Renew School selects Joe Westphal to head Holiday Break Transition Team!

Dear Dr. Joseph Westphal,

In light of your excellent service in academia, and in particular your outstanding commitment to improving students' experiences during your tenure as Provost of The New School, we would like to extend an invitation for you to be a part of Renew School's Fall '08 - Spring '09 Transition Team.

It is cruelly ironic that during this historic time, most of Renew School's members are up to their eyeballs in finals and senior work. As the organization undergoes board elections, budget prioritization, and party-planning during its segue into the spring semester, it needs someone who can provide coherence and consistency in its university-wide academic restructuring. We think you can help us.

The pay won't be good (we can't pay you), but there's some relatively improved job security in it. And we told Jim Murtha he's not allowed to come, so... that'll be nice.

We eagerly look forward to your reply,

Renew School Board

Perspectives on "Sustainability":

Here's one. Found it on the street and scanned it.

Will the World Survive? (.pdf, 4mb, highly Mormon)

BOOK + ART SUPPLY Swap

Part one of two hosted by Renew School

Have any books or art supplies lying around? Come to our swap! Trade one book for another (we'll have lots on hand). Or, trade it for a voucher you can redeem at our spring semester swap next January.

Trade art supplies, one bundle for another - its up to you to decide
what's fair.

No money involved.

Lang Cafe. Friday, December 19th. 10 am - 4 pm

Download the flyer (.pdf)

They're Alive!

TNS's Oyster Gardens of NYC class - taught this and next semester by the incomparable Mara Haseltine - now has a fairly awesome facebook page.

RENEWSLETTER | Issue 2, November 2008

In this issue: Barack Obama (of course), Report on our Bike-Rack Initiative, NYC Oyster Gardens, Dusty Ode to Fogelman Library, Park(ing) Day Photo Essay ... plus an event calendar and etc etc etc.

Enjoy!

-->Download hizzre (.pdf | <3mb)>

World Food Crisis event Friday

Students for a Democratic Society and Renew School present:


Friday, October 31, 4:30 - 6:00pm
6 West 16th Street, rm 1009

Free, light refreshments served.

FLYER HERE: http://groups.google.com/group/renewschool/web/Food_Fuel_and_Our_Future.pdf

Unknown to many - especially when the media is primarily focused on the upcoming presidential elections - is that we are in the midst of an unprecedented world food crisis. Join us on October 31st for a discussion with Professor Fred Magdoff on the causes of and potential solutions for the world food crisis.

Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont in Burlington and a director of the Monthly Review Foundation.

"An acute food crisis has struck the world in 2008. This is on top of a longer-term crisis of agriculture and food that has already left billions hungry and malnourished. In order to understand the full, dire implications of what is happening today it is necessary to look at the interaction between these short-term and long-term crises. Both crises arise primarily from the for-profit production of food, fiber, and now biofuels, and the rift between food and people that this inevitably generates." - Fred Magdoff

USS Unanimously Passes Talloires Support Resolution

Last night, in a hurried meeting of the University Student Senate (they have a f-book page), a resolution of support for our Talloires Declaration initiative was passed:

IN RECOGNITION of the severity of the global environmental crisis; the possibility of ecological remediation, and

IN RECOGNITION of the creative potential inherent in the discourse of higher education; the role of university graduates in shaping influential policies and practices; in the university’s responsibility to be proactive in the cause of social, economic, and environmental justice, and

IN RECOGNITION of the independent efforts already in progress by students, faculty, staff, and administration in implementing sustainability-related measures across the university,

THEREFORE we the members of the University Student Senate resolve to issue a statement of support for the values elucidated in the Talloires Declaration, and furthermore support Renew School’s initiative to have the Declaration, or a similar statement of values, adopted by the President and Provost of The New School.

The full resolution, along with the text of the declaration and a list of American signatories, can be viewed here (html).

The Talloires Declaration (pronounced tel-wah) was "composed in 1990 at an international conference in Talloires, France. It is the first official statement made by university administrators of a commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education. The Talloires Declaration ... is a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. It has been signed by over 350 university presidents and chancellors in over 40 countries." [from USLF]

This is the first step in a new campaign to formally institutionalize our (and other's) sustainability initiatives.