Saturday, April 29, 2017

Girls' Summit: Kids Day for the Community

For years, the most common request received regarding Kids Day was “Can you extend the age range?”  Unfortunately, our school/work days are constrained by room availability and class schedules.  It has also proven difficult to increase the number of groups, increase group sizes across the board and to increase the range of ages within a group.  Thus, when Girls Inc. approached a few years ago, we realized that there was another way to accomplish this, and simultaneously increase our reach.  We worked with Girls Inc, C-STEP, SU STEP and with support of individuals in student Affairs and Outreach to plan and execute the 3rd Annual CNY Girls Summit STEAM Career Conference at ESF for area middle and high school girls on April 29, 2017. 

Of the eight workshops offered during the program, half had very close ESF ties. Alumna Ms. Tiffany Brookins-Little, now with Bristol Myers-Sqibb, steered participants though a fermentation exercise.  ESF SCIENCE staff led exercises in watershed modeling and with wind turbines.   In addition, our students delivered the keynote address (Madison Morely) and joined the College Preparation Panel (Alana Lindsey and Shewa Shwani) with moderator Mel Menon and students from Upstate Medical University, FM High School/ESF in the High School, and Le Moyne College.  They also served as “Group Guides,” along with students from other institutions and community members (all vetted as per the SUNY Child Protection Policy).  We changed the age-range slightly this year, to focus on grades that can build on their experience next year through SU STEP (or similar program that works with their home schools) and the ESF in the High School program.   

Post-workshop surveys indicated that participants left with a greater interest in science and math than when they arrived. They were introduced to new careers as well; 88% rated the topics as important to them, and 98% rated the overall program as interesting and the experience as good to excellent.  Despite the school-day length of the program, 20% of the suggestions called for more or longer sessions, saddened the schedule only allowed four workshops each.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

24th Annual Take our Kids to Work Day


Program schedule:  Click here to view photo album 

In conjunction with the national Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day® effort, the ESF Women's Caucus hosted ESF's children, grandchildren, nieces, friends and neighbors from 16 area schools for the 24th annual program, April 27, 2017, with 8-11 yr old participants registered from 16 different area schools.  On tap for the day:
 Chemistry, kids made "Fluffy Slime" with Ms. Joy Logan, Chemistry. They modeled and tested Watersheds with Ms Molly Welsh, Grad Program in Env Science  & Ms Meghan Mussehl, Env Resource Engineering, visualizing how landforms and vegetation alter water flow, and what that water picks up in transit. Open Hand Theater's Mr. Peter Fekete helped kids think quick and through Improv games. After finding out how plants can be used to draw contaminants from soil through a process called phytoremediation, kids potted up pansies or tomatoes, and toured the Greenhouses during the Wonders of Plants with Dr Lee Newman, Env & For Bio. For STEM & Scientific Method, Dr Gary Scott, Paper & Bioprocess Eng, engaged participants in a series of short experiments to test their predictions, and discuss why or why not, made adjustments, and continued on. By participating in this iterative process, they saw how "failure" is also a learning opportunity--often more interesting than when everything simply falls into place!
In Natural Building: Getting Muddy, Ms Sasha Batorsky, MS student studying Sustainable Construction in the Department of Forest & Natural Resources Management, had kids make "cob" (still used today, in a process very similar to that demonstrated in The Ten Commandments), a stone wall, and used "The Shake Test" to separate soil into its components. Dr. Jaime Mirowsky discussed and demonstrated Air Pollution & Health Effects through an asthma simulation, and measuring airborne particulates.


Special thanks to:  Presenters (and their Supervisors, Department chairs or advisors) and our Volunteers. ALUMNI RELATIONS and the ESF CAMPUS BOOKSTORE, magnets and pins; COMMUNICATIONS, pencils and tattoos; PROVOST’s OFFICE and ESF WOMEN’S CAUCUS, lunch, bags and color printing; PHYSICAL PLANT and TRAILHEAD CAFE (MORRISVILLE AUXILLIARY SERVICES), set & clean up; COPY CENTER, B/W printing; and HEATHER ENGELMAN, for program and supply coordination.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Antibiotic Resistance as an Environmental Contaminant


As part of the requirements of FOR /496797, Perspectives on Career and Gender, student share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Stacy Furgal, a MS student in EFB.

