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Cal Poly marked Earth Day 2004 with
a public convocation on Friday April 23 entitled Education for Sustainability:
Engaging the Polytechnic University. President Warren Baker declared Cal
Poly a signatory to the Talloires Declaration, a ten point pledge to make
the university an agent for practising, improving and teaching methods
of sustainable resource use and environmental protection signed by over
300 university chancellors and presidents worldwide.
Guest speaker was David Orr, a renowned
author and lecturer on the topic of Education for Sustainability, who
spearheaded the effort to design, finance and build an Environmental Studies
Center at Oberlin College--a "Green Building" described by the
New York Times as "the most remarkable" of a new generation
of college buildings and selected as one of 30 "milestone buildings"
by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Orr was introduced by R. Thomas Jones, the new Dean
of Cal Poly's College of Architecture and Environmental Design, who is
Executive Director of the California Futures Network and a nationally
recognized expert on "smart growth."
Other speakers included Alison Anderson, Associated
Students President, and George Lewis, Chair of the Cal Poly Academic Senate. Peter
Lee, Dean of the College of Engineering who announced plans for the formation
of a University Center for Sustainable Engineering.
The Convocation took place at Chumash auditorium located
in the University Union and drew an audience of 350. Exhibits of
student projects, faculty research, and administration programs fostering
sustainability were on display.
Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and supported
by many University constituencies and organizations, this event highlighted
Cal Poly's emerging interdisciplinary and interdepartmental efforts to
address problems created by outdated environmentally damaging technologies
and to promote both innovative and traditional alternatives to solve them. |