Sustainability and UWFox

“Green” parking spaces has sparked lots of interest. Clearly, students want to do the right thing. But what is the right thing?

What could this campus do to become more environmentally friendly? What would make a real difference? (No, we’re not going to drop athletics so they don’t have to travel.)

What are you willing to do?

Parking and the "Green Spaces"

I read the responses to the question, “What are your thoughts on the green vehicle parking spaces?” in the November 9, 2009 issue of the Fox Journal. It piqued my interest sufficiently to provide a blog posting on this issue.

Having these spaces is part of the LEED certification of the Communication Arts Center.

Based upon the small number of responses, there is clearly a lot of ignorance about what sort of vehicle can park in the so-called “green spaces.” These are reserved for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles (LEFEV). LEFEV are defined as those that are either classified as zero emission vehicles or have achieved a minimum green score of 40 on the American Council for Energy Efficiency Economy Annual Rating Guide. The rating for vehicles can be found at http://www.greenercars.org/greenbook_method.htm.

If you would like, you can download an Excel spreadsheet of all the qualifying vehicles, or simply determine if your vehicle meets the standards to park in those spaces. Our parking enforcement officers have a list of those vehicles.

You don’t need to drive a Prius to qualify. Since the model year 2000, nearly 500 automobiles, both “American made” and others, qualify under these standards. The Fox plan includes creating a sustainable a community to the best of our ability. I would hope that the number of spaces that have the ”green vehicle restriction” would actually increase, because these the vast majority of scientists support the need to reduce our global carbon emissions, not to mention reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Not everyone at Fox has a LEFEV. Those people just need to walk a bit further.

Spring Courses and the CAC

I have been asked about spring courses being cancelled. The UW Colleges Institutional Office told us recently that our instructional budget was more than we were allocated. (The CAC has absolutely nothing to do with the instructional budget.) I asked the Curriculum Committee to address this, and they have identified some courses that we think we can cut while minimizing the impact to the students. In fact, we're exploring ways to avoid even that to the greatest extent possible. This will be discussed to some extent at Monday's Collegium meeting at noon in Room 1229. This is an open meeting and anyone can attend and provide input. The Fox Student Association has 8 representatives on the Collegium. Because there are no classes all students or any staff and faculty should be able to attend to voice concerns.

The furniture in the CAC is there temporarily, to be replaced when the permanent furniture comes in.

The Miron Cafe cut back hours because it was losing money. Not enough purchases. This was a business decision of the contract vendor. Had more faculty, staff and students patronized it, they would not have cut back service.

One interesting thing about this blog is that anyone can post under the guise of anonymity. So there is no way for me to know if a poster is a student or a community member, unless they sign it. I'm OK with that.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Fox Student Actions

Over the last weeks I’ve had two distinct and dramatically different feelings about interactions with Fox students, one extremely rewarding and another much less so.

Last Saturday night we had our annual scholarship fund raiser on campus. Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night the current scholarship recipients and ambassadors were nothing less than spectacular at setting up, assisting during the event, and taking down and cleaning up after it was all over. I heard numerous comments from the guest chefs and foundation board people what wonderful assistance these students were. It left a very positive impression for everyone.

A couple weeks earlier I had a no-agenda discussion opportunity for any student who wanted to show up over the noon hour. In order to encourage this, SA and the Dean’s Office went together and bought pizza for those who were attending. The food was clearly ordered for those who wanted to chat. I was absolutely floored to watch students walk in, pick up pizza and immediately walk out. The nicest phrase I can come up with regarding that incident is “rude in the extreme.”

Thumbs up and a loud cheer for the scholarship recipients and ambassadors. Those should be proud of their efforts. Thumbs down with a loud boo to the students who lacked manners in the listening session. Those students should be ashamed.

Thoughts on upcoming furloughs

I’ve been thinking about the upcoming academic year and how the realities of the state economy are going to impact the campus.

