First week of Spring term

Welcome back from Spring Break!!

The first meeting of Spring term is tomorrow, Monday, March 30 at 5:00 pm in SMSU 229. Late notice, right? In case you miss this first one, the next meeting will be Monday, April 13 at 5 pm, SMSU 229.

Awakening the Dreamer Symposium
9:30 am - 4:30 pm
Saturday, April 4
Native American Center @ PSU

Lisa Meersman, our coordinator, tells me this was the most amazing workshop she attended at Powershift, and now it's coming to the Native American Center on campus this Saturday. You have to RSVP and pay $25. If you can afford it, check it out!

Now HIRING!

PSU Campus Learning Garden Research Coordinator - Apply by 4 pm Friday, April 3, 2009

The Environmental Club is working on creating a campus Learning Garden which will provide urban gardening experience to students. The Miller Grant committee will fund a temporary coordinator to help research, set up, and plan the Learning Garden. Members of the Environmental Club will contract with an undergraduate or graduate student to spend 12 hours a week for Spring term helping to research, plan, and set up the Learning Garden.

The Learning Garden will consist of plots to be used as garden-based education by classes, student groups, and campus organizations. The Learning Garden will provide hands-on experiences with urban gardening for students who may have limited access to land. Classes, such as Permaculture or Organic Gardening, may use plots in the Learning Garden to earn the "Community-Based Learning" hours they need to complete their course. The plots will give them a chance to implement what they are learning in the classroom. Additionally, the plots may be used by classes for research or horticultural and environmental science classes. Campus groups such as the Multicultural Center or Child-care centers may also use plots for growing theme-based gardens.

To apply, please provide a resume with particular emphasis on experience with garden-based education, research, and any other relevant experience. On a separate sheet (or on the back of the resume!), please include a brief explanation of why you are interested in this job. Finally, include a brief but specific list of what you would do in the first two weeks in this job if you are hired, i.e. "By Wednesday of 1st week - compile contacts, send out emails, meet with Community Garden coordinator, etc." Feel free to drop off applications in the Environmental Club mailbox next to the SALP office in the Smith Building behind the Info Desk. Emails are also fine - send them to ecpsu@pdx.edu.

• Hours: 12 hr/week

• Wage: $10/hr

• Duration: Spring term, April 6 - June 14

• Required skills or experience:

  • Previous involvement with garden-based education, whether as a volunteer, organizer, or student

  • Research experience

  • Self-directed with the ability to prioritize and work independently

• Preferred but not required:

  • Previous experience updating blogs

  • Previous experience or knowledge of co-op structure

• Duties:

  • Provide weekly reports & log of hours

• Research and prepare portfolio of garden-based education programs, such as:
  

  • PSU's Learning Gardens Laboratory
    

  • PCC's Learning Garden

• Create a customized plan to implement such a progam at PSU

• Research and prepare portfolio of existing co-op structures at other schools and PSU, such as Food for Thought

  • Create a customized plan to set up such a co-op at PSU

  • Identify potential sources of continual funding

• Research and identify key components of stable, long-lasting organizations, and prepare recommendations for a PSU program to ensure stability

  • Identify existing and relevant programs at PSU and other schools exhibiting stability, such as the Community Environmental Sciences group in Urban Studies
    

  • Identify sources of continual funding for Learning Garden and co-op

• Identify and create a list of potential participants in the Learning Garden

• Present findings at end of term and advise on next steps for Learning Garden program (I was thinking that this person should also attend some Environmental Club meetings throughout the term and give updates on progress...?)

• Help the Environmental Club obtain land for the Learning Garden

Yahoo email users

Yahoo has been blocking emails from PSU addresses, so if you have gave a Yahoo email address for the Environmental Club email list, you are probably not getting updates.

I will try emailing those with Yahoo email addresses from my personal Gmail account, which apparently has worked for some others at PSU in order to notify them of the problem if they don't see this blog. However, this is not a permanent solution nor something I want to do for every update (and who knows when Yahoo will fix it) so if you do have a Yahoo email account and would like to continue getting updates, please email ecpsu@pdx.edu with a non-yahoo account address for the listserv!

