laboratory will extend active-learning environments, such as CASTLE and the new English writing labs, to a new area of the university.

SEED GRANTS

The Wisdom Institute – A team led by Craig Saper, professor and director of UMBC’s language, literacy, and culture program, will create an institute to expand the role for emeritus professors at UMBC.

Putting Students’ Language Skills to Work – A team led by Susanne Sutton, lecturer in modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, will develop new experiential and service-learning course requirements for undergraduates studying German, with a particular focus on connecting students to Baltimore’s German community.

Service-Learning in Statics – A team led by Anne Spence, professor of the practice in mechanical engineering, will develop new service-learning requirements for undergraduates studying mechanical engineering, with a particular focus on identifying components that increase retention and student success.

EHS – Bruce Walz, professor and chair of emergency health services, will lead a project to integrate individual cameras into EHS exercises, so that students can receive more personalized and immediate feedback on their performance.

Begun with major grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Heinz Awards, the Innovation Fund has benefited from substantial support from alumni and friends, the local community and businesses, and State and national leaders. That support is a testament to the work we’ve already done and a vote of confidence for the national model we’re continuing to build. Projects supported by the Innovation Fund will complement the many other creative and enterprising initiatives already underway at UMBC – from the STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative to composition course redesign in English – and will build on our strong history of finding novel approaches to teaching and scholarship.

The competition for the next round of Innovation Fund grants is underway, with proposals due by Friday, February 8. For more information on how to apply, click here. We want to thank everyone who has submitted a proposal, and encourage those whose proposals could not be funded in the first round to apply again.

We are truly inspired by the creative ideas we hear each day and are delighted to be able to support more of them through this fund.

Maricel Kann, assistant professor in the department of biological sciences, recently published a new online book, Translational Bioinformatics on PLOS-CB (first open access book in PLOS.)  

This is a great resource for our students, the textbook is a good introduction to many of the topics in the emerging field of Translational Bioinformatics, and it is free to all, says Kann.

The e-pub file is downloadable from the collection page:

www.ploscollections.org/translationalbioinformatics

It’s also in mobi format for Kindle users. If you don’t have an ipad/tablet/ereader to view the epub or mobi file on, you should be able to view it on Firefox if you download this add-on:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epubreader/