This workshop, Sustainability Promotion and Development was designed for both current faculty and those who plan to teach. It explored ideas on incorporating information on environmental issues into curriculums, offering practical applications and best practices.  As part of the new Sustainability Commission at ESU and the Curriculum Subcommittee, the workshop included presentations by ESU educators, community leaders, and students actively involved in sustainable and environmental issues.

Throughout the day, the workshop offered ample time for discussion and networking of ideas.  Participants were also invited to view displays and demonstrations by Students for Sustainability.

SPEAKERS

Trish Attardo
R.C.S./Watershed Specialist, Monroe County Conservation District, Environmental Education Center

Trish Attardo, Watershed Specialist for the Monroe County Conservation District, assists individuals, municipalities, and volunteer watershed groups in addressing concerns related to the conservation of water resources.  In this capacity, she is responsible for providing education, technical support, and grant administration.  Mrs. Attardo  graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in 1997 with a B.S. in Environmental Resource Management. She spent four years as an environmental educator and has also worked in the environmental consulting and land preservation fields.  She is the volunteer stream monitor coordinator for the Tobyhanna Creek/Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Association.

Cindy Chardiet-Vojnovic
Graphics Center, ESU

The Graphics Center has the only full color reproduction machine that is open to the entire campus, and prints average of approximately 175,000 copies per year. So while “the paperless office” has not become a reality, we have adopted more sustainable papers and print methods. Our print production machine uses a toner which saves 60-70% of the energy investment per page as compared with conventional toner, to name only one if it’s environmental advantages over our previous machine. We switched our standard paper from one with zero recycled content, to one with 30% recycled content, and offer the option of 100% post-consumer recycled paper stocks. Printing at the Graphics Center reduces travel to off-campus facilities, so even if those off-campus facilities produce work in as sustainable manner as we do, the campus community is still saving time and fossil fuel by using our services.

I see the Graphics Center as only one example of the many campus departments, groups and organizations. My hope is to challenge other campus entities to examine their own operations in light of what steps they can take to improve sustainability. Cindy Vojnovic received her BFA in painting from the School for Visual Arts in New York City. She continues to paint and exhibit her work. As a child in the 60’s, Cindy became aware of issues of environmental impact, and has been concerned ever since. Currently the Supervisor of the Graphics Center here at ESU, she is happy to have the opportunities provided by her position and the initiatives of the school to seek out more sustainable ways of doing things.

Joni Oye-Benintende
Art Department, ESU

Our earliest artists and craftspeople worked in natural sustainable materials—charcoal, pigments made from minerals, wood, clay, stone. Increasingly so called sophisticated techniques and industrialization have moved the artist farther from the sources of her materials and, like industrialized societies everywhere, not only the artist, but the average citizen is removed from the origin of items they come in contact with on a daily basis and consequences of the products they use.  However, throughout human history, artists have also, for economic and aesthetic reasons, as well as an awareness of waste, recycled, reused and remade art work and crafts. In an art school environment, students of fine art and design must be made more aware of sustainability issues as they pursue their goals. Design students, have the paradoxical task of creating much of the “stuff” we use, or, through their marketing efforts, we desire, so it is especially incumbent upon them to act in a sustainably responsible way.  Assignments which require them to use materials which have been reused, recyclable and/or are sustainably responsible are part of the curriculum in my design and sculpture classes. By example, the ceramic and drawing classes are also made aware of their media beyond disposal.

Joni Oye-Benintende received her BFA Washington University in St. Louis MFA Tama Fine Art University, Tokyo, Japan. She presently is teaching ceramics, sculpture, 3D Design and Basic Drawing at ESU since 1996. Have been trying to live lightly on the earth since participating in the very first Earth Day activities as a high school student in 1970.

Patricia Kennedy
Communication Studies,ESU

Raising environmental consciousness in communication courses: Strategies for moving stewardship and sustainability onto college students’ “agenda.”

Patricia Kennedy is an assistant professor in the Communication Department at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, where her primary teaching areas are mass media, public speaking, research methods and communication law. Kennedy has also earned a certificate in Advanced Studies in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University) and a certificate in University Teaching from the University’s Graduate School. Her undergraduate degree is a B.A. in Literature (1971) from the State University College of New York at Oneonta.  Her first doctoral degree is a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Syracuse University’s College of Law in 1981. She is the vice president for outreach and issues of the Brodhead Watershed Association, an environmental organization in the Poconos with twenty years of commitment to educational efforts on water issues and sustainable development.

Margaret Persia
Hotel Restaurant and Tourism Department, ESU

“The Travel and Tourism Industry depends upon the sustainability of the earth as its product. While cities attract many tourists, the countryside and natural settings are just as favored as destinations. This presentation will explain how many in the tourism industry are protecting their “natural product” by using earth-friendly methods in addition to recommending guidelines for both travelers and tourists that will preserve the environment.”

Margaret Persia received her Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science from Penn State University. PhD in Parks, Recreation and Tourism from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded Travel Planners, a travel agency in Harleysville, PA. Worked in the airline industry for several years. Teach eight different courses at ESU including Meeting Planning, Community Tourism Development (Festivals and Special Events), and Tour Planning and Management.