DU’s Sustainability Council Working Hard for a Better Future

The Board of Trustees have approved DU IMPACT 2025 and the Sustainability Council is now continuing with its strategic plan.

There is quite a force of change makers at DU with various plans underway. The Sustainability Council is moving ahead and making changes to the way our campus becomes more sustainable.

It’s 8:30 am in the loft of Anderson Academic Commons. The council slowly trickles in over the span of the next 10 minutes.

A woman introduces herself and the council and launches into updates. This woman is Becky Powell, a professor in Geography & the Environment here at DU and serves as chair of the council.

 

Becky Powell, a Geography & Environment professor at DU heads the Council of Sustainability.

http://www.du.edu/nsm/departments/geography/facultyandstaff/powell_rebecca.html

The room is filled with three types of people: professors decked out in their best grey suits and dress shirts, eager looking grad students ready to contribute, and a junior who is the head of Divest (an undergrad club).

Goals

A really important goal is to have DU eventually move away from using fossil fuels. While the council acknowledged that this isn’t the simplest goal to achieve, they will make a positive impact on campus on the road to doing so. Cheever, professor at DU, is leading the discussion part of the meeting. The council is setting about creating and completing tasks as part of their plan for the next year. One of their goals is to create more classes that incorporate sustainability in them, ”a university wide sustainability outcome is a good idea…we hope this will move us forward in developing more sustainability courses.”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97513256@N06/9044197386

photo credit goes to Olearys

Challenges

They have already worked on implementing proper compost and recycling practices all around campus and in buildings. However, they have faced numerous challenges. ”The biggest challenge for us is to somewhat talk across the lines,” they aren’t communicating well with the student body and need to figure out how to fix that says one of the undergrad students. “It’s not the fact that there are multiple disciplinary people working on it isn’t enough, people need to work together,” commented David Carlson, a teacher at Korbel, with this in mind they have made sure that at every meeting there is a member of the undergrad Divest club present.

To bridge this gap and to reach the undergraduate community, a member of the club Divest always shows up to the meetings in order to relay the information and keep everyone up to date on what is going on, on our campus.

What does the future hold?

The council has made hockey a Zero Waste Event, “we are also trying to expand it out to more sports” said Martins, a grad student at DU. Lacrosse is the next sport they’re trying to make a Zero Waste Event. Zero waste means to divert as much trash as possible into compost instead of a landfill. They’ve worked with hockey players, students, and Sodexo to do that, and it’s worked extremely well for hockey so they are confident they’ll be able to push zero waste onto lacrosse games as well.

DU Hockey games goes zero waste

Green transportation is another project the council is working towards. They have had previous success with bike to work/campus days and want to continue pursuing this opportunity. They are exploring different bike sharing options such as Zagster and Gotcha Bike, as well as the possibility of a shuttle with a notification app.

Women in the Workplace; Equal Pay Not Yet Our Reality

It’s 2016 and equal pay for woman still isn’t a reality in Colorado, let alone the United States.

In Colorado women are making roughly $762 a week compared to the $978 men are making. While the average woman in Colorado is making more than the average female does in the United States, she still sees a significantly smaller salary than a man.

What’s going on?

On average women all over the nation are getting paid $706 per week and men are getting $860. These numbers show that the cents in between add up and are extremely damaging to women who need to support themselves and their families.

It’s more than just the gap in salary of a man and a woman working the same job, it’s discrimination as well.  It’s actually legal in 28 states to ask a woman during an interview whether or not she is a single parent or if they are married.

Where does Colorado stand?

In 2004 women made 78.7% of what their male counterparts made in a year.  It is now 2016, 12 years later than when that statistic was presented, and that percentage has only increased a little.  Women are now making 80 cents to every dollar a man in the same job makes.  This disparity is even worse for women of color.

 

(80 cents to a $1 pictured here)

The issue is often silenced, however, there are many organizations working nationally like the National Committee on Pay Equity. In Denver there are groups working on either funding other orgs that are trying to expedite the process of equal pay like the Chinook Fund, or are directly working with the issue every day 9 to 5 org, and the Women’s Foundation of Colorado.

“I mean I hate it, it’s frustrating.  It’s about time, it’s 2016. I think that organizations who work with these issues need help from outside people like us, it’s not all on them to make the change,” states Becca Shaefer 20, a junior at DU.

