Major Projects & Green Campus 2008-2009

This week I had a few meetings and an inteview. I met with Steve Hientz to talk about Earth Day and he is talkign with Green Unity so we have as many vendors as possible, Green Unity already has many vendors plus great prizes for the Earth Day Art Show. I met with Carloyn Henne about my trip to Qatar comign up on wednesday. I will be meeting with the student government there multiple times and help them continue there way and leanr what they are doign there. They are also comign in March and I will be part of the committee that joins them for activities and shows them around.
I had an interview with a couple of ladies from a mass comm class and there will be a video that they will give to me that we can hopefully put up on the website to continue are quest for greeness. We are still looking for new student members for the sustainabilty committee. I emailed Steve about a recyclign bin and told me we have to ask the guy in charge of the commons and he emailed him for me and i have yet to receive a reply. I am going to email the man in charge of the commons soon.

Here we go again VCU!!!

This is going to be a very exciting semester we have earthday, recylcemania, and The sustainability committee. We had a meeting last week for the committee and we just were approved to have 3 more students join the committee which will be great for student input. I will put up notes shortly as well as a great presentation of how green VCU already is when it comes to carbon emissions.

Earthday is coming soon so we need to mobilize get in touch with me or Green Unity 4 VCU. There will be more info soon as well as all the facts. There is also a earth day art show so artists send submissions to Green Unity 4 VCU.

Recyclemania is in action so lets recycle, I see way to may platic bottles and cans in trash cans right next to our new bins which will be featured in a magazine world wide quite soon, I will put that up soon. So lets take action and get people involved.

ALSO UNCOSE DEADLINE EXTENDED!!! WE NEED TO MAKE THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT COUNSELING SERVICES BLING BLING!!!! So if you are an artist or know someone who is lets get some work in there to help your fellow VCU students through their counseling needs.

Well Uncose Collection is going great. Flyers were made with help from Sanjay and Brandon and printed and they look hot. I picked them up and started posting them in the different art areas. If you go into the Fine Arts Building and walk up the stairs there is one at ever corner its awesome. I talked to AFO and they posted some for us. I talked to a couple classrooms, and some students seemed really interested and took my business card and hopefully I start getting entries. I talked to Dr. Aziz and he loved the flyer and is very excited about the project.

Now I am sending emails to departments to really to students and to see if Teachers want me to come and talk and tell them more of the vision of "Uncose". I talked to Stef Powers from Commonwealth Time and we are going to get an article in shortly.

I am very excited about Uncose. So talk it up you all.

Green movement has its first sustainability committee Monday at 11 am-12 pm. This will be getting to know the people on the committee and listening to VCU's plan about where they are going with the PCC.

We wrote out thank you cards to all who made Bio Tour possible and thank you again. It was a great event.

I sent Kanwar some more information for the website

I have been looking for dates for showing movies and I am hoping that next Monday the 17th we can show the Convenient Truth. A movie about Curitiba, Brazil. Since the 70's they have been one of the leading cities in the Environmental movement. It is a really great film.

I emailed the department of Painting and Printmaking and will be putting up flyers and talking to classes in the next few weeks to get submissions for the Uncose award, the deadline will be December 1. Than a committee at UCS will judge the work and choose which pieces of art they want.

This was a big week, setting up and hosting bio tour. It was really amazing having there big bus out there and showing the VCU community that going green is sticking around. The day went well and the presentation was very interesting. Alumni Association, Vcu 4 Green Unity, and SGA were present. We had fun all day and talked to some interested students.

We also had the Al Gore presentation on webcast, it didn't work to well so we saw another film and had a good conversation about what we should do to keep this way of life growing.

I am going to finish the posters for UNCOSE collection and get them out.

This week I talked to Dr. Aziz, he is very excited about our new art collection. It is going to be called the UNCOSE Collection. I have been spreading the word and am making a flyer to post up around the art buildings. This is going to be great, he wants to have an opening and times when people can come through and look at the work.

I know have all the information I need from Green Unity 4 VCU and will be sending an email to Ecolution and all the people who signed the petition.

Talked with Melissa in preparation for Bio-Tour, we have not heard from the Alumni Association, but once we hear its all good, we are ready to contact everyone who needs contacting.

This week was spent Talking with VCU 4 Green Unity, we are going to combine members. they have a main a group and a few sub-groups which are recycling, education, and green eating.
I watched a couple films and want to do a forum soon on the Convenient Truth, it is about Curitiba Brazil, one of the leading cities in Sustainable everything, it is a great movie.
Melissa And I met With Gordon from the Alumni Association and it went well for funding for the Bio Tour, we should find out next Thursday.
I have a meeting Monday With Dr Jihad Aziz from University Counseling Services to see what we can do and how to do what I want in the facility.

I talked to Green Unity about joining forces and we are meeting tuesday night to discuss this

I talked to a member of the student life committee and told her about what is going on.

Melissa talked with the Alumni Association and we are setting up a meeting time for next week.

I also am going to start working on a Project to revamp the University Counseling Services Art.

1. Organize Green Focus Group

2. Get us a listing of what sustainability guy is trying to do.

3. Agenda Ideas

This week I sent Jacek, a little report on what we have done.

He sent me a few links on some contests we can enter so I am, working on setting up teams to see if anyone is interested in entering.

I talked to Steve Heintz and heard about what is going to be new this year. He hired a new staff member, and there will be a lot of changes in the next couple weeks. Outdoor recycling bins and he is working with housekeeping to teach them to separate recycling and trash.

We can get Bio Tour to come, but it is a little expensive so we have to get a few different groups together to make it happen.

Jacek is still getting use to being around and doing lots of little things his reason for being here is to oversee the Presidents Climate Commitment and to make sure it all happens

The Green Focus group is still taking form and will likely combine with Green Unity. So all green ideas people can stay together and work together.

Week of September 8th:

This week I was contacting different people to see where and how the Green movement was going. First I went to the Green Unity meeting, they are an environmental group that are somewhat supported by Environmental Studies Program. They have lots of ideas and it seems that there main task is recycling. I met with my Deputy, and we talked of our ideas and where we wanted to go with this. We decided to meet with Jacek Gosh, VCU’s sustainability guy. We met with him for a couple hours, and he is getting the ball rolling on a lot of what the presidential climate commitment says we must do. Part of the commitment is a committee to make sure everything is happening and we have to find a few students and SGA member who want to be a part of it. I also need to talk to Facilities Management about the tree planting possibilities and am writing Jacek a report on what we have done in the past year.