Recently interviewed, Dr. Laura Hyatt the Committee Chair of the Steering Committee for the Energy and Sustainability – Broncs Go Green answered a few questions regarding the internal projects, mission and goals at Rider University. Dr. Hyatt is an Associate Professor as well as the Department Chair of Biology where she also gives a lot of her time towards the green movement at Rider.Kristy Love: As a major part of Rider's strategic plan for Energy and Sustainability - Broncs Go Green, what is your number one mission?
Dr. Laura Hyatt: My number one mission is to ensure that every student who walks across the stage at graduation understands that their choices impact the environment and the health of the environment feeds back on the quality of their lives. Hopefully, they'll proceed to make choices (about jobs, purchases, lifestyles, any kind of endeavor) that are in their own best interests. How do we get there? We use the campus as a curriculum, providing examples of how to go about making sustainable choices by making them ourselves. We're aiming for Carbon Neutrality by 2050, which means we'll increase efficiencies, try to use less energy, and get our energy from renewable resources. Broncs Go Green educates students one-on-one, or in groups. We're developing an academic Sustainability Studies Program (a minor) for students who want to pursue sustainability more deeply.
KL: With Earth Day approaching, what is in store for Rider University after being very successful in 2009?
LH: We're really excited to have Colin Beavan on campus to present his film, No Impact Man(on Earth day at 6 pm). The film will be shown 3 times during Earth Week. (Tuesday the 20th at 6 pm, Wednesday the 21st at 11 am and Thursday the 22nd at 4 pm). He spent a year trying to have little to no environmental impact through his life and made a documentary about it. He stopped using elevators, turned off power in his home, hardly generated any waste, and in the process, reconnected with his family, nature, and his neighbors. Students, faculty and staff will have an opportunity to meet him and ask questions. We'll also be having an event on Cranberry's patio again, with games, trade up giveaways and other events. The Westminster Campus will be having a Spring fling, including human-powered carnival rides, collections of gently used clothing, and other quizzes and games.
KL: What is your favorite project at Rider and why?
LH: Currently, I'm excited about helping faculty discover ways to integrate sustainability into their courses across the curriculum -- we'll be having a session during Faculty Development Day -- and developing the Sustainability Studies Minor for all kinds of students. I think that there are a lot of faculty who feel pretty strongly about the importance of sustainability education, but are just not sure how. The film series has done a great job of raising awareness. On the operational side, I think all our waste stream modifications, including composting all our food waste, mixed stream recycling (I think we're one of the few places in Mercer County where you can recycle items labeled #1-7 -- most places just take 1's and 2's) are exciting.
KL: Are there any upcoming events that students can get involved with on campus?
LH: Volunteering for Earth Day is always a good one & attending the Colin Beavan talk would be a great start. Sustainable Rider is looking for fresh blood -- there is a building organization across college campuses in NJ for sustainability-minded students and we need participants at the local and state level. In an aside, there are some students who saw Flow -- one of the green film series movies -- who were quite upset once they realized how damaging and unsafe bottled water is. They're trying to organize a ban on bottled water for the campus, an initiative that is VERY common at college campuses nationwide. That's an initiative that has to come from the students -- the ESSC can't push that agenda with our contractors.
KL: What is your main goal for students to help with sustainability while being a student at Rider?
By Kristy Love
Your question and answer posts all look really good! Just make sure that they all have the same format. If you're going to use initials to identify people, do that throughout. Or if you're going to use "Q" and "A", also do that throughout all four posts.
ReplyDelete- Kaitlyn Compari