Total Campuses attended: 27
Total people attended: 208
Crystal Durham - CSSC Executive Director
Welcome to the CSSC! If this is your first convergence, we encourage you to attend at least one orientation session, which will run during all three workshop time-slots. During the orientation session you will be introduced to the CSSC’s history and accomplishments, our basic organizing philosophies, and how the CSSC works. You will also have a unique opportunity to meet others just like yourself who are new to the CSSC, and to hear the many ways that you can get involved. Join us if you want to learn more!
Damien Parr – UC Davis Organizer
The university is first and foremost an educational institution, so let's discuss success stories and strategies for how students work with staff, faculty, and administrators to establish instructional student farms, sustainable ag. and food systems classes, curricula, and majors! Let's transform dinning options and purchasing policy by transforming the way formal EDUCATION, CLASSES and MAJORS are designed! We can be a part of creating official degree granting programs that are action-oriented in their study of sustainable ag.,fair trade, organic farming, etc. in the classroom and in the field!
Amie Frisch & Tim Galarneau - CSSC Foods Initiative
Come engage with the core tenants of a sustainable food system: social justice, economic viability, and environmental sustainability. Do you ever wonder where your food comes from and how it might affect the environment, your community, the global South, or your health? Do you want to be a more informed, and therefore more effective activist & leader on your campus? In this workshop we will explore our current food system as a whole, and learn how colleges and universities fit into the big picture. We will also explore some exciting new developments for empowerment in the process of social change as well as your visions for the future!
Katie Maynard
Sustainability Coordinator, UCSB
UC, CSU, CCC Sustainability Conference Organizer
Learn with an organizer of the statewide UC, CSU, CCC Sustainability Conference about how to put on zero-waste, zero-emissions event which is accessible to all people and engages event participants in thinking about their own practices and contributing to the greening of the conference. You will hear about best practices and innovative examples of where organizers have connected the philosophy and objectives of their event to the practice of organizers, service providers (hotels, caterers, etc) and participants.
Benn Davenport: Communication Specialist
These panelists want to help you run successful campaigns. They will discuss techniques and strategies that have helped win campaigns on and off campus. Techniques will be illustrated with examples from successful campaigns of the past and present including: Waste Reduction (Recycling, Composting), Bag Bans, Green Purchasing Policies, and more! Some strategies to be discussed: SMART goals, GOST, framing communication to win, power mapping, facilitating meetings where goals are reached in a timely manner, and more.
Panel followed by Q&A so attendees can get ideas on implementing these techniques in their campaigns.
Post Convergence Notes on Workshop: Download as a Microsoft Word Document
Dave Shukla -Local and National Organizer for SDS and SEAC
This workshop is focused on the intersection of anti-war and sustainability concerns, and the promotion of positive alternatives that meet those concerns. What are the common roots to current war in Iraq and our unsustainable way of living in the United States? In the future, what can we expect of resource wars over say, oil, or water? What can we expect of false solutions to climate change such as nuclear energy, or emissions trading? What can we do now?
May Voeve – Grassroots Organizer
Jamie Henn – Grassroots Organizer
Through a quick presentation and a guided conversation, we'll go over the opportunities present for the CSSC in the 2008 election. This election holds enormous potential for the youth vote, and for elevating the issue of clean energy solutions. Learn how to activate your campus and community through voter registration, media events, and more!
This workshop co-lead by May Boeve of Middlebury College (Vermont). May is co-founder of the Sunday Night Group, one of the largest and most active campus-based climate change groups in the country. She has also organized with grassroots campaigns such as Step It Up 2007, Project BioBus, and the Read to Detroit project. Jamie is a grassroots organizer for Project 350, an international climate campaign.
Matthew C. Egan - CSSC Communications Director
Journalists are looking for very specific hooks before they invest their time to cover a story. We will teach you how to appeal your organization or event to local and national press, how to go about reaching out to these agencies, and what to do once you’ve got a reporter hooked on your initiative.