SPROG

SPROG - Youth Grassroots Organizing Training
Oregon: August 16-23

The SSC's Student Environmental Leadership Trainings, are week-long peer-to-peer training programs led by the nation's top youth organizers. Develop your grassroots organizing and leadership skills, network and bond with fellow students, engage in fun activities and enjoy tasty vegetarian cooking (the low carbon diet for the climate). Not only will you come away changed, you'll have the skills and confidence to be a force for change!

See what past participants have to say.

LEARN to LEAD:

• GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING: How to start and run an effective youth organization. We cover everything from recruitment, to running a meeting, to developing new leaders to ensure that your organization continues once you graduate.
• CAMPAIGN STRATEGY & PLANNING: How to plan, implement, and run an effective environmental campaign. We use the Sierra Club Matrix to teach the most essential skills needed to effect real change. Later in the week you'll get a change to practice your skills.
• COMMUNICATION SKILLS: How to define your message and get it across confidently and persuasively to the media, to fellow group members, and to the public.
• GUEST SPEAKERS: Meet some amazing special guests--Sierra Club experts, leaders of the movement, and experts on various aspects of climate and energy justice.

• Oregon: August 16-23
• Washington State: June 21-28
• Puerto Rico : June 27-July 4 (Participants must speak fluent Spanish).
• New Mexico: June 28-July 5
• Virginia: July 5-12
• Illinois: July 6-13
• Texas: July 19-26
• New Hampshire: July 19-26
• California: Los Angeles: July 19-26

COST: The Environmental Club will be doing a group application, which provides massive discounts, so don't apply on your own!! If you are interested, email ecpsu@pdx.edu. We'll take care of the application details.

Dead Week events

There are no more general meetings this term. They will start up again next term. Next newsletter will include the new day and time. The two campaigns do have some upcoming meetings:

The Learning Garden group is meeting Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 pm in SMSU 258.

Take Back the Tap group is meeting Wednesday, March 11 and Friday, March 13 from 10:00 to 12:00 in SMSU 2nd floor lounge.

Permaculture Design Presentations
March 12th and 19th
4:00 - 6:30 pm
SMSU 338

Environmental Club members are invited to attend the final site design presentations for for graduating students of Toby Hemengway's Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Certification Course. Presentations include site designs for PSU President Wim Wiewel's home, a horse facility, the Oregon Food Bank, the Learning Gardens and a home residence.

Toby Hemenway is the author of the first major North American book on permaculture, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, and an adjunct professor at Portland State University. He is also Scholar in Residence at Pacific University.
For more information about the course, click here.

Karen Coulter - "The Rights of Property vs. Equal Rights"
Friday, March 13, 4 - 6 pm
Food For Thought, SMSU basement

Students for Unity & Environmental Club present:
Karen Coulter, Director of Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project, lecturing on her work with POCLAD and the rights of property versus equal rights.

PSU jobs for sustainability
Check out these great opportunities and become part of PSU's sustainability team!

1. Sustainability & Marketing Internship
   PSU Dining Services
   Hours/Week: 6 - 10 (negotiable)
   Salary: $9/hour
   
   
2. Student Marketing and Education Outreach Specialist
   PSU Recycles
   Wage Scale: $12.00/hour
   Hours: 15/week
   Job Length: Spring Term 2009-Spring Term 2010
   (apply before 4:00 pm Friday, March 13th, 2009)
   
   
3. Student Recycler
   PSU Recycles
   Wage Scale: Starting at $8.55 per hour, with a $0.25 raise after 3 months and each successive working year anniversary.
   (apply before 4:00 pm Friday, March 13th, 2009)

Volunteer for Sustainability
There are many ways to fulfill volunteer hours for a class, expand your resume and help make PSU more sustainable! If you are interested in any of these opportunities, contact Heather Spalding at 503-725-8951 or hspaldin@pdx.edu.
Volunteer opportunities for sustainability at PSU

