Proposition 23, on November 2nd ballot, focuses on California's energy and job future. A September 24th poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times indicates that more about one-fifth of likely voters had not yet taken a position. Forty percent favor the initiative and 38% oppose it, essentially a dead heat. AB 32 is known as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The Act, passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, is the state’s landmark clean air legislation. Proposition 23, if enacted by voters, will freeze the provisions of AB 32 until California’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters. In their campaigns for and against the Proposition, supporters and opponents have each adopted nicknames for the measure to clarify what they think of it. Supporters call Proposition 23 the California Jobs Initiative. Opponents call it the Dirty Energy Proposition (Source: Ballotpedia.org).
On Wednesday, October 20, the Sustainability Initiative and the Environmental Resources center organized a formal debate on Proposition 23 for San Jose State's students, staff, faculty, and the public. Arguing for Proposition 23 was Robert Ramorino, President of Roadstar Trucking, and arguing against it is Eugene Cordero, Associate Professor of Meterology. Anne Marie Todd, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, moderated the debate. To a packed audience of over 230 people, the debaters debated and the students "voted" with poker chips before and after the event. If the election were to have been held today, here is how attendees would have voted . . .
Coming into the Debate (N=214)
| Yes on 23 | (11) | 5% |
| No on 23 | (123) | 57% |
| Undecided | (80) | 37% |
After the Debate (N=221)
| Yes on 23 | (32) | 14% |
| No on 23 | (159) | 72% |
| Undecided | (30) | 14% |
At a celebratory event held Thursday May 13, the Office of the President's Sustainability Initiative team announced the winners of this year’s Ecological Footprint Challenge, and presented the results of our preliminary data analysis.
The grand prize winners for each category were as follows:
Student: Sarah Naumann (Masters in Library & Info. Science (MLIS)
Faculty: Dayana Salazar (Urban & Regional Planning)
Staff: Sstoz Tes (Center for Steinbeck Studies)
Student: Tamara Hoyt (Digital Media Arts)
Faculty: Robin Love (Childhood & Adolescent Development)
Staff: Sandra Smith (Athletic Academic Advisor)
Student: Jill Harris (Masters in Library & Information Science (MLIS)
Staff: Anthony Bettencourt (Student Services)
Faculty:a close and dedicated cluster, all deserving mention...!
Alex Gershenson (Environmental Studies)
Anne Marie Todd (Communication Studies)
Eugene Cordero (Meteorology & Climate Science)
Hilary Nixon (Urban & Regional Planning)
Students:
Andre Rivera (Natural Resources & Conservation)
Nicholas Canaparo
Faculty: Edward Collins (Geography)
Staff: Mike Palmieri (Residential Life Coordinator)
& ...
Jon Whitmore (SJSU President)
Congratulations to these fine examples, and to all who participated.
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library's lighting retrofit project was just awarded the 2010 CSU Energy Efficiency Best Practice award in the lighting retrofit category! More information on project can be found here.
Who will educate the next generation of climate science thought leaders? San Jose State! The Department of Meteorology and Climate Science has introduced a new concentration combining meteorology, environmental studies, geography, engineering and communication studies to produce graduates with an in-depth understanding of climate related sciences, along with related technical skills. The concentration is the first of its kind in the California State University system.
Visit the meteorology and climate science website.
As part of the university's sustainability initiative for this academic year, the Office of President and the Provost's Office have established a college-level sustainability faculty-in-residence position at 0.20 reassigned time for the Spring 2010 semester.
The major responsibilities of the Faculty-in-Residence appointed for the Spring 2010 academic semester are twofold:
1) to work with their respective deans and college department chairs to develop draft short and long term sustainability strategies for undergraduate, graduate, professional degree, and certificate curriculum, and
2) to serve as a general resource for their college, the Office of the President, and the Academic Senate on sustainability issues related to curriculum, research, and co-curricular opportunities.
In November, a call for applications was distributed electronically to all faculty and appointments were made between the Sustainability Director and respective college deans. The faculty selected to represent their colleges are as follows: Rachel O'Malley (College of Social Science), Margie Freedman (College of Applied Sciences and Arts), Eugene Cordero (Science), Grinell Smith (Education), David Parent (Engineering), Richard Keady (Humanities and the Arts), and Arvinder Loomba (Business).
The Sustainability team has worked with administrators and staff in Procurement and Capital Planning and Design to secure commitments for creating an University-wide Environmentally Preferred Purchasing (EPP)s policy (expected May/June 2010) and integration of sustainability into Master Plan and related documents (expected May/June 2010).
One of the key steps to becoming a regional and national leader in higher education sustainability is understanding your baseline data. Many campus sustainability leaders, such as Tufts, have cited audit data as the starting point for any university's sustainability agenda. This project involves hiring a consultant that specializes in sustainability auditing for higher education institutions to conduct an audit and training SJSU students, faculty, and staff on how to carry out future audits.
A cross-University interdisciplinary team led by Prof. Lynne Trulio with faculty representation from the Colleges of Social Sciences, Science, Engineering, Education, Business, and Humanities and the Arts has been meeting regularly since October. This will provide a centralized structure for faculty to learn more about each other's expertise and resources that could be pooled for sustainability education and research, and, in general, promote innovative ideas that benefit all aspects of campus sustainability, and disseminate information on sustainability to the campus and community.
Topical areas related to existing faculty expertise include urban ecology, renewable energy, green Building, sustainable food systems; developing, implementing and evaluating sustainability policies; third-party certification/sustainability auditing; and human behavior change.
SJSU joins an international commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education. The Talloires Declaration (TD) is a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. It has been signed by over 350 university presidents and chancellors in over 40 countries. Find out more.
President Whitmore appointed Associate Professor Katherine Kao Cushing as special assistant to the president and director of campus sustainability in the summer of 2009. Find out more.
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