Through collaboration with the UW Solar RSO (Registered Student Organization) and the wǝɫǝbʔaltxw Intellectual House, I intend to combine my experience on the UW Farm as part-time staff and within the College of Built Environments as a landscape architecture graduate student to design and build an agricultural pond on the UW Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) Farm site. The pond will fulfill a request from Lisaaksiichaa Braine, past Director of the Wǝɫǝbʔaltxw Intellectual House, who envisioned greater access to native food for food insecure First Nations students on campus. The project will be sited on the eastern side of the farm. A greenhouse dubbed the Resiliency Tunnel, which is under development by UW Solar, will be sited directly north of the pond and capture rainwater that will be used to irrigate the pond through Seattle’s summer months. Water overflow from this pond will pass through a swale to irrigate a fruit orchard downslope, which is under development.The pond will contain a culturally relevant resource in wapato (Sagittaria latifolia), an aquatic plant with tuberous roots that were an important source of carbohydrates before the introduction of the potato to the Pacific Northwest. Wapato is already cultivated by the Wǝɫǝbʔaltxw Native Garden on the Farm, within two galvanized stock tanks. Wǝɫǝbʔaltxw uses these stock tanks as a nursery, with the intent of moving these plants to a more permanent growing space in the future. Moving the cultivation of wapato to this pond would create more public interest in the crop, increase biodiversity on the Farm, and create a more meaningful connection between the First Nations students and a deeply significant crop. I intend to construct the pond I have designed this quarter (Spring 2023). I am focusing on this project as an independent studio topic within the Department of Landscape Architecture and am in close collaboration with Perry Acworth, who is my boss at the UW Farm, and Carrie Cone, the Administrative Services Manager at UW Botanic Gardens. I have received $3,500 in funding from the Northwest Horticultural Society for this project and am in communication with UW Solar's Resiliency Tunnel team to also repurpose their remaining CSF feasibility study funding. I have a detailed budget of the project, and a $5000 mini-grant would cover89% of the expected costs that are unmet. This project will not be possible without a CSF mini-grant. Thank you for your consideration!

The Salvage Wood Program is a collaborative partnership between University of Washington Grounds Management, Maintenance and Construction, and the College of Built Environments, and was initially sponsored by the Campus Sustainability Fund and implemented into campus procedures in 2015 (https://facilities.uw.edu/catalog/salvage-wood; https://facilities.uw.edu/catalog/salvage-wood/about-salvage-wood-program). As a gold rated university recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, UW is committed to responsibly using resources, reducing waste and carbon emissions, prioritizing sustainable practices, and galvanizing community involvement. The Salvage Wood Program is a proud showcase of this commitment.

Grounds Management oversees approximately 10,000 trees on campus and ensures that all trees are planted methodically and with purposeful intention. Campus trees are a significant asset in both actual value and investment over time. Eventually, these trees will be removed because of natural decline or death, as a preventative measure to avoid potential hazards, or as part of a construction project. By keeping the tree material on campus, money is saved in disposal cost, less energy is used in waste transportation, some of the asset value of the tree is retained by being incorporated into campus projects, and the investment made into that tree over time is preserved. The program repurposes these trees to survive long past their removal and to preserve UW history and culture in timeless products. The processed wood is available for student, faculty, and administration projects; capital projects relating to Maintenance and Construction needs; and custom products such as nameplates, signs, and furniture pieces.

Before the wood can be renewed it is imperative that it goes through a series of drying stages both in open-air conditions and in a kiln, which could take up to three years total. These stages are executed and monitored by UW Carpenters. The program is facing a dilemma due to a lack of indoor drying storage space, which causes some wood to be stored outdoors without temperature or humidity regulations. Being exposed to environmental elements adversely affects the wood and after one year the wood deteriorates, can no longer be repurposed, and is discarded. These conditions also reduce the amount, type, and quality of products created, and consequently reduce the success and sustainability of the program. In addition to storage issues, the program needs a fresh revenue stream and an improvement in efficiency.

