Around Campus
Social Justice Colloquium
Around Campus
“Break the Silence” A Poem Written by a CSUMB Student
Hailey Adamski-Casella, a 3rd year Environmental Studies major, wrote a creative piece about the extraction and excessive burning of fossil fuels. As Hailey says, “What would Mother Earth say if she could break her silence?”
Zip Car On Campus
Around Campus
Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP)
Around Campus
Sodexo has hired a Sustainability and Marketing Manager to support and advance sustainability efforts at CSUMB.
“My position here with CSUMB Dining Services as a Marketing and Sustainability Manager is to transition our dining facilities to a place where we are ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. In other words, tweaking our everyday behaviors to sustain the capacity of our earth. If we take the time to make sure that we are productive, sustainable and fun then everyone who dines on campus will become more environmentally friendly and together we can decrease our overall carbon footprint.” -Krystal Bocanegra
Palace Business Solutions Now Offering Sustainable Office Supplies
CSUMB has added a new source for purchasing products for business operations. Palace Office Supplies has Solar Panels on their factories, as well as high efficiency, low emission trucks, and over 6,000 sustainable products. Buyers can now filter through thousands of products to find the needed item at the appropriate nexus between price and ethical standards. While Staples is our preferred vendor systemwide, we are granted flexibility based on our needs; it is clear that Palace supplies our needs at an affordable and sustainable price.
The Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) involves academic institutions, such as CSUMB, that work with regional government entities (such as cities, counties, or transportation agencies) where we address some of their sustainability-related needs through class projects. This is a part of a movement that around 30 schools across the country are involved in thus far. This model allows for multiple classes across the campus to be working on different projects associated with a single governing body (such as a city, county, or regional transportation entity).
This Twenty First Annual Social Justice Colloquium supports a wide-ranging campus collaboration among 7 majors in CAHSS(GS, SBS, HCOM, VPA, CART, MPA and PSY) on the works of scholar/writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, Meghan O'Hara and her service learning students, and artist Binh Danh. This unique collaboration addresses modern-day ethics of wars, and promotes multidisciplinary and critical interchange which includes voices from local veterans, lectures, photo exhibition, and film showing. Overall, these events will raise consciousness and help us reflect on shared humanity and the need to oppose ever-present inhumanity and injustices. Through these various cultural/art forms, we hope to engender active engagement in transformation for peace and justice. The SBGS department has organized their 21st annual Social Justice Colloquium, with 3 days of events this week on Tuesday, April 4th, Thursday, April 6th, and Friday, April 7th. On Tuesday there will be a screening of the film Fort Ord: Veterans Stories, and aSocial Justice Colloquium reception in the evening. On Thursday, the keynote speaker, Dr Viet Thanh Nguyen, will have a Presentation and after host a Q&A session. Friday Dr Nguyen will speak in the Library on writing as a radical act.
CSUMB is home to Monterey County’s first 5 Zipcars. Zipcar is an innovative program which provides “wheels when you want them.” With the user fee starting at $15 a month you can have access to a sustainable, affordable alternative to owning a car. Whether you need to make a costco run, and cannot imagine bringing home your purchases on the bus, or if you and your friends are making a late night trip to Saturn Cafe in Santa Cruz for vegan milkshakes, now you can use Zipcar to get there. Zipcars are also available for staff and faculty. If you bike or bus to work and need to drive to a meeting off-campus, Zipcar is a great option. Business accounts are available by departments.
Ice Plant Removal by Summer Bridge Students Summer Bridge Students helped remove ice plant, an invasive species commonly found on campus, which has significantly damaged the local ecosystem. Seventy five students, in three different volunteer sessions, helped with the removal. In the first two sessions Ice plant was pulled from the bottom area along Inter Garrison Road and seed balls were used to encourage native regrowth instead of ice plant regrowth.
Shoes for Homeless Community from Students In May 2016 the American Medical Student Association (ASMA) collected 8 full bins of shoes from students moving out. After sorting and sizing, 2 full bins of really nice, useful, shoes in adequate condition were donated to the Chinatown Suitcase Clinic, which supports the homeless population in Salinas. During summer vacation ASMA and other volunteers helped distribute them to the homeless patients that visited our clinic. It helped attract a total of about 20 new patients, and spread the word about ASMA and the Suitcase Clinic to more individuals in the community.
Sustainability Tour Videos
In Fall 2016, Rebecca Kersnar’s ENSTU 211 class created six sustainability tour videos to showcase the progress CSUMB has made in sustainability with our buildings, transportation, food, waste, energy, and water. The videos are a walking tour of the sustainability features of CSUMB. The tour has been a collaboration between CSUMB campus members and Kersnar’s ENSTU 211 classes. Anya Spear, Mike Lerch, and members of Dining Services and the Otter Cycle Center have been ongoing tour leaders and participants. In Fall 2016, Marc Oehlman, Jeff McCall and Chris Beem at CAT provided their support to create these videos, allowing for a broader audience and a long term benefit for student.
On October 28, guest presenters from San Diego State, Professor Jessica Barlow, who is running their very successful program called SAGE, and Dr. Laura Bloch, the Sustainability Adviser of EPA, Region 9, in San Francisco. The goal of this visit was to engage more faculty and better inform the campus of this unique opportunity. Our current partnership with the City of Salinas extends through this Spring, and we are currently seeking a new regional partner for the subsequent year.