              Dr. Amy Pruden, of Virginia Tech, presented her research relating to antibiotic resistance and opportunistic pathogens as environmental contaminants on Tuesday, April 26.  This lecture was part of SUNY ESF’s Women in Science and Environmental Professions Spring Seminar Series.

              The lecture focused on the problem of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) and opportunistic pathogens (OPs) found in our water (both municipal and well), and the potential problems this could cause from a public health perspective. The water infrastructure in our country is antiquated and aging, and poorly suited to address these new contaminant issues. Current regulatory monitoring requirements do not apply to ARGs and OPs, but rather were designed with ingestion exposure type pathogens, like Cholera, in mind. Now the primary sources of water associated outbreaks are like Legionnaires’ Disease, which is acquired via breathing in particles that contain the bacteria, not ingesting infected water.

With that in mind, her multidisciplinary team is working to blend engineering and biology to find solutions to this complex issue. Dr. Pruden explained, using some of her and her colleagues’ work in Flint, MI, an examples. As most people know, a crisis occurred in Flint when the source for city drinking water was switched from Lake Michigan to the Flint River. The water from the Flint River had a higher salinity content, which corroded the pipes and caused lead to leach out into the water. Less well known is that this also released iron that acted as fuel for Legionella bacteria to grow. Her team investigated the increased number of reported cases of Legionnaires’ Disease and was able to link it to the corroded pipes through genetic markers.

Her team was also involved in a project that compared the amount of ARGs and OPs in regular potable water versus water that had been treated and reused, or  “recycled.” The study found that recycled water had more microbial activity, and more abundance and diversity of ARGs. It was also clear that the water tested at the water treatment facility had a different “resistome” (collection of ARGs) than water coming out of a tap in a home receiving water from that facility.

Both of Dr. Pruden’s studies highlighted that there should be a shared responsibility between utilities (water treatment facilities) and homeowners. Water quality at the point of use, i.e. in homes, is of the greatest concern to public health. Using a holistic approach, we need new frameworks and updated mitigation strategies to handle the new and emerging issue of antibiotic resistant genes and opportunistic pathogens. This is best done by a multidisciplinary team, like Dr. Pruden’s, that brings biologists, engineers, chemists, utility managers, and more, together to tackle the problem.

Dr. Pruden received her B.S. in Biology and Ph.D. in Environmental Science from University of Cincinnati. She is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Associate Dean and Director of Interdisciplinary Graduate Education in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech, as well as a W. Thomas Rice Professor. She serves as the Director of Strategic Planning for the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences Water Sustainability Thrust, is an Associate Editor for the journal Biodegradation, and serves on an advisory panel on Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) in recycled water. Dr. Pruden has published more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters on subjects pertaining to bioremediation, pathogens, and antibiotic resistance.

For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm .

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Bathroom Equity Resolution and Discussion, Academic Governance Meeting


At the April 18, 2017 Academic Governance Meeting, in discussion of a Resolution on Bathroom Equity, the college was asked to examine the distribution of on-campus bathrooms, and report back at the May 11 meeting ("Issue of all gender restrooms has been received and discussed and they are aggressively pursuing how to fix these issues.").  Haley Kim, of the Daily Orange, followed up with some of those that spoke:  

SUNY-ESF passes resolution to increase bathroom equity, targeting gender and accessibility



  