To combat these problems and through interdisciplinary collaborations between UW Carpenters, Grounds Management, and students and staff of the College of Built Environments, an idea was generated to build a new storage facility to dry the wood. This solution will protect the wood from harsh environmental conditions and preserve wood integrity for the maximum amount of time to maintain the zero-waste nature of the program. The facility will be an insulated, climate-controlled, external addition to Gould Hall. Design and construction of the infrastructure will be spearheaded by staff members of the College of Built Environments, and students will have an opportunity to participate and further develop their technical skills in architectural design, engineering, and project management. Several classes, such as the Furniture Studio course that operates every quarter, will utilize the wood for assigned projects. The goal is to have the CSF grant fund the construction of the storage facility and provide financial support as the program is reenergized. For two years after implementation, grant funds will be utilized to purchase the wood for students to use in classes. Once the program is fully operational and efficient, the College will purchase the wood for student use. With the CSF grant and then the College purchasing the wood, this supports UW's Diversity Blueprint by releasing the financial burden from students and ensuring equal opportunity for all students who want to be involved. Also, this new revenue stream from the College will be vital in recouping costs to maintain the sustainability of the program.

This storage facility will not only alleviate revenue and storage issues, but it will also improve logistics and prosperity of the program. As opposed to the current horizontal storage, which makes choosing wood difficult, the wood in the facility will be stored vertically and in turn will allow students to easily choose wood based on species, appearance, and size. The wood will also be more readily available compared to the current procedure that involves students setting a specific date and time once per quarter to visit the carpenter storage area. The facility will improve student accessibility to the wood, encourage the use of ethically sourced materials, educate the students about eco-friendly habits, and reduce costs compared to traditional lumber yards. Also noteworthy is that the facility will provide ample educational opportunities for students to learn about the extensive process of drying and managing wood, which is such an important economical practice that entire careers are dedicated to it.  

UW carpenters will employ funding to plane the wood to make it more appealing and marketable to students. Planing involves smoothing and shaping the wood into a uniform strip for the purpose of refining quality and visibility of the color and grain. This will increase the likelihood of students selecting the program's wood rather than off campus sources because they are inclined to invest in wood that is planed prior to purchase. Smaller wood pieces and chips produced while milling will be turned into compost at UW farm or utilized for cooking in the farm's wood burning stove. Funding will also support the carpenters to provide guided tours of the carpentry shop to students once per quarter to facilitate engagement with the kiln, sawmill, and wood production.

The carpenters and staff of the College of Built Environments will also claim responsibility and funding to track the wood and conduct consistent, accurate inventories. As the wood is processed and dried, each stage requires the input of information into a spreadsheet. Inventorying and identifying where the wood originated, when it was salvaged, and the age is a special and unique aspect of this program. Expertly tracking the wood ensures that the intrinsic value of the wood is maintained, and UW's legacy of sustainable initiatives is preserved in the products. Executing quarterly inventories into normal procedures will streamline efficiency of the program and will ensure accurate stock and quantities to aid in future project planning.

The Salvage Wood Program has a legacy of contributing to UW's Sustainability Action Plan, and the collaborators involved have proven their technical knowledge and project management skills to successfully support the program. The graduate appointee for Grounds Management will continue to monitor program success, track expenses, support educational and advertisement opportunities on campus, and coordinate with collaborators to meet deadlines. With additional funding to construct a storage facility and to support collaborators as they process and manage the wood, the program will continue to prioritize environmentally sound practices and to proudly exemplify UW's sustainability commitment while engaging students, staff, and facility units.

• Who FN is and why we are asking for funding
• Sustainable Impact
• Student Leadership
• Education and Outreach
• Timeline
• Basic Budget

First Nations is a Registered Student Organization that aims to promote Indigenous culture through events such as Taking Back the Dinner and the annual UW Spring Powwow. First Nations also advocates for Native students' interests, needs, and welfare, supplements and complements the formal education of Native students at UW, expresses our collective Native student opinion and interests to the University and community at large on issues affecting Native student life and culture, and implements the American Indian Retention and Recruitment (A.I.R.R.) Program. We are requesting financial support for the 53rd Spring Powwow occurring this year.

A powwow is a gathering of Native American, Alaskan Native, and First Nations peoples. Powwow consists of cultural Native American practices such as dancing and singing. People from all tribes and nations are welcome to partake in these cultural practices, and non-natives are welcome to join and watch the performances. Powwows are considered celebrations of culture for Native people. Historically, First Nations hosts our Spring Powwow at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion. It is a tradition we value as our families and communities local to Seattle and Washington had the privilege to attend previous powwows in Hec Edmundson and we desire to celebrate our culture in the same manner. In keeping with the Native American powwow circuit, First Nations hosts our Spring Powwow during the second weekend of April. It is attended by UW students, both Native and non-Native, and Indigenous communities within and outside of Washington State, resulting in over 4,000 attendees. First Nations also invites local organizations led by and committed to Native communities, such as the Urban Indian Health Institute and Urban Native Education Alliance, to share their resources and network within our community. The Spring Powwow is fully organized and supported by UW students and volunteers. This allows our members to develop their event planning, coordination, and communication skills.

