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‘We’re All in This Together:’ CSUN’s Sustainability Efforts Stretch Across Campus

In other times, Nancy Kurland, Erica Wohldmann, Sheela Bhongir and Misak Sevlian may have had a mere nodding acquaintance at faculty meetings or in class.

But in these times of drought and threatened resources, the four have come to know each other well. They represent a growing circle of campus people drawn together out of a need to act as good stewards of the planet in general and of CSUN’s collective greening practices in particular.

Kurland, an assistant professor of management, has a background in society and business ethics, but found herself pulled toward sustainability issues in the aftermath of a controversial water measure in her town.

Assistant psychology professor Erica Wohldmann and CSUN student Robert Motti inspect a community garden at the campus Hillel House. Photo by Dat-Tuyen Nguyen

Wohldmann has “always been interested in issues related to the environment and social justice.” An assistant psychology professor, she grew “tired of seeing Styrofoam all over campus.” Provost Harry Hellenbrand steered her to the campus’ core greening team, the action arm of the Sustainability Institute, and Wohldmann ran with the ball, working with campus units to initiate use of eco-friendly containers.

A senior majoring in urban planning, Bhongir was part of the Change the World Club at her high school. “I’ve always had that activism spirit within me…As humans, we’re supposed to work hand in hand with the environment.”

Bhongir took a class with urban studies and planning professor Ashwani Vasishth, CSUN Sustainability Institute’s founding director. “He exposed us to all the different environmental problems going on… I would say his class motivated me a lot.”

It turns out that Vasishth, now teaching in New Jersey, inspired Sevlian as well. An urban studies and planning major, Sevlian eventually hopes to build small pockets of sustainable communities. “It’s a dream,” said Sevlian, who works with the Associated Students’ Environmental Affairs Committee, “a dream eco-community with a natural gas station and biodiesel.”

Like many of their colleagues in the CSUN sustainability effort, the four have gravitated to their areas of interest:

Water Management: As an original core greening team member, Kurland is working with students to organize CSUN’s Water Day on Oct. 20 for the campus and community to raise awareness about water and water conservation issues at home and on campus. Campus experts will present workshops on water in the San Fernando Valley, on conservation and resource management, on economic and regulatory barriers to water re-use projects at CSUN, and on techniques for reducing individual water consumption.

“People are not attuned to the idea that we’re in a drought,” said Kurland. Every project we undertake, she said, “takes tons of water.” Citing water expert David Carle, Kurland said it takes eight gallons of the wet stuff to grow a tomato and a cool 2,000 gallons just to clean an eight-inch silicon wafer.

As part of the campus’ “waste not, want not” water conservation effort, a computerized weather-based central irrigation system will be launched in fall 2009, enabling CSUN’s Physical Plant Management Department to monitor and automatically control irrigation campus wide, taking the guesswork out of its water distribution.

Low-flush toilets and waterless urinals, already in use at the University Student Union, are planned for the campus’ student housing complex, and for the newly opened science building.

“We take water for granted,” said Kurland. “Part of the purpose of Water Day is to start this conversation.”

Sanjay Gupta (left) and Adam Siegel, assistant director of CSUN Hillel, working in the community garden. Photo by Dat-Tuyen Nguyen

Curriculum, Food Options: At schools nationwide, sustainability is no flash-in-the-pan. At Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, a concentration in sustainability is planned, and Arizona State’s School of Sustainability graduated its first class in May. CSUN students eyeing careers in the field also are looking for curriculum, and Northridge aims to give them what they need: Wohldmann thinks a CSUN degree with an emphasis in sustainability could be a reality by the end of the 2011-12 academic year.

“The workplace is now changing,” said Wohldmann. “We’ve got to prepare our students for it.” Students interested in the emphasis will take a core cluster of courses sponsored by CSUN’s Institute for Sustainability and available under the general education curriculum. An upper division interdisciplinary experimental course launching in fall 2009 will get them started, and they will wind up with a research practicum in which they will solve a problem “using cost benefit and cradle-to-cradle carbon foot printing methods.” An electives cluster will be offered by all departments.

Students will learn that “sustainability is not just about the environment,” said Wohldmann. “It’s about social justice and economics as well…

“The fact of the matter is, we’re all in this together,” she said.

Plans for a community garden are in the talking stages; one already has been started at the campus’ Hillel chapter facility.

Waste Management, Student Engagement: In spring 2009, Sheela Bhongir helped lead a waste recycling effort that began as a business honors mentorship project. After consulting with Associated Students Recycling, Bhongir and fellow students came up with practical ideas such as high visibility recycling bins. They ran an audit that provided a “snapshot” of the waste discarded on campus, and conducted a recycling survey that measured student awareness.

As director of the Associated Students’ Environmental Affairs Committee, Bhongir works closely with Sevlian, who is helping the committee become CSUN’s “student clearing house” for information on sustainability issues. “We’re advocating for a greener campus, pushing such things as swapping out Blue Books [traditional test pamphlets] for Green Books [100 percent recyclable],” said Sevlian.

For more information, e-mail sustainability@csunas.org or visit the Web sites www.csunas.org/recycle/index.php, and www.csun.edu/sustainability/.

For more articles from northridge magazine, visit its Web site http://www.northridgemagazine.com/.