The Pioneer Log, February 11, 2011

Opinions 5

A weekly column dedicated to environmental dialogue

Sustainability is sexy:

Dear Fiona & Michael...

Dear Fiona and Michael, I have only been going out with my significant other for a few weeks. Should I still make a big deal out of Valentines Day? Sincerely, Stressed Lover Fiona: Dear Stressed Lover, As a young woman Valentines Day is always a big deal! (Actually, all holidays where gifts are exchanged are big deals.) I love chocolate and red roses (hint, hint)! Even though you have only been going out for a short time your significant other will see this day as a great way to connect with you and express their undying infatuation. If you dont plan a fabulous V-day, they will be heartbroken. Keep in mind that your production of gifts need not be an elaborate ordeal, but flowers, chocolates and an adorable teddy bear from the dollar store are essential. Downtown dinners can be expensive so I recommend ordering a heart shaped pizza from your local Papa-Johns. You can cozy up next to each other on the couch, stifling giggles as cheese hangs from your chin and awkwardly staring at

Calling more ENVS profs

BY RACHEL YOUNG Staff Writer Over the past week and a half the Environmental Studies Program (ENVS) has been interviewing three final candidates to fill a gap in the program as an Earth Systems Science professor. I am an ENVS major and the student representative on the search committee and overall I think we have brought in three compelling, qualified candidates with different research expertise and teaching styles. I feel that that any of the three candidates would add breadth and depth to the program. This new person will be filling an imperative role as professor in Earth Systems Science, a field that integrates the interactions between the different scientific spheres: biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and other systems. This position will be a groundingniche for ENVS students in natural sciences, providing a base in understanding the science of environmental issues. The ENVS program has been in desperate need of a new faculty member for years. Jim Proctor, the current head and sole ENVS faculty person, has been carrying far too much of the ENVS load. In the past two years Liz Safran, LCs only Geology professor, has been teaching ENVS courses, including ENVS 160 and a new elective called Natural Disasters. This year, the number of graduating seniors quadrupled. Between grading 18 theses, running the program, teaching the core ENVS courses and all the geology courses, and conducting research; the workload is too much for two professors. As a senior, I was part of the guinea pig class. We went through the major while many of the imperfections were still being worked out. In the past four years there have been several changes to the program: ENVS 220 went from a four credit class to a five credit class and ENVS 320 Environmental Problems and ENVS 340 Environmental Solutions were combined into one class: ENVS 330 Environmental Problems and Solutions. This new professor will be another stage in completing the ENVS metamorphosis. The program is preponderant in the social sciences and humanities so the integration of the earth system sciences will give ENVS students a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary education. The new faculty person will also offer ENVS students greater opportunities to participate in scientific research. Some of the potential offerings include studying ancient rocks to determine the history of the earth, investigating permafrost, analysing ocean-atmosphere interactions and trips to Antarctica. There is a great need for classes on climate change and land use cover change, and the new faculty will be adding to the increasing number of ENVS elective upper division courses. Overall, this new hire will be extremely valuable. He or she will contribute to the multiplicity of thinking to a currently understaffed but burgeoning major.

A special Valentines Day column featuring love advice from two experts
each other when the movie gets boring. Also, it is important to note that Valentines Day is a day about love and reflecting on why you are with the person in the first place. Not celebrating this day will force your significant other to believe that you dont care about them. Do you want that? Of course not. No one does. Therefore even if it is just a homemade cupcake, or an elaborate balloon, cookie, or flower arrangement hand delivered by a barbershop quartet, celebrating Valentines Day is always important. Michael: Dear Stressed Lover, V-Day is simply a day to let someone know that they mean something to you. Let what they mean to you be reflected in the gift. Making a big deal out of V-Day isnt necessary. Say, for example, they are the light of your life that guides you through the tumults of an imperfect world. You could grab a blanket and head to south campus where you could gaze into the galaxy and tell her shes your North star. Granted, thats extremely cheesy, but you get the idea.

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE OWENS

Making communication more than a buzzword

munication was one of the Common Hours first topics: It drove the giant Howard wall calendar; it eternally frustrates hordes of student groups trying to reach the LC masses; and it is intimately connected to the reams of paper that are sticky tacked, taped, and pinned to the walls from Copeland to Miller. Still, any student who wants people to actually show up to events they care about should have a vested interest in a better system. The calendar is one such system, but innovation can surely bring us others. The communication controversy extends beyond events: its everything from students talking to professors to the various mysterious forces of administration, from Facilities to Finances, who do things that few of us are aware of. If the common hour is any judge, many members of LC are yearning for a little more communication between all members of the community. There is good reason for this: students interested in energy conservation, for example, would love to hear from Facilities about all the internal changes theyve pushed, forces that in 2003 made LC the first college in the United States to meet Kyoto standards. And Celestino has plans that would make any transport-frustrated LC student drool. Community is a function of communication and agency. We can set up all the systems we want to encourage community, but it should be obvious that those systems are useless until they are taken advantage of. This is not a critique of many of the efforts to make information distribution on campus more effective. Rather, it is a gentle reminder that community is not a product to be delivered. A real community, even if supported by dynamic figures, requires regular engagement. Here I applaud Jerry Harp, whose Fireside Chats and regular dinner appearances are a great way to bridge the student-faculty divide. Or even President Barry Glassner, who took time out of his day to sit down to lunch with students, unannounced, in the Bon. Community building takes place when dorms have dinners (and invite faculty or staff to them) and students are willing to invite professors to lunch just because they can. All of those actions take agency. They also take an openness to community that not all members of LC share. But the only way to really turn lofty and vague concerns about communication and community into practical realities is to go out and forge that community ourselves. That is worth remembering as pro-communication/community initiatives are carried out this coming year.

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE OWENS

BY MICHAH LEINBACH Staff Writer If there is a buzzword at Lewis & Clark right now it is communication. Clear com-

Word on the Hill:

BY JULIA STEWART AND BEAU BROUGHTON

Which professor would you want to take on a hot Valentines date?

Sophia Alicastro (14) Dan Kaplen (12) Kelsey Morris (12) Hilary Devaney (14)

Ro Haan (11)

Boubacar Traore (AES)

Jerry Harp so he can read his sweet poetry to me.

Julie Vorholt because I love the way she is teaching and I love the way she is speaking and I can understand her.

I would take Freddy The old French lady. Vilches, even though Voulez-vous coucher he has a daughter avec moi. with my name.

I would go on a wilderness date with Chana Cox.

Elliott Young because he looks like he would know how to dance.