Kristian Beadle - CSSC Media Director - Bren School of Environmental Science and Management
Time management advice usually says: "Do more in less time!" However we all know that being crazy busy is not the healthiest way to live. True, there's not enough time to do all the environmental and social work that our planet needs… so how do make effective use of our time, maintain sanity, and have a professional yet joyful attitude? In this workshop we'll look at ecological metaphors from the Forest which gives us practical tools to achieve all-around productivity: lessons from permaculture and applied ecology that can help us mold our schedules and commitments.
Post Convergence Notes on Workshop: Download as a Microsoft Word Document
Crystal Durham - CSSC Executive Director
Welcome to the CSSC! If this is your first convergence, we encourage you to attend at least one orientation session, which will run during all three workshop time-slots. During the orientation session you will be introduced to the CSSC’s history and accomplishments, our basic organizing philosophies, and how the CSSC works. You will also have a unique opportunity to meet others just like yourself who are new to the CSSC, and to hear the many ways that you can get involved. Join us if you want to learn more!
Michael Tank – CSSC Digital Artist
Babken DerGrigorian - Student Organizer, SDS @ UCLA
1sky has called for actions that will be our generation's salt marches for climate justice. The salt marches were the first action of organized opposition that led to the end of British rule in India. They created world-wide attention and support, drew countless Indians into active resistance for the first time, and significantly influenced Martin Luther King Jr. in the fight for civil rights in the United States.
After a brief framing exercise on the urgency and necessity of fundamental social change for climate justice, and presentation of what nonviolent direct action is and when it is useful, this workshop will focus on collective brainstorming on what visionary and strategic actions climate justice can be. Participants come prepared! Through small group breakouts, facilitated discussions, and information- and skill-sharing, we will craft action proposals that can meet the 1sky call. Our generation stands at a critical turning point in human and natural history, and it is up to us to define our tactics and powermaking, from Fossil Fools Day to everyday!
What can green and peaceful economic institutions look like, and how can we implement them? What can our society look like, and how do we achieve it? The workshop will present these concerns, and facilitate discussion of a progressive movement that organizes to win. The goal is to have participatory engagement with a visionary and strategic part of the "big picture" and not just the eddy of single-issue activism or politics. The hope is that participants will be inspired to move not simply from recognition to opposition, but from opposition to taking hold of liberation.
Kat Mullins - Student & Youth Coordinator - Natural Capital Institute
The team from the Natural Capital Institute is excited to engage students in a workshop about their experiences using the web to promote, discuss, organize, and engage others in sustainability issues they are passionate about. This workshop will facilitate a discussion about how students have used web-based technologies to further their causes, and their successes and frustrations in doing so. To frame this discussion broadly, we will also explore where students think these technologies are going in the future, and their impact on global sustainability movements. The workshop will also include a brief intro to NCI's most recent project WiserEarth, a developing, user generated, not-for-profit, community networking site.
May Voeve – Grassroots Organizer
Jamie Henn – Grassroots Organizer
Through a quick presentation and a guided conversation, we'll go over the opportunities present for the CSSC in the 2008 election. This election holds enormous potential for the youth vote, and for elevating the issue of clean energy solutions. Learn how to activate your campus and community through voter registration, media events, and more!
This workshop is co-lead by May Boeve of Middlebury College (Vermont) and Jaimie Henn. May is co-founder of the Sunday Night Group, one of the largest and most active campus-based climate change groups in the country. She has also organized with grassroots campaigns such as Step It Up 2007, Project BioBus, and the Read to Detroit project. Jamie is a grassroots organizer for Project 350, an international climate campaign.
Ian Bevan - Green Commissioner Associated Students, San Diego State University
Growing a social movement and infrastructural support system most conducive to bringing about sustainable policy change is clearly what would benefit student organizations seeking sustainable reform. The Green Commissioner from Associated Students SDSU, Ian Bevan, will lead this workshop, which explores a four phased roadmap for smart decision making to expedite success. These phases include: 1. Growth of the Green Student Movement, which precedes 2. the growth of the all inclusive "Green union", which enables 3. full campus infrastructure to mature up to the University Senate policy making level. Finally, Ian will touch on the local and state level infrastructure that can be built or may exist already to lobby the CSU or the UC system and share resources from campus to campus. During each step, Ian will highlight tactics that at SDSU brought sweeping change in almost ever area in a matter of three years! After the lecture and possibly a short film on "Total Tactics" Featuring "Mark Dowie", Ian will open up the floor to questions from the audiences and the opportunity to share stories of how these concepts relate to other campuses.