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Academic Governance body recently passed a resolution, 44-11, calling for bathroom equity on campus. Faculty have said a lack of accessibility has plagued SUNY-ESF for years, leaving some students — especially transgender students — often feeling uncomfortable using the bathrooms.
The resolution asks the administration to conduct a bathroom audit, change the signage of some bathrooms in the Gateway Center, renovate and re-designate other bathrooms across campus and write a policy to improve bathroom equity for future buildings.
“The excuses that I hear are our buildings are old and we don’t have a lot of money, and lack of money in different places, but at some point we need to invest in the comfort in the people that work here,” said Kelley Donaghy, an associate professor of chemistry and one of the co-writers of the resolution.
The administration is to present its results of the study and plans for renovation by May 11, the next Academic Governance meeting. While President Quentin Wheeler has expressed support for the resolution, nothing has been done yet to Donaghy’s knowledge, she said.
In Illick Hall, there are 38 places for men to use the bathroom, while only eight for women, according to the resolution. Many of ESF’s buildings were constructed when the campus was predominantly male, the resolution notes, but now the campus sees “more balanced diversity of genders.” Additionally, not all restrooms are Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant, Donaghy said.
The discussion for a resolution only came this semester, though. Donaghy said she was inspired by the film “Hidden Figures,” where one of the main characters, who is black, is forced to walk across campus to use the bathroom because of segregation.
Knowing that many transgender students at SUNY-ESF don’t feel comfortable using the restrooms, Donaghy went to the chemistry department and suggested changing Jahn Laboratory’s third floor women’s restroom into an all-gender bathroom.
While most of the women on the floor supported the change, it was blocked because of a code rule about bathroom equity — the building couldn’t change over a women’s bathroom without changing over a men’s, Donaghy said.
Instead, Sierra Jech, a graduate chemistry student, came up with the idea to change both the men’s and women’s first floor bathrooms in Jahn to all-gender bathrooms, Donaghy said. They created a petition that reached close to 300 signatures.
“We wanted to show the chemistry department that more than just chemistry students would be using the restroom, and we also wanted to show that there was widespread support,” Jech said.
SUNY-ESF’s Undergraduate Student Association voted in support of both the petition and resolution, said Ben Taylor, the organization’s president. The association previously passed a resolution calling for more gender-inclusive bathroom spaces. The issue hasn’t been contentious among students, Taylor said.
But the resolution was debated at the Academic Governance meeting, said Heidi Webb, library technician at ESF and one of the co-writers of the resolution. One of the biggest pushbacks has been over the bathroom codes for buildings.
Brian Boothroyd, assistant director of physical plant for facilities at ESF, who spoke at the meeting, said he is in support of the resolution but added that it’s not as simple as just changing the signs on the doors. While this is a priority and some changes might be easy to make, there needs to be a deeper evaluation of other facilities before major renovations happen, he said.
“A change to accommodate one group might negatively affect another group that we don’t even know of yet,” Boothroyd said.

But Donaghy and Webb argue that there are some bathrooms that can be changed immediately. In Gateway, there are two single-occupancy bathrooms — one labeled for men and the other women — that they said could easily be relabeled. Changing these bathrooms was one of the key points in the resolution.
“Since we have these two single-stall bathrooms that are lockable from the inside,” Donaghy said, “… Why is this even a concern? It should have been done the day after the resolution.”
Another concern was that some of the bathrooms, like the ones in Jahn, were multi-stall. The resolution cites other SUNY campuses with all-gender bathrooms, like SUNY Stony Brook, Geneseo and Oneonta. At the meeting, those arguing against the changes brought up concerns of hygiene and safety.
Janine DeBaise, an instructor of writing and literature classes at ESF, said some of these arguments are “absurd” and that there are no mysterious hygiene issues — men and women can share bathrooms, just like in family homes, she said.
People also argued that women might not feel safe using the same facility as men. Webb said there are holes in this argument, though, and she dislikes it because it says that men can’t control themselves.
“If women don’t feel safe, that’s a larger issue and we need to figure why they don’t feel safe,” Webb said. “It has to be they don’t feel safe beyond the bathroom too, right?”
While most of the SUNY-ESF campus — across faculty, staff and students — seem in support of increasing bathroom equity across campus, Donaghy said that those against the proposal need to consider how it could increase comfort for many on campus.
“When someone says to me, ‘I’m uncomfortable with this,’” Donaghy said, “I want to just say, ‘But other people are uncomfortable with our current circumstances too. Why is your comfort more important?’”