Becca elaborates, “Just because someone is out there working on improving our lives doesn’t mean we can just sit back on autopilot.  I think it’s really easy for people to get lazy and we just need to remember that this is our fight too,”  by touching on organizations, their reach/community involvement, and what young women ought to do.

(Becca, a junior and Lamont Music School student at DU)

 

Unequal pay happening inside the University of Denver

Unequal pay is felt nationally, locally in Colorado, and even in places where you wouldn’t expect it such as a private university made up of educated faculty.

The ongoing case of Professor Marsh, a professor at the University of Denver, sheds light on the somewhat hidden issue at Denver’s private university.  Marsh filed a charge of discrimination against the Sturm College of Law for paying her less than her male co workers who were doing the same amount of work as she was.
Dani Koelling, 21 and a junior at DU feels personally about this issue. “I mean isn’t this so obvious?  Why would people ever get to thinking that it’s logical to have women make less for the same job?  I honestly can’t wrap my mind around it and it’s sort of embarrassing to be tied to a school that’s involved with something as sexist as that.  I thought we were better, I guess not” she said. Dani’s feelings are only one example of the frustrations young women all around the nation are feeling.

University students and faculty are supposed to be educated and aware of such injustices and to use their power and knowledge to work against them.  It surprises DU students to find out that their University is not leading a good example in some of the issues they feel strongly for.

Hey America, what does the future hold?

According to Michele Leber from the National Committee on Pay Equity, “The institute for Women’s Policy Research’s latest estimate is that it will take until 2058” for equal pay to be totally implemented.  Women of the millennial generation will have to experience roughly 4 more decades until equal pay is probable.  To say that’s a long period of time to have to go for an issue that has been brought to people’s attention and discussed since roughly 1869 is an understatement.

The next step for women of this generation is to “support and work for legislative change, on the local, state, and federal level,” says Leber.  Women and men of this generation especially, need to draw attention to the issue and work actively against it.

(photo creds: House Democrat, https://www.flickr.com/photos/housedemocrats/13719010845)

 

Profile

 

(Conley pictured above, teaching an Introduction to Advertising class at DU’s Daniels College of Business.)

Theresa Conley, a current marketing consultant and marketing professor with PHD status, talks entering the marketing work force.

Conley has held marketing positions at AT&T, Comcast, and CenturyLink and won awards for her work in the field.  She has spent the majority of her time in the work force focusing her efforts on product development and brand building.

Breaking into any field takes a lot of time, patience, and effort.  Theresa Conley had to experience a wide range of jobs before she arrived at her final job as a marketing consultant. She sits across from me in her office that’s covered in pictures, drawings, little figures, and colored trinkets.  I feel like I’ve stepped into a box of crayons.  Yet despite the rather colorful decor, Dr. Conley is direct, serious, and critical in a way that has only helped her throughout her career.

The basics

Marketing consultants typically make $92,100 a year and are hired by companies that need help generating buzz to attract their target market to their service of product.  The industry typically looks for people with a flair for creativity and innovation.  Employees also must be good at analyzing customer data in order to make informed decisions.  What makes a good consultant is their ability to understand a wide range of industries and demonstrate their knowledge when consulting the clients needs.

To enter into the field there are lots of steps you have to take first like “entry level marketing positions, different marketing jobs, marketing communications, I was an art director at one point, all on the corporate marketing side of marketing though.” Theresa’s experience is not unique.  In any work field you have to work your way up, nothing is instantaneous, even in a seemingly instantaneous world.

Challenges in the marketing sphere

Mrs. Conley has been working in the marketing field for over 30 years.  What keeps things exciting for her after all this time is the constant challenges she has to face.  Things are “constantly changing, and challenging you.”  With every new assignment she takes on, she is faced with unique demands that push her to expand her problem solving skills.

A marketing consultant may not sound that glamorous to the average person, but Theresa has been a part of some pivotal moments in our history.  One of her favorite and most satisfying jobs was being a part of the launch of high speed internet service.  That was around “1996 in fremont California, and it was the first high speed internet service in the world so it was a huge deal, really fun, and complicated, lots of technical nuances.  But it all worked out.”

She also works with various advertising agencies all over the country and has worked mostly in the corporate marketing sphere.   Corporate marketing employees manage the image that other organizations put out there.  This can mean anything from implementing the proper marketing that relates to an organization’s mission statement to advertising implementation.  Some of her routine tasks were to advertise for new products and services in timely and creative way.

