Strategic Planning Question 4
(How can we adapt to changing environments?)
Town Hall Meeting – March 18, 2015
12:45 pm – 217 Bray Hall
Attended: Bob French, Mark Driscoll, Sienna McDonald
Bob gave an overview of the Strategic Planning process and handed out the draft report the
subcommittee for Question 4 prepared as a result of their meetings. This report will be used to
guide the discussions in the town hall meetings. The President tasked the subcommittee to
take the broad question and break it into more specific areas that could be discussed and
expanded upon further and perhaps brought into research projects, etc. in the future.
The subcommittee broke the main question: How can we adapt to changing environments into
six sub-questions. Bob told both the attendees to feel free to give their input throughout the
discussions, mentioned that they could add their comments to the website and handed out
index cards if they would prefer to write their comments down. He asked them to also at the
end of the discussion to prioritize the sub-questions.
1) How can we enhance and manage the quality of urban environments.
There is a misconception that environmental science does not relate to urban areas
when in fact a lot of what we do here relates to the urban environment. It is particularly
important to the Landscape Architecture department
There are massive strengths in water here at ESF.
2) How do we enhance use of renewable natural products and sustainable materials and
processes?
Really happy that finally started talking about materials. There has been very little talk
about materials and engineering during this whole process. There is a lot of work going
on in materials and biofuels.
Add existing strength to add would be the UVEB Technology Center.
Possible changes would be to add additional faculty when the funding is better. Need
materials (composites) engineer to take polymer and resins turn into something better.
Find more sustainable ways to use long term energy (old fashioned oil system). Since
we can’t do without totally – try to make it better.
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Could hire a resins chemist in the Chemistry department and a composites engineer in
WPE and have them cross disciplines.
Come up with things like biodegradable paints and laminates. Doesn’t happen
overnight obviously.
Develop a materials science program and have polymer chemists involved. Focus on
bio-based materials. Possible research funders: Department of Energy; Department of
Agriculture; and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Competitors:
(a) All materials science programs – we would need to carve a niche – perhaps biobased.
(b) University of Maine – has a lot of defense contracts
(c) University of Maryland and Kent State – could also collaborators
Materials need to mimic.
Could start with individuals trying to make a difference – stop using unsustainable
products like plastic wrap, palm oil, etc. Research could cut down on fossil fuel based
products.
For example: can we come up with a bio degradable bag in place of a plastic bag?
3) How can we maintain or improve ecosystem health and services in environments that
are changing and under stress?
The focus of this question was on long term ecological modeling and data collection. Is
there a way to predict change before it happens? Could we model those changes?
There was discussion about making use of the 25,000 acres the College has.
Humans will always have impact on the environment but the focus should be on how
can we do things to have less of an impact? Make the modeling and long term data
collection available for others to use (via the library). I am sure we have professors that
have been collecting data for years, but likely do not have it in such a format that it
could be shared with others. Could we hire graduate students to put the data in a
format that could be used by others?
Could we work with more local companies, such as the Onondaga Lake project?
We shouldn’t be the college to tell everyone what they are doing wrong. But the place
that people come to get solutions for their environmental issues. We need to find a way
to show them “this is the way to go”
Can’t be totally sustainable – can be more sustainable – make things better.
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4) How do we transition to economically sustainable and technically efficient energy
sources?
There was a lot of discussion with subcommittee on biofuels – where we are a leader
already.
Add to existing strengths: UVEB Technology Center
Midterm problem with our strengths is we need to make sure when Chemistry and
Engineering faculty are retired that we replace them with strong faculty members in
those areas.
Biofuels intermingles with materials. Need to be like an oil refinery. When ethanol
prices drop – need to have alternate solutions. Programs in both biofuels and materials
would complement each other and have value as product markets change.
5) How can we develop an integrative and transdisciplinary framework for successful
environmental adaptation?
Again this questions focused on modeling and data collection – how can we make use of
it?
Need to figure out how to make the data accessible.
Dept. of Energy - NSF grant – with funding ESF would be able to get more people
involved with it.
How do we come up with protocols for data collection and formats – maybe the library
or grad student can help?
6) How do we manage and protect freshwater resources?
President would like to involve faculty across as many departments as we could.
Fair amount of water related knowledge in PBE. Deals with waste water – ends up in
natural environment. Waste water management.
Can’t think of any department that doesn’t deal with water in some way.
Construct a wetland and this is where our waste water is going to go.
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