ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES COMMITTEE
June 3, 2003
Board Room

ATTENDEES: Bob Jones, Dorene Steggell, Anne Forrestel, Julia Heydon, Robyn Hathcock, Karyn Kaplan, Erin Rowland, Steve Mital, Jo Rogers
Guest: Kyle Allred

Announcements

Erin introduced Kyle Allred. He will be the new ASUO Environmental Coordinator.

Subcommittee Reports

Transportation – The final updates have been made. Dorene drafted a cover letter to accompany the flyer and e-mailed it to Bob and Steve for review.

Karyn said she could include the flyer with recycling information for the new employee orientation packet. She suggested creating a more concise three-fold version, possibly along the lines of the recycling brochure.

Sustainability Conference

Sustainability Northwest hosted a conference in Portland on May 29-31, with approximately four thousand in attendance. Steve was on one of the panels. He felt that overall UO was well represented and well received.

Karyn was impressed by the quality of speakers in general and by the governor’s announcement of a new sustainability executive order. It includes specifics for each university and state agency with mandatory benchmarking.

Anne was impressed by the progress that schools, nonprofits, government, and businesses are making toward sustainability. The Pacific Northwest is recognized as a leader.

An overview of the conference may be found at http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org

David Orr

The consensus regarding David Orr’s honorarium was to attempt to negotiate for a figure between $1,500 – $2,000. Possible funding sources are Environmental Studies, ASUO, Humanities Center, College of Business, and the Bookstore.

A question was raised about whether bringing in speakers is EIC’s role. The main reason in this case would be specifically to promote environmental literacy. It may help to obtain references from other universities and allow more time to plan and fully utilize his expertise. The committee decided to wait until spring, possibly around Earth Day or a CASL event. Steve volunteered to e-mail David Orr in order to postpone his visit.

Campus Sustainability Tour Brochure

Any suggestions for changes are welcome. UO campus tours are being redone, and they are receptive to including sustainability sites into the tours. Anne complimented Christine on how comprehensive the brochure is. Julia will bring it to the attention of the Campus Communicators committee. Other suggestions were to include it at IntroDUCKtion, Week of Welcome, and in the Office of Admissions. They are a good recruiting tool; and therefore, may be something that Dan Williams would consider allocating funds toward for reproduction costs.

CASL

Seven students and one community member participated in a field trip to Echo Hollow and Aprovecho Research Center. Jo described some of the interesting people and demonstrations of alternative lifestyle they encountered. More students are becoming involved in CASL and are working on subcommittees, outreach, and web development. The web site should be ready soon. Bob will e-mail the final web address to the committee. CASL can be found at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~casl