Now as a marketing consultant, she does a lot of product positioning and design thinking “all of it usually has to do with product development, this can be anything from a product service to a good.” Her favorite part of the job is dealing with various design issues that come up.  “I like especially the design challenges involved because that seems to be a skill that I have that a lot of people don’t have.”  Knowing how your skills and strengths fit into what a company needs is important in adding value to yourself as a possible employee she notes.

(image made through word cloud)

Entering the field/getting hired

Theresa says a lot of the time people are really closed off and this leads to a lot of missed opportunities.  “It’s crucial to be open minded, sometimes some of the most amazing jobs have an odd title or the salary isn’t as high as you thought you wanted or needed.  Being open minded often leads you to opportunities that are really amazing and that will lead to other things.” While searching for a marketing job one must not get discouraged from a job offer that doesn’t immediately jump off the page to them.

In the world of marketing from the hiring perspective, it’s extremely important to have a “sense of authenticity about who they are and how you present yourself,” you must have an authentic passion driving you, you must want to learn. An interviewer will be able to tell if that passion comes through in the interview as well as on the job.  Marketing is a really demanding field, it requires you to be thoroughly engaged, active, and attentive throughout the whole process of working with a client.  No detail can be left behind.

“A lot of people look good on paper and I’ve hired hundreds of people in my time, but what you need to understand is how they get along with others, how they fit into your business, how personally engaged are they, do they have the capacity to work independently and get things done?”  These are things to keep in mind when applying for a job in the marketing field.

What now?

Currently, Dr. Conley is working on a project in South Dakota, “I’m Working on design of new pocket community in South Dakota,” which is a term for a group of residential homes. “I’m working with the developer and the architecture firm, so I’m providing a lot of design solutions for this project that are different from the architectural responsibilities that the developer also doesn’t know how to do.” The point is to know what you’re good at and to do it well so that you bring something to the table that your clients and business partners need.

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The Final #DUreporters Tweets

Entertainment/Media 

Finally an Oscar for Leo #DUreporters https://t.co/jkK3SjIQG2

— Allison (@afirm323) February 29, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar for best actor for his part in The Revenant at the 88th annual awards show.

After a long wait, Leo finally brought home the gold at this years Oscars.  Fans and fellow actors were excited that Leo finally won over the Academy.  Instead of another surge of memes, the internet has been taken over by videos of his acceptance speech, reaction video of long time friend and fellow Titanic actress Kate Winslet, and gifs of him getting his Oscar engraved.  Say goodbye to the memes Leo, this ones for you.

Food/Drink 

Huge step for Starbucks considering Milan's initial refusal to house this coffee giant #DUreporters https://t.co/uIUgIgeB1F

— Allison (@afirm323) February 29, 2016

Starbucks set to open a shop in Milan, their first store in Italy.

Howard Schultz, the chairman and chief executive at Starbucks, was inspired to start the company after a trip to Milan in 1980. The historical tie between coffee and Italy, Milan is the birthplace of the expresso, will cause this Starbucks to face new challenges. The chain will pay attention to the smallest details in order to honor Italy’s rich coffee culture and the Italian people.

 

Technology 

The thought is equally terrifying and thrilling #DUreporters https://t.co/3HRas1n1qM

— Allison (@afirm323) March 4, 2016

Architecture 

Coming soon in June, a glass slide 1,000 ft above the ground being built on the highest building in L.A.

Part of the U.S Bank Tower’s renovations will include a glass slide merely 1.25 inches thick from the 70th floor down to the 69th floor.  The 45 foot slide will wrap around the side of the building.  The $50 million renovations will also include an observation deck, bar, and restaurant on the top floors.

Meet the Microsoft Holo Lens #DUreporters https://t.co/7lALlNxn8y

— Allison (@afirm323) February 29, 2016

Gadgets

Microsoft is introducing a new piece of technology dubbed the HoloLens and is sending it out to developers on March 30th, 2016.

The HoloLens is a mixed reality headset that will add holographic images to the wearer’s environment. It is currently targeted towards developers and software creators so that they can develop apps and games for the reality headset. The HoloLens will be priced at $3,000 and will allow programmers the ability to experience the device to its full potential and allow them to create a vibrant experience for the wearer.