RESOLUTION TO REQUEST BATHROOM EQUITY ON ESF’S MAIN CAMPUS

Sponsored by the Executive Committee of Academic Governance

Whereas it is acknowledged that some of our buildings are old and were built when the campus gender demographic was predominately male; and

Whereas the gender demographic on this campus has changed significantly since, approaching a more balanced diversity of genders; and

Whereas a recent bathroom audit of Illick Hall revealed that men have 38 places (urinals and toilets) to relieve themselves and women only have 8; and

Whereas it was recently calculated that women in Illick Hall routinely lose approximately 40 minutes a month either waiting in line for a stall or walking between floors or to another building and often cannot use a facility between classes; and

Whereas genderIspecific bathrooms present problems for parents needing to travel with differently gendered children and disabled people with differently gendered attendants; and

Whereas there are buildings on campus without ADA accessible bathrooms for both genders or at least one all gender fully accessible bathroom and many bathrooms currently designated as handicap accessible are likely only minimally accessible; and

Whereas there are currently few facilities on the SUNYIESF campus where individuals not on the gender binary, transgender, gender nonIconforming, or transitioning individuals are comfortable “Peeing in Peace”;1 and

Whereas a recent petition requesting that the first floor men’s and women’s multiIstall bathrooms in the Jahn Laboratory which has a wealth of bathrooms having been constructed after 1993, be reIdesignated as all gender was signed by approximately 275 (and counting) community members; and


Whereas the Jahn Chemistry Faculty passed a motion in support of all gender bathrooms but requesting that the College investigate the renovation of existing bathrooms including the cost and impacts on students, faculty and staff; and

Whereas the Undergraduate Student Association passed Resolution 05.2015: A Resolution Recommending the SUNYIESF Administration Implement Gender Inclusive Spaces; and

Whereas at the 172nd Plenary of the SUNY University Faculty Senate a resolution was passed recommending the SUNY Wide Implementation of Gender Inclusive Spaces;2 and

Whereas a new bill is being considered within the New York State Legislature “that would make all singleIoccupancy restrooms in public places gender neutral”;3 and

Whereas Syracuse and New York State include gender identity under Title VII, a Federal law that protects all employees from discrimination;4 and
Whereas the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published clear guidelines for “Best Practices, A guide to restrooms access for transgender workers” 5 ; and

Whereas OSHA also recommends that there be one water closet for every 15 employees6;

Therefore be it resolved that Academic Governance requests that ESF administration and the ESF Capital Planning Committee perform a bathroom audit that includes: assessing the current accessibility, availability, and ADA compliance of all handicap restrooms; investigating the cost and feasibility of renovating and reIdesignating the Jahn first floor bathrooms as all gender; reassigning some men’s bathrooms as women’s rooms in Illick Hall; and

Be it further resolved that Academic Governance requests that ESF administration charge physical plant with reIdesignating the second floor bathrooms located in the Gateway Building (side by side, singleIstall lockable for individual occupancy, men’s and women’s bathrooms) immediately and the change be advertised widely; and

Be it further resolved that Academic Governance requests that the ESF Administration and the Capital Planning Committee seek to achieve bathroom equity across campus by renovating and reI designating other bathrooms in other buildings; and

Be it further it resolved that Academic Governance requests that the ESF Administration create a policy to ensure that all new buildings constructed and all future renovations in existing buildings on the ESF campus be built with fully accessible all gender bathrooms, exclusively; and

Finally, be it resolved that Academic Governance requests that the ESF Administration and the Capital Planning Committee report the results of their study and their plans for renovation of current facilities at the May 2017 meeting of Academic Governance.

