BREAKOUT SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS

Draft Recommendations

Progress Toward Sustainable Community Development and Partnerships for Sustainability in Higher Education

Purpose and Goals:

Colleges and universities can do much to support and demonstrate sustainable communities through their research, teaching, outreach and operations.  Many exemplary sustainable community models and strategies have been developed over the past decade in higher education.  This session will:

• Characterize the current status higher education for sustainable development (HESD) in the U.S., and briefly describe the evolution of the field since the Rio Earth Summit.      
• Highlight examples of colleges and universities that are working to promote local sustainable communities, especially where science is involved.      
• Discuss the recent emergence of state and regional consortia and partnerships, such as the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability and the Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy.        
• Describe the newly formed Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership (GHESP), its goals and role in the approaching World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).      
• Discuss strategies and resources for academic research and outreach for sustainable communities, and explore ways to strengthen campuses as demonstration sites for sustainable communities.

 Desired Outcomes:

Develop recommendations for forming effective local and regional HESD partnerships supporting science and sustainable communities.

Potential Presenters:

• Richard M. Clugston, Executive Director, ULSF         
• Collette Hopkins, Associate Director of Partnerships, Clark Atlanta University       
• Julian Keniry, Manager, National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program      
• Bruce Coull, Dean of the School of the Environment, University of South Carolina      
• Alan Elzerman, Chair, Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Clemson University      
• Harold Glasser, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Western Michigan University

Session Format:

Presenters will speak briefly on the topics outlined above in the first hour.  They will co-lead a discussion on these and emerging issues for the second hour, with a focus on recommendations in terms of HESD for the WSSD delegation in the third hour. 

Background Information for Synthesis and Discussion:

1- Clugston, Richard M. & Calder, Wynn, “U.S. Progress Toward Sustainability in Higher Education.â€�  Invited chapter for Sustainable Development in the United States Ten Years After the Earth Summit: An Assessment and Recommendations (John C. Dernbach, ed., Environmental Law Institute, forthcoming 2002).  

2- Cortese, A. D. (1999a). Education for Sustainability: The need for a new human perspective, [Internet]. Second Nature. <http://www.secondnature.org>.

3- Cortese, A. D. (1999b). Education for Sustainability: The university as a model of sustainability, [Internet]. Second Nature. <http://www.secondnature.org>.

4- Filho, W. L. (Ed.). (1999). Sustainability and University Life (Vol. 5). New York: Peter Lang.  Available on the ULSF website at <http://www.ulsf.org>.

5- Ingram, C. Denise & Hopkins, Collette (1998). “Clark Atlanta University and University of Toamasina: Partners in Community and Environment Around the World.â€�  Paper presented at the Southern Forest Economics Workshop in Williamsburg, VA, sponsored by the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service and the Department of Forestry of North Carolina State University.

6- “Lüneburg Declaration on Higher Education for Sustainable Development� from the October 2001 conference, “Higher Education for Sustainability: Towards the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio + 10) in 2002,� held in Lüneburg, Germany, hosted by the COPERNICUS Program of the Association of European Universities (CRE) <http://www.lueneburg-declaration.de>.

7- State of the Campus Environment: A National Report Card on Environmental Performance and Sustainability in Higher Education (2001), A Report by the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program. <http://www.nwf.org/campusecology>

Session Organizers:

Rick Clugston
Executive Director, Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF)

Wynn Calder
Associate Director, Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF)

Presenter Bios:

Wynn Calder is associate director of the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF) and the Center for Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE).  ULSF is the Center’s higher education program.  He is editor of the ULSF report, The Declaration, news editor for the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.  Since early 2000, Wynn has coordinated the new Higher Education Network for Sustainability and the Environment (HENSE).  Mr. Calder received his Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 1993, where he focused on comparative religion and psychology.

Dr. Rick Clugston is executive director of the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF) and the Center for Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE).  He also directs the Secretariat for the Earth Charter USA Campaign.  He is publisher and editor of the CRLE journal, Earth Ethics, deputy editor of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (MCB University Publications), and serves on the steering committees of the Forum on Religion and Ecology and the Higher Education Network for Sustainability and the Environment.  He received his doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Minnesota and his masters in social sciences from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Collette M. Hopkins serves as the associate director for Partnerships for the Research Center for Science and Technology of Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta, Georgia).  In this capacity, she coordinates external relationships for the Center with entities such as government agencies, schools systems, businesses and industry as well as national and international organizations.  She has extensive experience as a social science researcher and prior to returning to Atlanta in 1984, served as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Education (Washington, DC).

Julian Keniry is senior manager of the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology and Internship Programs.  She has spoken to hundreds of audiences all across the country on environmental transformation in higher education and written number of publications on the topic, including Ecodemia (1995); Green Investment, Green Return (1998); and Campus Environmental Management Systems (2000).  She spearheaded State of the Campus Environment: A National Report Card on Environmental Performance and Sustainability in Higher Education, published this fall and serves on the Board of the Institute for Conservation Leadership.

Questions? conference@NCSEonline.org