Jared Duval - Senior Fellow, ecoAmerica
We know that global warming is an exceptional and era-defining challenge for our global society. The outstanding question before us is not whether to act and it is becoming less and less about towards what solution. Most of all we need to decide how to act. Are our organizing approaches and decision making institutions actually up to the task? If not, what is a better way? This workshop will explore how we might begin to move past outdated and failing approaches of issue organizing and politics towards approaches that can transform our society at the scale and pace now necessary. Specifically we will discuss forms of social decision-making - deliberative, open-source assemblies - that can build on our democratic traditions to connect our knowledge and capabilities for more comprehensive and effective solutions.
Alec Loorz - Kids vs. Global Warming Organizer
Almost all kids know about global warming. Many of them are scared. All of them need only a little encouragement to Be the Change. Alec Loorz, 13 year old 8th grader from Ventura CA, has launched his own non-profit organization called Kids-vs-Global-Warming. He gives presentations throughout California and empowers kids K-12 to be the change makers in their families, schools and communities. He’s also behind an activist/educational project in Ventura to SLAP his home town into facing the issues involved with probable sea level rise. Over 40 kids are working together to install a public project called SLAP (Sea Level Awareness Project.) Come be inspired by some kids who think education is the first step to doing something significant about global warming.
Michael Cox – CSSC Advisory Networ
Dorothy Le – CSSC Organizing Director
These leaders will be having a conversation with you about post-college life after CSSC. They will be offering their insights o how they have benefited from being a part of CSSC, and well as learning what your fears, opinions, challenges, frustrations and excitement is about post-college life.
Marty Frank - Membership Development - Green Restaurant Association West
Ian Bevan - Green Commissioner - Associated Students, San Diego State University
Zac Taylor - Student Organizer - San Diego State University
The restaurant industry’s economic impact was “expected to exceed $1.3 trillion in 2007”. Other than the government, the restaurant industry is the United States’ largest employer with an estimated 12.8 million people employed. They are the leading users of electricity in the retail sector and dispose of ridiculous amounts of waste. The primary inputs to this industry are agricultural most of which rely on harmful fertilizers, pesticides, excessive use of water, inefficient transportation systems and inhumane practices for raising livestock.
This workshop will start with a brief presentation of current road maps to sustainability within the food service industry. We will discuss the current situation at SDSU? Steps that have been made and challenges faced. We are a long ways away and hope to get insight from others.
The bulk of this workshop will consist of groups (4-6) participating in a creative brainstorming sessions. The first is to identify as many environmental changes as possible. Then we will identify challenges to implementation. This will be put into a database to build our own roadmap to sustainable food service operations. The database will be available on the CSSC website for students who want to improve food service operations on their campus.
Ryan Kaplan – Community College Student Government
Leif Skogberg – Sustainability Manager SBCC
The largest higher educational system in the nation comprised of 72 districts and 109 colleges with more than 2.6 million students per year. Is there a 100 lb guerrilla in the room? How might the CSSC strategically approach this one?
The goal of this session is to address the California Community Colleges (CCC) system as a whole and to gather CC convergence participants as well as other interested individuals. Time will be provided for discussion of case studies and specific colleges and their efforts, but the emphasis will be on how to unify efforts to become a more coordinated and strategic change agent in California and the world. This session is new and suggestions and ideas for topics and areas to cover will be gladly and gratefully included. Discussion will include the recently passed policy by the CCC Board of Governors. This new policy, "Energy Efficiency and Environmentally Conscious Policy", suggests system-wide procedures for CCC's to achieve increased operational efficiency, additional renewable energy purchasing and individual sustainability strategic plans. What are the impacts of this policy? How was it accomplished and who were the key players? Is it enough? How can individual campuses continue moving forward with their efforts and goals while working collaboratively statewide within the CCC system to facilitate change?
This session will conclude with an overview of successful CC strategies, priorities and next steps.
