Articles and Archives

Most recent posting below. See other articles in the column to the right.

1 comment - Last on 10/22/2009

Happy Campus Sustainability Day

October 21, 2009 By Ashley Thorne

Today is the seventh annual Campus Sustainability Day (CSD), a celebration invented by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). Other organizations such as Second Nature, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology Project, Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC), and the New York Times Knowledge Network, are partners in the project. The SCUP website on Campus Sustainability Day says that “CSD is devoted specifically to the achievements of, and challenges for, the tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff working to instill sustainability principles in higher education institutions and their surrounding communities.”

Every year the SCUP puts together a webcast to be streamed live on the designated October day. Colleges can pay to participate in the webcast (this year’s, “Sustainability Strategies for Vibrant Campus Communities,” costs $195), and audience members may submit questions via text message to the panelists during the program. Today’s webcast (1:00-2:30 EST) features four presenters, administrators at Dickenson College, Cornell University, Furman University, and the Los Angeles Community College District, respectively. Moderating is Andrew Revkin, a New York Times science reporter who created a Times blog on global warming called Dot Earth.

Campus Sustainability Day was founded in 2002 and the first CSD was observed in 2003 with a telecast called "Got Sustainability? Plan for it! Making Sustainability a Foundation of Higher Education Learning and Practice." Hmm...where have we heard this phrase before? Ah yes, it’s in the mission statement of Second Nature, the Kerry-Heinz-creation and the leading organization in the campus sustainability movement:

Second Nature's mission is to accelerate movement toward a sustainable future by serving and supporting senior college and university leaders in making healthy, just, and sustainable living the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education.

According to the SCUP website, “The contributions of Anthony D. Cortese, president of Second Nature, were key in the conception and development of the first Campus Sustainability Day.” NAS has written about Cortese and his organization in “A First Look at Second Nature.” Second Nature, we found, considers sustainability a tool to redress “past, present, and future maldistribution of resources, privileges and rights of endangered communities, of poor people, and of communities of color.” It believes that the university is the best place to foster sustainability advocacy, and that “The myth of the value-free university, that knowledge is attained for its own sake, stands in contrast to the reality that special interests always play a greater or lesser role.”

With its Second Nature roots, global warming alarmist moderator, and exuberant intentions to “celebrate sustainability in higher education,” Campus Sustainability Day promises to deliver the usual political agenda of the sustainatopians. About 300 American colleges and universities have participated in the CSD webcasts in the past, and many will do so today. Colleges are building their own customized sustainability days around the webcast and for some the festivities last for as long as a week or a month.

NAS won’t be participating in Campus Sustainability Day this year—but though we won’t be watching the webcast, we’ll be watching out for those who cast webs.

Add a Comment

Sustainability Day - Sustainability Days at colleges and universities will Sustain the ignoramuses in college and university administrations. What do they think they are going to sustain, except more money in their pockets for promoting what they do not know about? Do they propose that students learn about biology, geology, chemistry, physics, mathematics to study living beings on planet earth? Do they even know about such things? (A student from the Environmental Studies faculty at my university, took a course from me entitled "Mankind and Nature." She did not know that flowering plants reproduce sexually! She drew up a petition against me - the education in ES for for politicking - instead of raising any questions about the course. When I asked what her objections were, she said "Too much biology"!)

by Athena Posted on 10/21/2009

↑ back to the top

Take Back the Classroom from PowerPoint
September 02, 2010 By Jason Fertig
Restrict PowerPoint use in teaching to pictures and videos, writes Jason Fertig. Too much PowerPoint usurps professors' authority and accustoms students to lazy thinking.

Collegiate Press Roundup 9-2-10
September 02, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
Student journalists examine topics from presidential speeches to campus smoking bans.

Will You Promote Diversity? Virginia Tech Tests Faculty Candidates’ Commitment
September 01, 2010 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
A major public university has fashioned a “diversity” litmus test for faculty hiring

FIRE Educates for Free Speech on Campus
August 31, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
FIRE will offer a Free Speech Seminar in NYC on September 14.

University Speaker Series: Arab Feminism, Black Feminism, and "A Southern Queer Love Story"...No Comment
August 30, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
A program on gender and diversity at the University of Richmond will explore "emancipatory ideas of social justice" this fall.

How Scholarships Morphed into Financial Aid
August 30, 2010 By Jackson Toby
This excerpt from Jackson Toby's latest book, The Lowering of Higher Education in America: Why Financial Aid Should Be Based on Student Performance, will appear in the forthcoming fall issue of Academic Questions (vol. 23, no. 3).

Common Reading Controversy at Brooklyn College
August 27, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
Is Brooklyn College using freshman reading for ideological goals?

Question of the Week: How Many Colleges Should You Apply To?
August 27, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
To answer, leave a comment on this article, email us, or respond via Facebook or Twitter (no more than 140 characters).

Atlas Black Shrugs
August 26, 2010 By Jason Fertig
The first comic book textbook combines management jargon and theories and packages them into a story about a slacker student's attempt to become an entrepreneur.
1 comment - Last on 08/27/2010

Collegiate Press Roundup 8-26-10
August 26, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
Student journalists have a look at the Ground Zero mosque controversy, reducing your carbon footprint and the pitfalls of "sexting."

A Regulatory Assault on For-Profit Higher Education
August 25, 2010 By Richard J. Bishirjian
How the attacks on for-profit higher ed are squashing needed competition.

New Excellent Programs: Tocqueville Program and Center for Statesmanship
August 24, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
Check out our list of excellent programs as we add new ones at Indiana and Richmond.

The Glut of Academic Publishing: A Call for a New Culture
August 23, 2010 By Stanley W. Trimble, Wayne W. Grody, Bill McKelvey, and Mohamed Gad-el-Hak
This article will appear in the forthcoming fall issue of Academic Questions (vol. 23, no. 3). A short version of this paper appeared under the title “We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research” in the June 13, 2010 Chronicle of Higher Education.
1 comment - Last on 08/25/2010

Building a 21st Century Syllabus
August 20, 2010 By David Clemens
Professors these days have to cover their backs when writing syllabi, writes David Clemens.
2 comments - Last on 08/20/2010

Question of the Week: Why Did You Choose Your College?
August 20, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
We're starting a new "Question of the Week" series. We'll have a new higher-education-related question every week. To answer, leave a comment on this article, email us, or respond via Facebook or Twitter (no more than 140 characters).
2 comments - Last on 08/20/2010

Dictatorships and Double Standards, Part II
August 19, 2010 By Robert L. Paquette
Professor Paquette responds to the controversy generated this summer after Hamilton College sought to censor his NAS article.

Real Ethics Education
August 19, 2010 By Jason Fertig
Ethics courses should make moral decisions personal, argues Jason Fertig.

Collegiate Press Roundup 8-18-10
August 18, 2010 By Glenn Ricketts
Student journalists tackle gay marriage, weird psycholgy studies and state liquor regulations.

5 Consequences of Administrative Bloat
August 18, 2010 By Ashley Thorne
What happens to higher education when universities are dominated by administrators?

Ravitch Repentant
August 17, 2010 By Peter Cohee
Peter Cohee reviews Diane Ravitch's book, a partial volte-face, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.