Lynchburg College will formally kick off its Year of the Environment on September 16 for students, faculty, and staff in the Dell. With a theme of "A Greener Tomorrow Today," the College is undertaking a yearlong campaign to make the campus and its inhabitants more aware of their impact on the Earth, and to make changes that will lessen that impact.
Part of the impetus for this focus came from LC President Kenneth Garren’s signing of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, a pledge to reverse the actions that lead to global warming. Signatories agree to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, and make plans and reports fully accessible to the public.
Dr. Jamey Pavey, assistant professor of environmental science, is heading up a committee to plan and coordinate the year’s events. "Lynchburg College’s Year of the Environment seeks to raise awareness about today’s complex environmental problems and about how our individual actions contribute to these problems," she said. "The goal is not only to educate the campus community about environmental issues, but also to encourage people to take action by making small changes in their everyday routines and to live in a more sustainable way. Our theme, ‘A Greener Tomorrow Today,’ emphasizes the hope for a more sustainable future and the immediate need to take action."
While some of the Year of the Environment events are still in the planning stage, others are already scheduled and in progress.
· More than a dozen freshmen entering Lynchburg College will have a unique learning experience this year that begins August 17 with a week of camping, hiking, caving, rock climbing, and other outdoor adventures. This group of students, who will live in the same residence hall, will also take an eco-composition course, which allows them to reflect on their experiences in nature throughout the academic year.
· Freshmen will join in a Common Reading over the summer of Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, in which the author describes growing up in a junkyard and developing a passion for saving the longleaf pine ecosystem. Freshmen will discuss the book during Welcome Week and in English 111 classes. Professors in other disciplines will also be including excerpts from the book in a variety of classes.
· Transitions: Photographs by Roger Creamer will be on display at the Daura Gallery August 11-October 7. This exhibition features 39 evocative color images, examining the transformations that flowers and other biological specimens go through during their life spans. The exhibition is organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution of Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES).
· The September 16 event will start at 3 p.m. in Snidow Chapel with a community worship service led by Anne Gibbons, associate chaplain of the College. From 4 to 7 p.m., the campus community is invited to the Dell for live music, tree climbing, information displays, and a picnic. Groups participating in the event include the student-run Alliance for Energy Awareness and students in the new Eco House, an off-campus house whose residents will be dedicated to reducing their ecological footprint by reducing their use of fossil fuels and water, as well as recycling and composting. An Inconvenient Truth will air at 7 p.m. in Hopwood Auditorium.
· The Concert Choir will present a "Songs of Nature" concert at 7 p.m. on September 21 in Rosel & Elliot Schewel Hall as part of Parents and Family Weekend.
· Filmmaker Andrea Torrice will give the Turner Lecture, "Putting a Face on the Global Warming Issue Through the Documentary," on October 4.
· The new astronomical observatory will be dedicated at Claytor Nature Study Center on October 20.
· The Rev. Pat Watkins, environmental policy coordinator at the Virginia Interfaith Center, will give the Snidow Lecture in November.
· Throughout the spring semester, Senior Symposium speakers will address a variety of environmental issues. At least two of those speakers will also give evening talks.
· Botany and biology classes will be planting a bird and butterfly garden near Elliot & Rosel Schewel Hall.
· Focus the Nation, an ambitious educational initiative to be held simultaneously at more than 1,000 colleges is set for Jan. 31, 2008.
· John Burnett, National Public Radio correspondent, will talk about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the spring.
· Earth Day will bring a special celebration in April.
Lynchburg College has been working to raise environmental awareness in recent years. In addition to serving the campus community, the 470-acre Claytor Nature Study Center offers outreach programs to regional K-12 students and teachers. The College is also working to clean up a portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which includes Blackwater Creek and College Lake. College Lake is rapidly filling in as storm-water runoff and sedimentation from development threaten its survival. With President Garren and Dr. Tom Shahady, associate professor of environmental science, in the lead, the College is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clean up this watershed and restore College Lake. Another initiative is led by Dr. Priscilla Gannicott, associate professor of chemistry, who is working with the Lynchburg Neighborhood Development Foundation and Randolph College, to study and remove lead from soils in the downtown area.
For more information, contact Shannon Brennan at 434/544-8609.
Last updated: 8/6/07