Interested faculty who were not able to attend the informational session can contact Professor Daniel Fernandez (dfernandez@csumb.edu) if they would like to get involved. Students will be able to register for the Sustainable City Year program this spring during class registration. In the meantime, please fill out these two capstone surveys from the Sustainable City Year Program.
ENSTU Club Beach Clean-ups
Volunteers Wanted to Help Make Move-Out Zero Waste
Every year, several tons of waste are thrown away during move-out. To help avoid all of this waste going into the landfill, volunteer with GreenWaste and Campus Planning & Development to help divert waste from the landfill. Sign up to volunteer here, and read the short slide show as training.
Garage Sale for Move Out Coming Up!
On May 6th, 2017 there will be a garage sale in East Campus. Pencil the date on your calendars now, and be sure to go check it out the day of. If you’re in East Campus, avoid the crunch and start filling some boxes of things to sell the day of. This is a great way to sell your stuff prior to move out and make some extra cash! If you live on Main Campus, ask a friend in East Campus if you can sell your stuff with them, or just browse the east-campus wide garage sale.
Please contact the Zero Waste Coordinator, Sarah Schmidt, at saschmidt@csumb.edu, with any questions.
Monterey County Sustainable Hospitality Development Symposium
Ice Cream Social Once again, Residential Life has blown away the campus with their incredible ice cream. With lines around the building, it seemed that the whole campus was practically drooling for ice cream. This year, Sondra Teske invited out GreenWaste and the Water Task Force to bring out waste diversion bins and trash talkers, as well as water impact cards to reduce waste and educate students on the impact of their decisions.
Interested in giving back to the community? The Environmental Studies Club organizes beach clean-ups once every few weeks at local beaches. The most recent one was on Saturday, November 5 at the end of Divarty St. near the tunnel. Some professors offer extra credit for participation. A number of students came and helped clean up our beaches. For future clean up dates and more information, contact Riley Rhodeback.
Post Landfill Action Network, (PLAN) - a zero waste resource for CSUMB
CSUMB is now a member of the Post-Landfill Action Network, at postlandfill.org/, which “cultivates, educates, and inspires the student-led zero waste movement.” It provides many zero-waste resources for students, staff, and faculty alike, including: zero waste trainings and workshops such as how to conduct a waste audit, options to purchase discounted sustainable promotional items such as banners and tabling items, and a Zero Waste Blog where anyone can post. PLAN gives the tools for campuses all over the United States to reach their zero waste goals!
Irrigation Update in Main Quad
On November 7 - 18, our grounds contractor improved the landscaping by converting the irrigation and control system to a drip system around buildings 1, 2 and 3 in the courtyard area. This has reduced our water usage and also helped to eliminate water over spraying on the sidewalks in these areas.
Monterey County has been at the forefront of sustainable practices and initiatives, community leaders want to take the region to another level and become a world leader in sustainability. On Thursday, February 23, visionaries, public officials, public policy experts, hospitality and tourism professionals and hospitality developers and contractors gathered for the first-ever Sustainable Hospitality Development Symposium hosted by the Sustainable Hospitality Management program in the College of Business at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). The event was held at the InterContinental and The Clement Monterey.
Dr. Bhatti’s Harvest
Dr. Robina Bhatti grows vegetables and crops in her garden. She would love to have students help her. Students may receive a week's supply of organic vegetables for a couple of hours of weeding. Students in GS 385 (Spring 2017) may grow their own food at the farm or at the new Community Garden in Seaside. Students also have the option to join Dr. Bhatti’s research project on 'Mapping Organic Monterey' either through GS 385 or as an independent study. This is a long term project and she has already mapped (using GIS) all organic operations in Monterey County. The goal of the project is to create a social and material map of the economies and ecologies of Organic Monterey. Please contact rbhatti@csumb.edu to get involved.
American Medical Student Association’s (AMSA) Shoe Donation
ASMA collected shoes during 2016 move out. After collecting all the shoe bins, they were sorted through, of 8 bins collected 2 full bins of really nice, useful, shoes in adequate condition. ASMA volunteers helped distribute them to the homeless patients that visited the clinic. It helped attract a total of about 20 new patients, and spread the word about the organization to more individuals in the community. The entire American Medical Student Association club thanks you for all your help during this process. it was a very successful shoe drive.
Speaker from the International Living Futures Institute Visited Campus
On March 15, guests from the International Living Futures Institute visited campus to discuss the Living Community Challenge (LCC) and the Living Building Challenge. The Living Community Challenge is an ultimate, end-game, deeply sustainable framework for remaking the built environment. The LCC integrates not just the positive use of natural resources but also the social well being, through the inclusion of equity, wellness and happiness.
The campus is exploring options for certifying the Master Plan through a sustainability framework, (just as a building might achieve LEED certification). The two frameworks under consideration include the LCC and LEED- ND (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development).
The Gambord BIT Building Certified LEED Platinum
The Gambord Business Information & Technology (BIT) building has officially achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. This is the highest certification offered by the US Green Building Council. Great job to everyone that contributed to this achievement.
CSU Food and Housing Security Study
Please help California State University Dining Services learn more about how to increase access to food and housing support services for CSU students by completing a short online survey. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. If you choose, at the end of the survey, you can enter your name into a drawing to win one of two $40 gift cards.