We are requesting funding to support our remaining event costs, which include but are not limited to Culinary equipment rentals to prepare cultural concessions ($1,500); transportation expenses ($200); office and communication expenses ($300); materials to prepare our traditional Elder's Dinner ($6000); and honoraria for drummers, singers, and other performers who are a major factor in the Powwow's success ($6000). Based on the the 52nd Spring Powwow's actual budget, and our revised budget to reflect First Nations' appreciation of performers who attended the 52nd Spring Powwow at rates lower than their value to help the event return successfully from pandemic hardships, we estimate our remaining costs at about $14,000. Beginning in Winter quarter, First Nations' Powwow Committee will meet weekly to execute the planning and coordination of the event. This allows us four months to prepare for the event, held during the second weekend of April. We have attached a preliminary budget of the aforementioned expenses and will have a more detailed full budget after we begin our planning meetings this quarter.

Each year since 1972, Lake Washington Salmon have been counted as they pass through the Ballard Locks by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribal Staff. Salmon runs through the Locks were once abundant with hundreds of thousands of salmon migrating each year. Now the salmon run population is down to tens of thousands in recent years with a small fraction traveling through Lake Washington to Cedar River each fall to spawn. There are many factors affecting local salmon populations from warming waters to increasing predator populations, but this doesn’t fully account for the severely decreasing population. One more piece of the puzzle was discovered in 2021 when researchers identified a tire-derived contaminant responsible for acute toxicity to coho salmon: N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine-quinone (6PPD-quinone). 6PPD-quinone is classified as a very highly toxic pollutant to aquatic organisms, and many salmonid species (including coho, chinook, and steelhead salmon) are susceptible to acute toxicity from concentrations found in urban runoff. Salmon are of great ecological and cultural importance to this region, and their extinction would lead to the end of a way of life.

The University of Washington (UW) campus was built on the lands of the Duwamish, Squamish, Tulalip, Muckleshoot, and Coast Salish People. Today this land holds multiple turf fields filled with rubber derived from waste tires which drain into Union Bay, a part of Lake Washington. While these facilities provide important services, these fields pose a threat to environmental health and may be furthering the rapid decline in salmon populations. Most research has focused on the impact of tire wear particles generated on roadways; therefore, the impact of turf fields on the water quality and salmon populations is unknown. 

Due to the recent discovery of 6PPD-quinone as an acute toxicant, there are significant knowledge gaps that exist, especially in regard to the impact of turf fields on water quality. Projects on this topic have yet to be externally funded, and research projects rarely consider stakeholder priorities or feedback. This project seeks to investigate the impact of turf fields on water quality and understand mitigation options (i.e. product replacement and/or treatment) that would be accepted by project stakeholders and could be implemented on campus. This knowledge will help keep the University of Washington at the forefront of sustainability and leadership. This project has focused on CSF funding for three reasons:

1. The unique location of the turf fields near a waterway of historic salmon spawning migration.
2. The presence of retention basins under Husky Stadium that may treat the runoff before it enters Union Bay.
3. The opportunity to work with interested stakeholders to develop realistic solutions.

We are proposing a student-led, two-phase project to monitor the impact of UW turf fields on water quality and to begin developing potential solutions with interested stakeholders. This project will start with a feasibility study, and if the feasibility study is successful, a full-scale monitoring project and evaluation of potential alternatives or treatments will follow. 

Goals for Phase I (Feasibility Study):

• Collect turf infill samples from all outdoor fields on UW Seattle campus.
• Conduct bench-top maximum and environmentally relevant leaching studies on rubber turf infill to quantitatively determine potential 6PPD-quinone concentrations. 
• Work with UW facilities to identify catch basins and outflows from turf field runoff for sampling.
• Generate a comprehensive report on the location, composition, and drainage of all outdoor turf fields on UW Seattle campus.
• Develop a sampling timeline and procedure for Phase II.
• Summarize stakeholder views and propose a project direction (i.e. product replacement and/or treatment) for Phase II.
• Raise local awareness of the ecological and societal issues derived from 6PPD-quinone.

