Week 7:
Panic and Preparations

July 20, 2016

July 14 – July 20

Preface

I just want to preface this post by telling everyone to always double and triple check arrangements when traveling/moving to a new place. Especially make sure you have all the correct dates lined up or otherwise you could be in the same boat I was.

Let me explain: when I first sublet my apartment for my Fellowship, the previous tenants insisted that the lease would be from June 1 to July 31. This was simply not the case. Instead,  my roommates and I received a note from the landlord saying we had to vacate our apartment by 2:30 p.m. July 25 because our lease was up. This left me and both of my roommates in the lurch for the last five days of July. Because of that I had to scramble to find a place to stay. Thankfully after a day or so Clint and I came up alternate living arrangements, but before that there was a fair amount of panicking, and I wish the backup plans hadn’t been necessary in the first place.

So please, double check your plans. Triple check them, make sure you have all the information. And with that, on our regularly scheduled weekly report.

Food Breakdown

Liz had a meeting on Monday with the people in charge of catering for U of I. This meeting was held to find out just how much of the school’s food was from local and/or organic sources. I wasn’t present at the actual meeting, but after it was over I learned something quite fascinating. As part of the meeting Liz was given an itemized inventory of the food U of I purchases each semester.

One thing that was particularly surprising, to both myself and Liz, was the breakdown of money spent on fruits and vegetables. For just one semester last year, U of I spent almost $40,000 on watermelon chunks alone! That just seems absolutely insane to me. The university is so large it makes sense that it spends a significant amount of money on food, but I suppose I just never thought about it until now. It just made me think about all of the logistical elements that go into running a college. As such I find myself wondering how much Cornell spends in comparison. I wonder if Cornell would give me a similar breakdown if I asked…

Reports and Write-Ups

Before George left on his vacation he gave me a list of things I could work on, most of them write-ups. One of these is an overall report on Science Thursdays. While I think we could consider the event successful (averaging 60 pounds of compost each week!) there are still a few snags to work through. The report is meant to outline where the compost collection fell short and the measures we instilled to combat that. The number one concern is that people will become too dependent on the volunteers and not actively learn about composting. We have tried using various signs placed around the area but none of them have been particularly helpful. Further brainstorming is needed.

Additionally, the management of the compost collection will have to be handed to be handed over to other volunteers pretty soon, since I’ll be leaving. Since these new volunteers will have to set everything up themselves I’ve drafted up a document outlining all the compost procedures.

This was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. I have to admit, it was pretty odd having to go through and explain step by step something I did every week. I found myself looking back at my list and realizing I accidentally left out a step or two because I never really had to think about it from a newcomer’s perspective.

Making Contact

Finally, I decided to contact Jeff Biggers, who spearheaded the Climate Narrative Project for U of I. The past week I started doing more research on the program and I think it would be amazing if Cornell could somehow implement it as well. As such I emailed Jeff and asked how the project got its start and what I would need to get a similar project off the ground myself. I haven’t received any answer from him yet but I’m hopeful that I can find some way to teach Cornellians about climate change!

And with that I come to the final stretch of my Fellowship. I can’t wait to see what surprises the next week holds!

Want to learn more about the U of I Office of Sustainability and what they do? Click here!