What I Learned

What did I learn from this class? I mean, I’ve spent countless hours over the semester, reading articles, writing on the blog, and putting my project together. I’ve visited places like the vermicomposting center, the SIUC Power Plant, and our brand new green roof. I’ve read literature, seen places, and was a part of endeavors that I never thought I would have ever been a part of during my time here at Southern, but it means nothing if I haven’t learned anything.

Truth be told, I learned many things because of this Sustainability in higher education: about myself, about my classmates, and about the world we all live in. This class has enlightened me to so many things I never knew were going on, as well as taught me many things I never knew to begin with. I never knew pizza boxes weren’t recyclable, I never knew that there were a sizable percentage of people who use the electric doors without needing them, and I never knew that I would be able to help recycle over 200 newspapers, just with a cardboard box and a silly sign. I learned all of this from a class I thought I was going to drop within the first weeks.

But I’m glad I stayed with it, because the class turned out to be something more than I could have ever hoped for:

About myself: I learned that I really wasn’t as environmentally conscious as I thought I was. My classmates helped me realize what I was doing wrong in my life, and how I could live in a more sustainable way, so as to do my part in keeping the world healthy.

About my classmates: I learned that there is a population of people, who are actively working to help keep the on the right path. They aren’t just the tree-hugging hippies, who preach being pro-active in helping the world, but don’t follow their own words. Rather, they’re people who try to lead through example, and by showing others that if they can live sustainably, then so can we.

About the world: I learned that there are a plethora of new ideas and technologies being invented each day to help lessen the impact we each have on our tiny spaceship called Earth. My project was able to reveal to me that the newspapers we use can live many lives after we finish reading them, but only if we recycle them.

Thank you everyone, Amy, Makayla, Allie, Dan, Vivian, Kim, and Dr. Therrell, for the wonderful semester, and for teaching me so much about how to live sustainably.

-James Quinn

One last “look at this!”

Hello all, I’d like you all to look at http://bringingawareness.tumblr.com/.
The author, Maggie, is friend of mine who attends the University of Virginia (remember when we looked at their sustainability page?). In her own words, her site is “A compilation of social media postings which I believe should be shared with the world,” where she encourages visitors to “Read. Listen. Learn.” Maggie is an advocate for human rights, international environmental and social justice, and sustainability. I’ve enjoyed frequenting her site this semester, it really compliments much of what we have discussed in class. Also look at who is highlighted in her most recent post, our very own Alyssa Saylor!

Keep up the great work, Maggie!

Final Class Post

What has this class given me? I’ve spent 2 and a half hours a week in class, many more working on the final project, so what have I gotten for my tuition money?

Besides the obvious, 3 credits and honors credit, plus a grade for my GPA, I have most certainly gained an enlightenment experience about the world of sustainability.

From the class itself I’ve learned that most of campus is doing its best to save the school money and join in the campus movement for “greener” practices. As a freshman, this makes me excited and gives me hope for the next few years I am here. I am sure the campus will only become more efficient and more sustainable in the next few years.

From my classmates, I learned that where my food comes from, not just how its grown and what exactly I’m eating, should be a large concern. I knew that it wasn’t great that food had to be driven all over the place, but it just never occurred to me that there was plenty of food grown in the area and that I should actively seek it out.

From my project I learned that I should have a little bit more hope for humanity. Plenty of people recycle, there are a few who just need to be educated, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that there is a small percentage of people who simply will not change. Focus needs to be put on the next generations, as it has on us, to reduce and reuse and THEN recycle everything you can.

My life has certainly been altered by this class. Not drastically, but in the little ways that count. I recycle more items because I know what the Recycling Center accepts. I harshly criticize what I buy, making sure it has as little packaging as possible. I check what I eat, even at the dining hall, trying to see what is local and what is not.

And of course, I never use the handicapped door or plastic water bottles, and I return my DE’s for the animal shelter to use.

Suggestions for my speech

Hey everyone! I’m giving my final speech next Thursday. It’s a persuasive about going green. I’m thinking about dividing it into three parts: how it helps the environment, how it can help the local community, and how it can help the person doing it.

What things do you all think I should address for each part?