Isn’t it a sad state of affairs – prices of many have gone up, economy is down, and our employer is paying us less by sending us home 6-8 days for the next two years. I really feel for the faculty and staff in the UW System. Yesterday I sat next to the spouse of a UW Oshkosh faculty member at Rotary. He said she was out of sorts about the furloughs, that she had taught summer school because some of her junior colleagues at UWO had wished to do other work over the summer, and then she got caught in the summer furlough bind. And that they are not getting much empathy from people there who are in positions like mine. We talked for a while about it and I pointed out that while UWO faculty feel they are underpaid in the first place, he could just imagine how UW Colleges faculty, who are paid even less than UWO faculty, must feel.

I am sure our System folks were well meaning when they made the decisions they did about how the furloughs were to be taken, but I don’t know that they really truly understood the need to talk with faculty more directly. Perhaps they relied on people like me to communicate for them and maybe I have not been as effective as I should have been. Specifically, there is the need for faculty in particular to understand why faculty furloughs are to be taken during non-instructional times. Many faculty feel that those to whom they provide service, the students, should feel the impact of their furlough.

I believe UW Colleges Chancellor Wilson really tries his best to communicate with a geographically dispersed audience – 13 campus sites plus 72 county offices. He holds video town hall meetings, but relatively few show up for them. So I cannot fault him for lack of effort to communicate. I’ve always had the impression that our campus has really not paid much attention to the chancellor, no matter who was occupying that seat. Seems odd to me, but that’s the way it is.

Chancellor Wilson told me that UW System felt that the ire of the public would be enormous if they decided to increase tuition and then cut back on the number of instructional days. Of course it turn out that tuition was increased at all campuses except UW Fox and the rest of the UW Colleges.

We’re getting ready to start another year, and I recognize all to acutely that the feelings going into the year are less positive than normal. It’s too bad, but I feel rather powerless to influence anything that means much to people on the campus in this reagrd, especially when it comes to influencing at the bigger level of System.

President Reilly is our Fall Convocation speaker. I hope people will be civil to him, unlike the fiasco that is going on with health care reform. I don’t think he or anyone is making decisions with the idea of “Let’s stick it to the faculty and staff.” But a respectful question or two would not be out of place.

I’m willing to slug our way through this predicament together. It’s easier for me for a whole host of reasons (higher salary, no kids, relatively healthy dogs, etc.) , and I guess the best I can do is say to you all, and the public that might care to read this blog post, that I am trying to recognize that it can be enormously difficult for some – dare I say most -- of you, just as this is a difficult time for people in the private sector. I don’t think people in the private sector realize that after attaining the most highest and most prestigious degree the world’s universities have to offer we still start our faculty at less than $45,000 per year.

I wish I could make a difference, or make it different.

A Concern about Involvement and Participation

Dear Fox Students:

This week there was an election for the officers and members of the next UW Fox Student [Government] Association (SA). To say they threw a party and no one came is a bit of an overstatement, but not enough people came. The SA has a provision that says the election of an officer requires the winner to receive at least 75 votes. That did not happen and as a consequence, another election is necessary or you will be without leadership in our shared governance process.

To think that a campus of 1700 students has a voting turnout as low as our last election is disappointing. This time I think I saw more quality electioneering than I have in recent memory. I think you should care and here’s why you should care – it’s all about your money.

Each year the students you elect make decisions about how a whole lot of your money is spent. $281,000 to be exact. This is the amount of money that comes to Fox from you via segregated fees. And it is the SA that pretty much controls how that is to be spent. They decide how much you are going to be taxed in segregated fees. So you have a vested interest in making sure the students who make the decision are the people you want to make that decision.

In addition, this year, SA is spending an additional $86,000 to buy new furniture, and they have come up with a plan of where and how the students will be lounging. One of the candidates (who did not get 75 votes) reminded me that my blog post on the brown couch situation generated 106 comment, more commentary than any other blog posting I have done. You must have some interest.

The University of Wisconsin has the strongest tradition of shared governance in the nation. Shared governance means students participate in all our decision making processes except personnel decisions (like merit for faculty and promotion and tenure decisions. ) The people on SA represent you.

We just came off of a national presidential election where I believe where young voters made a difference in the outcome. There are people in the world who literally are willing to die for the right to vote. It’s a hallmark of our nation. It means representation!

Voting matters, be it for the President of the UW Fox SA or for the President of the United States.

So why is it that so few students are deciding to be participants?