Tentative Goals for Phase II:

• Collect samples from previously identified catch basins during storm events throughout the rainy season (October-March).
• Test alternative infill options with bench-top studies to generate a list of product replacement options for facilities when considering routine replacement of surfaces or new installations.
• Evaluate potential treatment options (e.g. retention basin or sorbent media filters).
• Submit year-round stormwater monitoring results for publication.
• Conduct a perception study of how athletes, community groups, facilities, and staff perceive the different treatment or product replacement options.
• Engage with students and the broader community by speaking in classes and at symposiums accessible to the public (e.g.“The Living Breath of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ: Indigenous Foods and Ecological Knowledge Symposium” at the University of Washington).

As a Doctoral student in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), I will lead this project. I will be advised by my faculty advisor Dr. Jessica Ray (UW Seattle CEE); my co-advisor Dr. Ed Kolodziej (UW Seattle CEE and UW Tacoma Sciences and Mathematics); and my thesis committee member Dr. Michael Dodd (UW Seattle CEE). Phase I of this project will include two paid UW Seattle undergraduate students to help with research and outreach. Ideally, we will partner with student-athletes who regularly participate in training on the field surfaces under investigation. 

This project plans to engage multiple stakeholders, including students throughout campus (particularly student-athletes), UW staff who manage turf facilities and purchasing, faculty with experience in environmental water chemistry research, Seattle and Pacific Northwest Communities especially indigenous communities, and researchers in Environmental Engineering. This education and outreach is important, especially for students who will go on to careers in environmental sectors and sports administration, so they can better understand the impacts of field installations and promote more sustainable and eco-friendly fields.

Phase I of this project will take place over 4 months during Spring and Summer 2024 (see timeline). For Phase I, I am requesting $20,000 to support graduate student salary/tuition and benefits, two hourly undergraduate students (6-7 hours a week for approximately two quarters), chemicals, sampling supplies, lab consumables, organic contaminant analyses, and crumb rubber procurement (see budget).

Total amount requested   $17,220 for four separate Projects of ADA Pathways over two years.

Budget breakdown

Materials

• Pathway materials (includes commercial landscape fabric & gravel) $12/linear foot by 5’ wide
• Wapato Pond Pathway - 5’ wide by 85’,  $12.00x85=$1020.00
• Main Farm Pathway - 5’ wide by 250’ long, $12x250=$3000.00
• Cultural Kitchen Pathway - 5’x125’, $12x125=$1,500.00
• Heritage Orchard Pathway - 5’x100’, $12x100=$1200.00

Labor and Rental

• UWBG Arboretum and UW Grounds crew labor only - 5 individuals 10 days (6 hours/day)  $33/hour = $9900.00
• Equipment rental - electric compactor $120/day x 5 days - $600.00

Total Request from CSF $17,220

Other funding sources

In-Kind:

Labor, Management and Volunteers

• Student Volunteers - student volunteer work parties, helping with gravel and laying out materials - 75x2 hours each x $18.69/hour = $2,803.50
• Overall Project supervision - David Zuckerman and Perry Acworth, labor and volunteer management - 40 hours total at $28/hour = $1120
• Student project manager, Heritage Orchard - Althea Ericksen - labor and volunteer management - 10 hours x $19/hour = $190
• Student Project manager - Wapato Pond project - Kove Janeski - labor, volunteer management contribution - 20 hours x $19/hour = $380

Total Labor Value Donated $4493.50

Materials and Equipment - donated

• Tools, wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, gloves = $2,500
• UW Grounds Compact Utility Loader = $1200/week
• UWBG Equipment loan - tractor with scraper and hand roller - $1,200/week

Total Equipment and Materials Value  $4900.00
Grand Total contributed/donated - $9393.50

March 10, 2023

Dear Campus Sustainability Fund,

The ASUW Shell House sits on the south edge of campus along the shores of Lake Washington, just at the eastern end of the Montlake Cut. The waterfront site has always been a gathering space, and within its walls and on the waters of Lake Washington, generations of people gathered to collaborate, celebrate and connect to the water. Generations ago, the Duwamish people would come here to portage across the narrow isthmus that spanned the waters of Lake Washington. The site’s Lushootseed name, stəx̌ʷugʷił , translates to “carry a canoe,” indicating their reverence for the shores of the lake that supported their livelihood.  Today, on the site of the Historic ASUW Shell House, we continually strive to respect these indigenous traditions of stewardship for land and water, and have additive histories to add to the narrative. Following its short use as a a seaplane hangar for the U.S. Navy during WWI, the Shell House was the home for the UW rowing team for decades, including the boat building shop of George Pocock’s shop, the man sought after around the world for his exquisitely crafted rowing shells. Recently, it has garnered attention, due to the book (and soon-to-be-movie), The Boys in the Boat, that outlined the inspiring story of the UW men’s crew team who took home the gold at Hitler’s 1936 Olympic Games.

