Course Objectives.

• (1) To improve your campus environmental literacy. You will understand some of the physical, biological, economic, and social processes that comprise the structure and determine the function of the Widener campus ecosystem. In addition, ecological literacy also carries with it a sense of citizenship and shared responsibility to use your knowledge wisely in your decisions about how you interact with your environment, in terms of your consumer and disposer decisions, as well as your participation in the process that we all must be able to undertake in our transition to a sustainable society. How we all apply our knowledge of ecological processes to our own lives over the next several decades will be of telling significance to humanity.
  




• (2) To improve your Widener institutional literacy. Your success at Widener is very much affected by how well you adjust to college life and how well you know the critical campus resources available to help you with your studies and your career after Widener. A major function of this course is to help you to improve your time management and study skills, and at the same time acquaint you with Widener’s diverse resources and professional staff trained and willing to help you.

Course Description.

       The next 50 years will be of telling significance to humanity. Ongoing degradation of Earth’s ecosystems, unprecedented rates of biological extinction, and global climatic perturbation imperil our future. The present generation of students must redesign key aspects of our basic cultural framework to reduce our impact upon our environment and transform our society into one that is sustainable. There is no better place to begin this process than right here - on the college and university campuses of America.

       This course will explore the environmental design of institutions of higher learning. Topics include energy and water use, landscaping, purchasing, dining services, solid and liquid wastes, etc. We will study “green campus” initiatives at Tufts University, Brown University, and others described in the texts Ecodemia (by Julian Keniry) and Campus Ecology (by April Smith). Students will envision and explore specific solutions that reduce environmental costs while also reducing campus operations costs.

Course Requirements.

Required Text.

       Freshman Seminar 101: The Widener Experience (Andrew Bushko, et al.)

Additional Texts.

       Ecodemia (Julian Keniry).
       Campus Ecology (April Smith).
       The Campus and Environmental Responsibility. (David J. Eagan and David W. Orr, (eds.).
             1992. Jossey-Bass Publ., San Francisco, CA. 133 pages.)

Other Requirements.

       Attendance is required and will benefit your grade. Your grade for this course will be largely determined by your attendance and in-class participation. This means coming to class on time prepared to work on the assigned tasks for that day.

       I will be enforcing the University-wide class attendance policy as described in the Student Handbook. Students who are absent without a valid excuse (as defined in the Handbook) 4-6 times will receive a 2/3 letter grade reduction, 7-9 times yields a full letter grade, and more than 9 unexcused absences will result in an F. According to the Handbook, if you know you will be absent from class (e.g. due to a prior committment or lengthy illness) you should notify the Office of the Assistant Provost. Reasons for excused absences and procedures for obtaining excuses are outlined in the student handbook.

       Each week you will be required to submit a one page journal entry (10 points each) in which you will answer the same four questions based upon your experiences at Widener during the past week.

       This course is about problem solving in campus ecology, thus a substantial fraction of this course is devoted to an individual project on any aspect of campus ecology of your interest. We want to you focus on a very specific issue of institutional stewardship at Widener, investigate the background of the issue, propose the range of possible solutions, find some examples of how it was solved elsewhere, and write a brief report of how you would recommend that this issue should be solved here. We will devote a substantial amount of in-class time to these projects, and we want to make it clear to you that you will not be allowed to take on a project that you cannot complete within only a couple of hours of work outside of class. Toward the end of the semester we would like you to make a brief presentation in class to your peers about your issue. Following this at the end of the semester, we want to collate all of your reports into a class document (Widener University Journal of Campus Ecology) containing recommendations for your successors to follow.

Course Assessment.

      

class attendance and participation ( 27 classes * 5 pts)	135 points
weekly journal entries (12 Mondays * 10 pts)	120 points
other in-class assignments to be announced	45 points
oral presentation of campus ecology study	50 points
final report of campus ecology study	50 points
_______________________________________________________	__________
total =	400 points

Class Schedule, Fall 2000.

#	date	topic { reading }
#1	Mon, Sept 11	Why campus ecology? { Ecodemia, preface & introduction }
#2	Wed, Sept 13	Introduction to Widener. { Widener Exp., ch. 1 & 9 }
#3	Mon, Sept 18	Greening our lighting. { Ecodemia, ch. 4 }
#4	Wed, Sept 20	Time management. { Widener Exp., ch. 2 }
#5	Mon, Sept 25	Greening the paper trail. { Ecodemia, ch. 6 & 7 }
#6	Wed, Sept 27	CAPS Tour, Mary Pennington.
#7	Mon, Oct 2	Greening the grounds. { Ecodemia, ch. 2 }
#8	Wed, Oct 4	Courses and classes. { Widener Exp., ch. 3 }
#9	Mon, Oct 9	Is green food better? { Ecodemia, ch. 5 }
#10	Wed, Oct 11	Study skills. { Widener Exp., ch. 4 & 6 }
#11	Mon, Oct 16	Project discussion day.
#12	Wed, Oct 18	Library Tour, Maria Varki.
	Mon, Oct 23	*** fall break ***
#13	Wed, Oct 25	Demystifying pre-registration. { Widener Exp.,ch. 7 }
#14	Mon, Oct 30	Campus ecology on the world wide web. { TBA }
#15	Wed, Nov 1	Project work day.
#16	Mon, Nov 6	Project work day.
#17	Wed, Nov 8	Academic Ethics. { Widener Exp., ch. 8 }
#18	Mon, Nov 13	What is an environmental audit? { TBA }
#19	Wed, Nov 15	Project work day.
#20	Mon, Nov 20	The Tallories Declaration and a green curriculum.{ TBA }
#21	Wed, Nov 22	Project work day.
#22	Mon, Nov 27	Project work day.
#23	Wed, Nov 29	Project work day.
#24	Mon, Dec 4	Project critiques.
#25	Wed, Dec 6	Campus ecology project presentations.
#26	Mon, Dec 11	Campus ecology project presentations.
#27	Wed, Dec 13	Final reports due.

There will not be a final exam.

Class schedules from previous years.

Campus Ecology Projects Students Have Done.

Related Web Sites.

Please Read This Comment.

      You are welcome to download some or all of the material I have posted at this site for your use in your campus ecology course. This does not include commercial uses for profit. If you do use any lengthy exerpts (more than 2 lines) of the material above, I request that you formally acknowledge this site and/or sites I have acknowledged as the source(s). I also request that you reciprocate and send me a copy of your campus ecology materials so that I may see what you have put together.

Please send comments to me: grant@pop1.science.widener.edu.

Copyright: Bruce W. Grant, 2001.