Volunteer Tasks

* Create promotional fliers and brochures
* Translate sustainability brochures into other languages
* Create sustainability cartoons for promotional materials
* Create sustainability-themed thank-you cards
* Compile news articles
* Write EcoWiki articles
- Interview people from around campus about sustainability issues
- Interview green teams
- Add jobs, volunteer opportunities, scholarships and internships
* Hang paper = trees stickers in bathrooms or organize a work party
* Post light switch stickers around campus or organize a work party
* Work with the Environmental Club's Take Back the Tap campaign
* Create and implement your own project!
* Data entry
* Be a PSU Recycles Crew Member by shadowing the team for a day.
* Staff the PSU office supply reuse room.
* Help out the day of an event.
* Write poems about recycling.
* Work with a PSU Recycles! staff member.
* Help coordinate one of PSU Recycles! large yearly events
- RecycleMania
- Chuck it for Charity
- PSU garage sale
- Move-out
* Hang posters on bulletin boards
* Collect recyclables put them in the correct bins.
* Distribute flyers and posters to academic departments
* Chalk the boards of classrooms, sidewalks, and lecture halls.
* Help Staff the outreach tables on campus
- Includes discussing recycling on campus
- Handing out brochures and outreach materials to raise awareness
- Engaging with the public about sustainability issues

The sky is the limit! If you have another idea, the Sustainability Office can help you raise awareness about issues not listed here.

Powershift update, next meeting today!

Powershift 2009!! 12,000 students, workshops, state break-out sessions, speakers, bands, and LOBBYING! 26 PSU students went to Powershift 2009 in D.C. this last weekend and learned some awesome skills, did some amazing networking, and heard some inspiring speakers. The conference started Friday and ended Monday evening. A couple PSU students stayed through the end and were able join the ranks of other Powershift attendees lobbying legislators in Congress (for all 50 states!!!), pushing for carbon caps, alternative energy, and investments in a green economy. A rally against D.C.'s coal plant was also held!

Of course, PSU students and other West Coast students had to fly across the nation to attend this amazing event. At the end of the conference, many of us pledged to do a variety of things to try to make up for the carbon footprint of this event, such as:
-"for my birthday party, I will invite all my friends and have a tree-planting party with Friends of Trees"
-"I will teach my family to recycle"
-"I came to Powershift mostly for the free ride, but now I will change my own lifestyle towards sustainability because I finally understand what environmentalists are fighting for"
-"I will work with Cascade Climate network"
We also hope that our lobbying of legislators showed them how much organizing power and passion students have. We hope that Congress members will remember this and vote more sustainably because of Powershift 2009. Apparently, conference organizers also managed to get carbon offsets for participant travel emissions by Sterling Planet and offsets for other conference-related carbon emissions through Clean Currents.

Next meeting is today, Thursday, March 5 at 6:30 pm in SMSU 258. It's "Bring your brother to an Environmental Club meeting" day.


Karen Coulter - "The Rights of Property vs. Equal Rights"
Friday, March 13, 4 - 6 pm
Food For Thought, SMSU basement

Students for Unity & Environmental Club present:
Karen Coulter, Director of Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project, lecturing on her work with POCLAD and the rights of property versus equal rights.


PSU Recycles! is hiring for two positions
The application process closes at 4:00 pm Friday, March 13th, 2009.
To learn more, see the Ecowiki


Green Empowerment's Intensive 2.5 day Technical Training
April 17th to 19th ~ 2009
SMSU 229
Electricity for Rural Areas in Developing Countries, Photovoltaics (PV), Water Pumping, Case Studies in International Sustainable Development

* Friday, 4/17: 6-9pm
o Introduction to GE and our development model; phases of a project’s development.
o Case Study on a solar water pump installation in the Philippines.
o Case Study on planning and training at a nationally sponsored conference in Ecuador for utility operators, government officials, and village leaders.
* Saturday, 4/18: 9am-5pm
o Primer on electricity (1.5hr).
o Solar electricity as source of power for rural communities (system components, hands-on measurements, and sizing/design exercises).
* Sunday, 4/19: 10am-5pm
o Solar Water Pumping (system components, sizing exercises)
o Review
o Q & A

Cost is $250 (20% discount available to PSU students) Enrollment is open now. Registration deadline is Friday, March 20th.

Contact: Jason Selwitz, Director of Service Learning: jason@greenempowerment.org
Or, please call (503) 284-5774.
Check out: www.greenempowerment.org


Other Events
Sustainability Presentations
Native American Student & Community Center @ PSU

Mar 6 - 7 Indigenous Perspectives & Practices for a Sustainable Future: Columbia River InterTribal Fish Commission; the Elahka Alliance (Ecotrust Native Program); Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Native Plant Recovery

These events are open to the public; FREE for students; $5 suggested donation
Contact Judy BlueHorse Skelton for more info about the series judyblue@pdx.edu