What “we” learned

So this post is supposed to be about what we learned as a class over the past semester. Of course I can only tell you what I learned but maybe I will speculate on some of what I think the students may have learned and leave it to them to confirm or not.
If you have not been following the blog, we started this as a way to communicate what we were learning with each other during our course about sustainability in higher education. Specifically the course was designed to focus on some of the more practical aspects of trying to promote sustainability (in the broadest sense possible) on a fairly typical university campus. Rather than spending a lot of time reading about other people’s thoughts on sustainability (though we did try to cover the basics) we tried to learn “in the trenches” so to speak. Mostly that involved visiting the people and places relevant to campus sustainability.
For example, we toured the SIUC Power Plant and learned about the realities of keeping the heat (and cooling) on in what amounts to a small city. For me this visit only confirmed my belief that being face to face with the people and systems that sustain our current way of life is critical to anyone who imagines a different and more sustainable future. I felt like this was reaffirmed by our visits to the recycling center, vermicomposting facility and student organic gardens to name a few.
Another aspect of the course that I thought was a good idea was the projects carried out by the students. You can read about the various projects here in the blog. Although I would not say that I was completely satisfied in all respects by the projects (of course who could ever say that), I do think that the students learned a lot from carrying them out and I would have to say that many of the shortcomings are really my responsibility. I am maybe a little too much oriented towards the “sink or swim” school and I think that I may not have offered the right sort of guidance at times.
I know that this post is getting a little long in the tooth for many readers so I will conclude by discussing the blog itself. If you are reading this then obviously it has served its purpose at least to some extent, which was to provide a means of communicating. I think that it is important for students to practice writing/multi-media communication in all courses and it seems to me that if one is writing for an audience where potentially anyone (rather than just the teacher) will be in a position to judge one’s work, then students will learn a lot more from the process. Plus it’s exciting to see that people in “the world” are noticing- “thanks” to all you who left comments. In a way it’s another example of applied learning similar to the field trips and projects. Like those other parts of the course it was not perfect but not too bad either.
All in all I would say that this course was fairly successful. I for one learned a lot and I know that the students learned more than even they realize at this point. I hope that everyone enjoyed it half as much as me.
I plan to keep this blog going as a communication outlet for the students involved in the SIUC Campus Sustainability Project. I am pretty sure that we will continue to see some really creative and inspiring thoughts on sustainability coming from the students on this campus.

Analysis of Project (What Could Have Been Improved)

After looking over my project, there was plenty of room for improvement. There were things that I could have done to make my project just the little bit better, which could have helped me save more newspapers. Below, I include a list of my shortcomings, as well as other things I should have taken into consideration when executing the campaign.

1. A more professional looking sign: I had plenty of people tell me that the sign I used was very poorly done, and that that took away from my project’s seriousness. In all honesty, I didn’t put much effort into the sign, because I just wanted something up there to alert people to the box. Next time I try the project, I’ll probably take more time to make the sign look nicer.

2. Setting up the box earlier: this one was simple, I set the box up at 8 a.m., Lentz Dining Hall opens at 7 a.m.,  so I probably missed the early morning crowd, which would have helped my numbers a bit more.

3. More uniform sampling days: this meant that as opposed to going out and setting up the box on just random days, I should have picked specific days each week to go out with the box and set it up, so that at least then there would be a more similar sampling period. I should have also recorded the weather, wind conditions, and other things like that, and see if those played in with how often people recycled.

This is the last post on this project, and I’m happy to share it with you. Remember, recycle your newspapers!

-James Quinn

D.E. Final Results

Over the last couple of weeks, I gathered much data about the recycling people do with newspapers. Here are the final results of that project.

12 p.m. Average Newspaper Count: 18

4 p.m Average Newspaper Count: 29

Average Newspaper Count at the End of The Day: 36

Overall, I managed to save about 36 newspapers each day i went out with my box. My Daily Egyptian Give It Back Campaign was a rousing success, and it helped me learn a lot about the D.E. readers who read the magazine everyday. I thank them, and everyone who has helped me along with this project. Thanks

-James Quinn

Box and Sign

 

Sign I used to highlight the box

Box I used