Crystal Durham - CSSC Executive Director
Welcome to the CSSC! If this is your first convergence, we encourage you to attend at least one orientation session, which will run during all three workshop time-slots. During the orientation session you will be introduced to the CSSC’s history and accomplishments, our basic organizing philosophies, and how the CSSC works. You will also have a unique opportunity to meet others just like yourself who are new to the CSSC, and to hear the many ways that you can get involved. Join us if you want to learn more!
Damien Parr – UC Davis Student Organizer
What if sustainability depended on everyone working together, learning together? What if we honored everyone as having expert knowledge based on our everyday experiences and not simply our professional or academic credentials? If we all have something at stake in sustainability, how do we design our education and research methods to empower this interdependency in diverse life experience and viewpoints? Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an emerging approach to education and social research. PAR focuses on producing democratic, actionable knowledge for improving the sustainability of work, the worker, and the workplace: the study, the student, and the school. This session will be facilitated in a participatory way, providing an experiential basis for understanding PAR. Bring your passion and be ready to work from it.
Montgomery Norton - U.C. Responsible Investment Coalition Campaign Director
Alex Kertzner - UCLA Campus Organizer, Responsible Endowments Coalition
Margaret Lee - U.C. Campus Organizer - Responsible Endowments Coalition
Learn how to use the power of your university’s investments for environmental and social change! Responsible investing is a tool of activism that can help you achieve your goals for sustainability, climate change, and much more. Learn about the connections among your university, its investments, and corporate giants, and how you can leverage these connections to green the behavior of corporations. This workshop will discuss the different strategies of responsible investing, what you can do as an individual, how you can get involved in the U.C. campaign or start your own campaign, and will include presentations, break-out focus groups, and lively discussions.
Tim Dondero – CSSC Campus Climate Challenge
Last year Powershift 2007 sent waves through the political arena in Washington DC. This year we have the opportunity to make Climate Change a prominent and relevant issue in the 2008 election cycle. Join us for the first workshop on POWERSHIFT:CALIFORNIA. Lets make sure that our elected officials know that their mandate for governance include BOLD action on Climate Change. By leveraging our collective power, youth can decide this years election outcomes while simultaneously elevating the critical issues of climate change, coal, green jobs, renewable energy and social justice. Powershift: California has the opportunity to unite anti-war groups, those worried about the economy, health care, and other issues, Republicans, Democrats, patriots, veterans, and college students behind a problem that affects all issues.
We can reach beyond traditional student groups to build strong state coalitions of student groups, traditional environ groups, labor, farmers, hunters, religious groups, peace and social justice, environmental justice, and any other interested organizations; and Increase youth voter turnout. The relationships we build with elected officials today, will shape the future of our climate tomorrow. Come share your ideas for how to make 2008 the year we stood up to Climate Change.
Thomas Rouse – Student Environmental Awareness Club President – CSU Fresno
Amanda Costa – Student Organizer – CSU San Diego
Erica Johnson - President - Enviro-Business Society – CSU San Diego
This team of leaders from a variety of CSU campuses will discuss campaigns that are present on each campus.
Bijan Kimiagar
Pam Tuttle
Katie Maynard
Abby Chroman
Christina Oatfield
Christopher Congleton – Institute of Transportation Studies – UC Davis
Nina Rizzo – Freedom From Oil Organizer – Global Exchange
Nico Linesch – Transportation Planner and MoveU Organizer
Work with students from colleges in a wide variety of geographic locations to come up with the most challenging aspects of campus related travel. We will collectively plan how to work on the topics that are brought up by means of community-based forums, action oriented campaigns, and academic research, and other means that will be determined by the participants in the room. Come to this session if you are interested in urban planning, emissions from mobile sources, would like to do something to get more bikes on your campus, want to brainstorm about how to improve transportation options on your campus, or all of the above.
This entire website is run using a Content Management System which is designed to allow people to easily maintain the content. No website-making experience is necessary to participate. If you are interested in editing the information on this page or any other page, please contact the CSSC Website Director Ryan Andersen at Ryan (at) sustainabilitycoalition.org. You will then go through a short phone training and be given a username and password that will allow you to log in and edit this information anytime.