Next Meeting

Last updated 6/18/2006.

The administrative meetings of the Green Umbrella have ended for the Spring 2006 semester, and will resume for the Fall semester in September 2006. We are considering hosting an Environmental Town Hall meeting before the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester, and hope to begin a series of monthly or biweekly, open, large-scale Town Hall meetings after classes begin for Fall 2006. Details on this are forthcoming.

Past Meetings

7 April 2006

3:00 PM, 635 West 115th St, 1st Floor. Building on-campus environmental dialogue. Wil McKoy, Herman Matte, Anjana Sharma, Scott Cardiff, Coogan Brennan, Neal Parry, Claire Jouseau, Alisha Goldstein, Six Silberman. Major results:

• There are a great many potential ways in which to effect short- and long-term cultural change on campus. The GU should support these efforts as made by individual student groups, and engage in a few of them directly.
• The GU should communicate with student groups to determine what projects are underway, what major impediments to these projects exist, and how the administration can ease these impediments.
• The GU should work to create a physical and/or virtual space to encourage regular and continuing dialogue on campus environmental issues.
• The official university Environmental Stewardship website should be posted within the next few weeks.

Complete agenda is here (pdf, 1 page). Complete set of minutes is here.

24 March 2006

3:00 PM, 635 West 115th St, 1st Floor. Efforts of the administration to date in the stewardship space. Wil McKoy, Scott Wright, Anjana Sharma, Alex Bomstein, Davida Schiff, Kate Lundberg, Six Silberman, Alisha Goldstein. Major results:

• The official environmental stewardship website is being revised for erroneous or omitted content, and will be unveiled within the next few weeks.
• The university is seeking an environmental stewardship director, and hopes to hire one by the beginning of the fall 2006 semester.
• Wil and Scott would like to serve as contacts for student groups experiencing problems in their projects, and would like to work to find ways to solve these problems.
• The GU should articulate its plan for building on-campus dialogue about stewardship and ensuring organizational sustainability from year to year, and present it at the next meeting.

10 March 2006

4:30 PM, 311 Low. Opening lines of communication between administrators and students working in the stewardship space. University Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin, Wil McKoy, Scott Wright, Anjana Sharma, Coogan Brennan, Scott Cardiff, Alex Bomstein, Kate Lundberg, Six Silberman. Major results:

• The "Environmental Stewardship Task Force" is not a formal body, but rather a group of administrators who have volunteered to work on stewardship issues in addition to their regular duties. There is no formal comprehensive university footprint assessment underway or planned.
• Mr. Kasdin may appear to be moving slowly and quietly on stewardship issues, but that's because if he moves too quickly there may be a backlash in the administration, and moving quietly on issues is preferable to making lots of noise and getting nothing done.
• A full-time Environmental Stewardship Coordinator will be hired by the university by the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester.
• The Green Umbrella will work primarily with Scott Wright and Wil McKoy to discuss and implement short-term stewardship projects, and to construct a framework for increasing stewardship over the long term.

Two sets of complete minutes are available, by Alex Bomstein and Scott Cardiff.