Conferences and Events
Upcoming Events:
Fisk Community Environmental Health/Sustainability Forum “Addressing Environmental Concerns that Impact the Health of our Community: Building Healthy and Sustainable Communities” which is scheduled for March 19, 2011, From 8:30am – 1:30pm. The FREE forum will be held in the Appleton Room of Jubilee Hall on Fisk Campus. To register for this workshop, please contact Robert Wingfield at 615-329-8626(voice mail), 615-329-8816(fax), or email at rwingfld@fisk.edu. There is no charge for registration for this workshop. The event flyer provides more information.
Past Events:
Service Learning for Sustainability
On November 12, 2010, the Tennessee Higher Education Sustainability Association (THESA)
and the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching co-host this one-day
workshop on integrating service learning and sustainability
education. The purpose of the workshop was to illustrate how this
engagement and synergy can be fostered, building stronger bonds
between the campus and the city. Special attention was
given to the pedagogy of service learning—from course design and
grading to managing project goals and outcomes—in order to ensure
that both students and community-partners find value in the
enterprise. The workshop, which kicked off with a message of
encouragement from Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, took place on the campus of
Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, ranked as the #1 graduate
school of education by U.S. News & World Report. Click
here to
view an event flyer.
2010 Conference & Expo The Tennessee Higher Education Sustainability Association (THESA) held its fourth statewide conference on sustainability within higher education on March 31-April 1, 2010. The 2010 conference was held at Trevecca Nazarene University within the institution’s newest and largest meeting hall, the Boone Business Building. Trevecca’s effort was led by Professor Chris Farrell and his associates.
Workshop on Fostering Sustainability in the ClassroomTHESA held a one-day workshop on February 5, 2010 in Nashville on the topic of Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum. Representatives from 14 higher education institutions in Tennessee attended, as did government and non-profit staff. They numbered 45 in all, from across the state.
The Workshop was led by Lindy Biggs, Associate Professor of History and Sustainability Coordinator at Auburn University. Faculty development workshops were the focus of Dr. Biggs’ presentation. The full agenda can be found {here}. Presentations from the Workshop will e posted in the future.
The Workshop was held at Belmont University and was made possible by a grant from the Belmont University Office of the Provost, as well as additional financial funding from the Fisk University Community Environmental Awareness/Sustainability Program. Leadership was provided by Dr. Darlene Panvini, Coordinator for the Belmont University Environmental Sciences Program.
Green Jobs & Higher Education Symposium Organized by THESA and convened at Lipscomb University, this
symposium was held on April 2, 2009. It was successful in
bringing key state resource people together with officials from
higher education institutions across the state. In all, 74
individuals registered for the Symposium, most coming from community
colleges or technology centers. This was not surprising since
most green jobs now envisioned will include some post K-12
education, but not 4-year degrees.
THESA Chairperson Jack Barkenbus, opened the session by asking
whether the time was right for higher education institutions in
Tennessee to invest in new green jobs curricula. The answer
according to the Commissioner of the Department of Economic and
Community Development, Matthew Kisber, and the state’s energy policy
director, Ryan Gooch, was an emphatic “yes.” Kisber and Gooch
said that key opportunities would bypass the state if we didn’t
invest in green jobs and that the Governor was dedicated to seeing
the state become a leader in clean, renewable, low-carbon energy
development.
A subsequent “resource” panel consisting of Martha Wettemann of the
Department of Labor & Workforce Development, Patrick Bleecker,
representing the Tennessee Energy, Industry and Construction
Consortia (TEICC), and Paula Flowers of Genera Energy, emphasized
green job opportunities. Wettemann said that approximately
92,000 jobs were lost in Tennessee last calendar year. The
recent state report she authored, Growing Green: The Potential for
Green Job Growth in Tennessee, pointed to areas that could
potentially offset this job loss. Bleecker directed attendees
to the TEICC website (www.energizetn.com) where
they could find green job related information. And, Flowers
emphasized the coming explosion in bio-based fuels that would
require a substantial infrastructure development across the state.
The Symposium concluded with a “higher education” panel consisting
of John Townsend, Executive Director of Workforce Development within
the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), Dodd Galbreath, executive
director of Lipscomb University’s Institute for Sustainable
Practice, and Allan Gentry, Chair of the Technology Department at
Cleveland State Community College. Townsend noted that many
TBR institutions across the state are actively providing students
with skill sets that can be turned into green jobs. In other
words, they are producing students with skills that can be directly
transferred into the green industry. Sometimes, just
“tweaking” courses of study with green skill development will be
sufficient to turn these into green jobs. Examples of where
this is taking place include Austin Peay University, Cleveland State
Community College, Pellissippi State Technical Community College,
Walter State Community College, and Chattanooga State Technical
Community College. Galbreath talked about how his institution
is offering and closely tracking both a certificate program in
sustainability and an MBA. Gentry described his extensive
curricula based on efficiency and renewables in the residential
construction sector (and which was awarded the 2008 Governor’s
Environmental Stewardship Award for higher education).
All the speakers emphasized the importance of forging relationships
with local industries and local governments in order to gain a sense
of what specific workforce opportunities would arise.
THESA would like to thank the Institute for Sustainable Practice at
Lipscomb University for making this event possible (the help of Dodd
Galbreath, Kathy Hargis, and Nichole Richardson was particularly
noteworthy) and the Office of Environmental Assistance within the
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for symposium
support.
For more information regarding the 2008 Green Jobs symposium contact Jack Barkenbus jack.barkenbus@Vanderbilt.Edu
THESA Conferences
Three annual statewide conferences have been held in Nashville, the first (2006) at Fisk University, the second (2007) at Belmont University, and the third (2008) at Lipscomb University. The Lipscomb Conference drew over 150 participants from 27 higher education institutions and consisted of sessions devoted to such topics as recycling, energy conservation, transportation, instruction/outreach initiatives and climate change commitments.
2009: no conference