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Meeting called to order at 1430.  Present: G. Selter, S. Rafkin,  R. Keady, D. Schwarz, D. Jaehne, M. McNeil

Minutes of February 17 meeting approved as submitted.

Announcements: M. McNeil passed out flyers announcing the IREES awards for environmental presentations at the College of Engineering Student Conference Day (May 12, 2000).   She also passed out flyers announcing the IREES 2000 Forum on High Tech Water Efficiency, scheduled for June 6, 2000 in the Engineering Auditorium.

Environmental Forum co-sponsorship of IREES awards:  The Forum agreed to co-sponsor the IREES awards at the Engineering student conference.  The Forum will contribute half of the $75 prize money.  M. McNeil will see that the Forum is listed as co-sponsor of the event on the promotional materials.  The Forum will discuss judging procedures at the April meeting.

E.H.& S. Program: B. Olszewski has started work on the Forum's funded project to develop the E.H. & S. program within the Department of Environmental Studies.  Since L. Rowntree was absent, the Forum did not have a work plan or job description for the activities.  We learned that a meeting has been held between Olszewski and B. Sherin and M. McNeil and that student recruitment activity has been started.  B. Sherin is willing to obtain industry funds for a promotional brochure (c. $1000) and the Dept. of Environmental Studies is looking into funding the industry information night event (about $575).  The Forum expressed its encouragement for the College of Social Sciences to continue its support of outreach and program development for E.H. & S.

IREES Research Award Event:  The Forum agreed to co-sponsor, with IREES, the annual student environmental awards competition, open to all students on campus.  We agreed on a reward structure of $100 for first place, $50 for second place, and $25 for third place.  All presentations are in the form of posters.  The Forum will supply one judge to work with an IREES judge and an industry judge.  We will discuss judges and criteria at the April meeting.

Student Research Award-Future Planning:  The Forum agreed to develop the student research award over the next two years in the direction of linking with departmental Senior Project, Capstone, Culminating Experience courses and events to promote a stronger curricular linkage for the awards.  This could include variable formats for presentation (paper + poster or paper + presentation, for example). We will investigate the CSU Research Awards for sample guidelines.

Curriculum Inventory:  D. Schwarz agreed to circulate the environmental curriculum inventory to all department chairs and seek updates and additions.  D. Jaehne will get a copy of the department chair email list to D. Schwarz (via R. Milnes, Chair of the University Council of Chairs and Directors).

Website:  D. Schwarz has updated the website and added some materials relative to student opportunities.  The Forum agreed to post links to non-profit educational opportunities, but not to for-profit concerns.

Environmental Event Calendar:  The Forum discussed the possibility of the Forum website providing an ongoing calendar of environmental events in the Silicon Valley.  Though this seems like too much work for Forum members, we decided to see if we might solicit a student assistant and/or work with the Environmental Resource Center (ERC).  D. Jaehne agreed to contact L. Rowntree about working with the ERC on this. The Forum agreed that it would be excellent for our off-campus visibility to have such a resource on our website.

Recruitment and Outreach:  S. Rafkin provided a sample brochure to announce the Forum and the environmental curricula and GE courses on campus.  The Forum recommended that the brochure: 1) list only GE courses; 2) list programs (major or minor or certificate) with a link to the Forum website where students could then link to the relevant departments; 3) provide two lines of descriptive text for each program; 4) provide a statement about the Forum's mission and activities.  The goal for having the brochure ready is late April, in time for the first round of Advising Days.  The Forum will schedule its April meeting in advance of the Advising Days to allow for checking the brochure content.  S. Rafkin will coordinate with D. Schwarz to get the updated curriculum inventory information.

Next Meeting:  Will be set up via email for late April, but a week prior to April 25 advising.

Meeting Adjourned at 1550.