By Chelsea Zhao
University Ministry, Civic Learning, Office of Student Involvement and Sustain DU partnered to organize a virtual Earth Week to raise awareness for sustainability and ecological justice.
The 50th Anniversary of Earth Week celebration is a collaborative effort of students and faculty from four campus organizations. Daniela Martinez and Linda Nevarez, Welcome and Information Desk (WID) student workers, created a Wakelet website with information about the Earth Week activities and ways to live more sustainably.
Martinez said she first heard about the event through Mary Sadofsky, the WID Supervisor and Sustainability Coordinator, and decided to contribute to the celebration. Nevarez said the idea behind the website turned to be more inclusive as it is developed.
“What we did is small comparing to what other people do, but it came from a small idea and it turned to a bigger one through time. And I think the end product was pretty good” Nevarez said.
Sadofsky said that she sees Martinez and Nevarez’s website as a resource for students to pursue sustainability beyond Earth Week.
“We also wanted to have that educational piece, the activist piece, so we also want to create a nice resource guide for students to choose their own adventure as opposed to just doing our widely marketed events,” Sadofsky said. She said the quarantine in mid-March was a challenge, but it provided time for the transition and planning.
“It [the quarantine] allowed us to kind of lean on each other a little bit more. So, at first it was an adjustment, but we kind of realized that hey, we are not alone in this, and we can connect with other in so many ways,” Sadofsky noted and said the Wakelet website highlighted that collaboration.
Nevarez, Martinez, Sadofsky are part of a team of people from University Ministry, Civic Learning, Student Involvement and Sustain DU who planned the events for the Earth Week.
According to Sadofsky, there were 3 Zoom meetings of the team during the planning phase. The daily challenges for the Earth week were shared widely on the social media accounts of the organizations from the team.
The 50th Anniversary of Earth Week celebration include a week of mindful practices. Starting with Movement Monday, a yoga and meditation practice through Zoom, followed by Turn it off Tuesday for an hour of candlelight, a Waste-less Wednesday to minimize waste, a Thrifty Thursday to share sustainable fashion tips and styles, and Film Friday to watch free online films
Community members of Dominican University were encouraged to use #DUearthweek to share their initiatives and enter for a chance to win $50 sustainable business gift card. The gift card selections were from five sustainable organizations, but according to Sadofsky, Lush was the most popular choice.
Ashleigh Huerta and Maricela Mariscal from University Ministry organized the zoom meetings and the raffle process. Huerta and Mariscal also connected Student Involvement and Athletics to promote #DUEarthWeek.
Natalie Stellato from Office of Civic Learning designed the graphics for the week and helped with the planning of the programs.
University Ministry contributed two raffle prizes, and Student Involvement, Sustain DU, and Office of Civic Learning each contributed one raffle prize.
“Overall I think it was a success. The main goal was to celebrate not only Earth day but reunite the community,” Kate Brien, president of Sustain DU club, said in a Zoom interview. She helped to broaden the support for the celebration to University Ministry, Civic Learning and Student involvement.
Brien is graduating this year, but she hopes for Sustain DU to build retention, encourage more members to be involved in the direction of the club, and to strengthen the connection with other campus clubs and departments in the future.
April 22, 2020 was the 50th anniversary of Earth day. This year, the lockdowns and stay-in-home orders also changed the pollution levels worldwide. According to a NASA article, the average Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) level in March 2020 is 30% lower in the region from Washington, DC to Boston than the mean between 2015 and 2019. Nitrogen dioxide is an air pollutant that comes from burning fossil fuels in cars and smokestacks that generate electricity.
“I feel this whole quarantine has given us an eye opener that making these changes, maybe not driving every day or as much, can do a difference,” Martinez said.
“It’s very interesting having a 50th anniversary of Earth day and the whole earth being affect, you know, human race being mostly affected by a pandemic which is forcing everyone to slow down and reconnect with, hopefully, what is the Earth and what is home,” Brien said.
On Dominican Campus, there are several initiatives in place for sustainability efforts. The Hydroponic Greenhouse for instance, uses a non-soil tunnel to supply nutrients to the plants. The Parmer Hall was built with sustainability in mind. BikeDU can be checked out at the WID desk with student IDs to reduce the community’s carbon footprints.
According to Sadofsky, Sustainability Committee on campus was updated from a special committee to an university committee, which means that anyone at Dominican University could be involved. Sadofsky received an email about the update from Ellen McManus, the main organizer of the committee, on April 28 this year.
Sadofsky said one of the main goals of the Sustainability Committee in the future is to update the Sustainability plan, which was created on 2011.