Approved and adopted the __________day of __________ 20____.


Vote:                                        Ayes:            _________ Nos: _________
Absent:                     _________

__________________________________________
Secretary of Academic Governance for the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry


1 Peeing in Peace, Transgender Law Center, transgenderlawcenter.org
2 SUNY UFS resolution on Gender Inclusive Spaces, http://system.suny.edu/media/suny/contentI assets/documents/facultyIsenate/plenary/172I02I1IGenderIInclusiveISpacesIResolution.pdf
3 NY Bill Proposed statewide requirement for gender neutral bathrooms, Geoff Herbert Syracuse.com
4 See below for Title VII resources and information
5 OSHA Best Practices Guide for Transgender Workers, https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3795.pdf
6OSHA Table J1 – designating the number of water closets for the number of employees, https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9790# 1910.141(g)(2)



ADDITIONAL RESOURCES


Syracuse local ordinance https://www.municode.com/library/ny/syracuse/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTLLOLA_C H8HURI_S8I4UNDIPR I

Most SUNY Schools have multiIstall all gender bathrooms some notable articles: Stony Brook: http://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/lgbtq/ourcampus/restrooms.html Geneseo: https://www.geneseo.edu/lgbtq/restrooms

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Inclusion and access, revisited


Its been almost two years since the college closed, unfilled, the position of the coordinator of  Multicultural Affairs,  citing budget issues.   We are now searching for a Chief Diversity Officer, who will implement a Inclusion, Diversity an Equity plan developed by a small group of passionate people that have been on campus for various lengths of time, some who have benefited from advantages bestowed upon them and realized that those with any otherness have to work harder to be recognized as having the same base level of expertise. 
  
Two years ago I shared a variation of this: 

Access without support is not opportunity.  
         Tinto 2008 

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.
        Atticus Finch to his daughter Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Those people who bear the brunt of oppression should not be required to also take responsibility for eliminating it.  At the same time, it is self-evident that people in the subordinate group can take the lead in setting the world right.  For one thing, if people in the dominant group had access to and were able to hold a perspective that allowed them to change systems and patterns of domination, they would have done so already.
     In: Love 2010.  Developing a Liberatory Consciousness.  In:  Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, edited by Maurianne Adams; Warren J Blumenfeld; Carmelita Rosie Castañeda; Heather W Hackman; Madeline L Peters,Ximena Zúñiga.  Routledge.


Promoting an environment of class/gender/race/etc neutrality hasn't been productive.  Nor has ignoring privilege and advantage based on membership in majority or dominant group.  Just opening the door a tiny bit and forcing interested parties to push their way to the table isn't exactly a welcoming invitation.  It's also contrary to millennia of conditioning that its downright rude to treat authority figures that way (and unladylike.) And that when members of non-majority groups act assertively, it often backfires--they are not seen as authority figures, as are white men that demonstrate that behavior, but as "uppity" or "bitches" or .....

I'd much rather see inclusion, with the expectation of multiple of ways of knowing, and appreciation for all types of contributions.  Neutral has been melting pot analogy--and there are so many of the majority view that they drown or push away the wonderful flavors, and creative additions, that everyone else brings to the table.  Can we bring back the salad bowl?  Or consider an analogy where each individual element is appreciated for its own flavor and texture, but also for how they complement and contrast for a richer, deeper experience.
  
This isn't novel:

It sucks how the entire burden of making the classroom a safe space can fall on the shoulders of queer students. I would think that a classroom that feels like a safe space would be a more comfortable environment for everybody. I don’t know whether my TAs and professors are scared of dealing with this stuff or if they just have the privilege of not thinking about it.
   In:  Interrupting Heternormativity, The Graduate School of Syracuse University 2004

And even our own internal climate report (Heffernan 1992) noted that
 ... while the women students recognized a personal responsibility to establish the boundaries of acceptable behavior [aka addressing chauvinism], they found this chore to be unfairly distracting from their studies.