In
attendance:
CMU
–Cliff Davidson, David Dzombak, Brad Hochberg, Barb Kviz
Chatham
–Larry Viehland, Mike Shriberg
Duquesne
– Dan Donnelly
University
of Pittsburgh – Gene Gruver
1.
Status
of the Web Site
Larry
Viehland, manager of the 3RUCE web site, reported that courses for the current
semester are now listed for all four schools, although the courses were not
listed on the web site in time for Fall 02 registration last spring. He asked everyone to get their list of
courses – with times offered – to him within the next week or two if at all
possible. Registration for Spring 02 courses at each school is coming up in November.
The group agreed to use the current Excel spreadsheet format for all future
entries. David Dzombak will be
responsible for submitting the list of CMU course times when he prepares the
Environmental Minor list of courses each semester.
It
was brought up that CMU does not have consistent time blocks for courses each
day of the week, as the other schools do. The registrar at CMU is currently
attempting to encourage all departments to adhere to a consistent set of time
guidelines issued by the registrar’s office. If this indeed happens, it will better
facilitate cross-registration as well as inter-departmental registration at
CMU.
2.
Green
Practices Programs
David
Dzombak led a discussion about Green Practices. He summarized the background of the CMU program, which focuses on
several distinct areas such as energy, dining services, transportation,
landscaping, procurement, recycling, and green buildings. CMU also led efforts to purchase a portion
of its electricity (5%) from wind power generators. Several other universities
are now following suit.
Dan
Donnelly described the co-gen heating and electric plant at Duquesne, which
provides 80-85% of the power used at DU. The plant has been operating for 6
years. Stan Kabala is putting together
documentation on energy savings associated with the plant since its inception.
Steve Schillo, the new CFO at Duquesne, has a considerable interest in green
practices and invited Barb Kviz to Duquesne to discuss green practices at CMU.
Larry
Viehland and Mike Shriberg discussed environmental activities at Chatham,
including the Rachel Carson celebration earlier this month. Mike described a Chatham program aimed at
green practices, including eCollegie Stage 1 (recycling and other basics) and
eCollegie Stage 2 (purchasing wind power and eliminating toxic chemicals),
which was just launched. Furthermore, Chatham is purchasing environmentally
benign cleaners for its custodial staff.
Mike will be teaching a new course “Greening the Ivory Tower” on campus
green practices.
Parkhurst
is the food services vendor for both Chatham and CMU. It was suggested that the
two schools get together and see whether there might be economies of scale for
Parkhurst to employ greener practices at both schools. Barb Kviz will look into this.
Barb
Kviz mentioned a possible composting project, where frequent trips from Oakland
down to Ag Recycle in Washington County may allow food waste from this area to
be used in a compost program. Barb
announced a $6K grant from PA DEP will pay for a feasibility study for such a
project.
Gene
Gruver reported that the Environmental Studies Institute at Pitt is very
active, with perhaps 200 students. There is a new undergraduate certificate
program in Civil and Environmental Engineering involving several courses and a
project.
3.
Other Issues
Cliff
Davidson mentioned the Distinguished Lecture Series of the Environmental
Institute at CMU, and handed out a schedule of lectures for Spring 2003.
Dan
Donnelly volunteered to host the next 3RUCE meeting at Duquesne in February.