As the very first Seattle historic landmark on campus, the building and site will be redesigned and adapted into a dynamic space for the campus community, with gathering spaces for students, places for events, exhibits and a restored waterfront.  With proximity to the light rail, the stadium, and waterfront activity center, this building will become a destination for all of the campus community. As the Shell House begins to implement designs for building renovation and waterfront restoration, and in concert with the goals the UW established as a certified ‘salmon safe’ institution, this proposal seeks funding to develop a feasibility study for an onsite stormwater harvesting and treatment system at the Shell House building. Our goal is to create a system that will be educational, beautiful, and the ultimate expression of sustainability.

Sustainable Impact

The goal in sustainable water treatment in urban sites is to be like a natural ecological system, balancing intake with outflow of waters of similar or better quality – however,  that is rarely the case in urban environments.  For example, when it rains on campus, the rainwater runs into a network of storm drains that lead directly into local bodies of water. Along the way, rainwater picks up contaminants such as heavy metals, oil, toxins, pathogens, chemicals and trash, which goes untreated and flows directly into fish and wildlife habitat. This stormwater falls on various surfaces including buildings, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, loading docks, and landscaped areas. While some of the water may be absorbed by the soil, most of it ends up in the nearest storm drain, and ends up in Lake Washington. Additionally, stormwater runoff can cause erosion and sedimentation, which can negatively impact salmon habitat by filling in the spaces between rocks where salmon lay their eggs. This can prevent the eggs from hatching, and reduce the amount of available habitat for juvenile salmon. It can also increase the water temperature of streams and rivers. This can be harmful to salmon, as they require cool water temperatures to survive. Warmer water can reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, making it more difficult for salmon to breathe and survive. Untreated polluted water can also reduce the amount of available habitat for salmon, and can also make it more difficult for salmon to find food and avoid predators.

With the ultimate goal of treating all onsite water sustainability, we will study the feasibility of how the Shell House site can treat stormwater through:

• Constructed wetlands- engineered marshlands that replicate the functions of natural wetlands by filtering pollutants and improving water quality and by the hydrology and vegetation of a natural wetland. They also provide a habitat for diverse plant and animal species while providing ecosystem services such as water purification and flood control.  
• Bioswales - a landscape element designed to manage and treat stormwater runoff through shallow, vegetated drainage ditches engineered to slow down and filter stormwater as it flows through the landscape. Also designed to mimic the functions of a natural wetland, they are typically located in areas with high levels of stormwater runoff, such as parking lots, roadsides, and other paved areas.
• Rainwater collection - a water cistern collection system involves the collection and storage of rainwater for later use by installing a cistern or storage tank, which captures rainwater from the roof of a building, then treated and filtered to remove any debris or contaminants before it is used for non-potable purposes such as irrigation, cleaning or toilet flushing.
• Greywater systems: This is the use of a close-looped water system treating grey water used from sinks, dishwashers, water fountains, etc., for building uses such as toilet flushing.  By using a filtration and disinfection process to remove any contaminants and ensure that it is safe for use, reusing greywater to flush toilets can reduce water usage up to 30% in a building.

Student Leadership & Involvement

Student involvement and education is a high priority for all phases of this project. During this  feasibility phase,  we will have one graduate MLA/M.Arch student budgeted to assist in project feasibility management. This student, with knowledge in water management, will work with  along with the 12 students in Professor Merlino’s Spring undergraduate architecture design studio. The studio will be focusing on the adaptive reuse, preservation and landscape design of the Shell House. Students will be presenting their design proposals at the end of the quarter, showing projects and proposals to reviewers, stake holders, and the ASUW Shell House board as well as additional outreach presentations.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

With the upcoming renovation of the ASUW Shell House and its prominent site on campus near the light rail, stadium and shore front, this building will be a destination for both the UW community, locals and visitors for years to come. As a dynamic student and event center, it has the capacity for educating visitors on the sustainable design of water management and ecological design.  Currently, the site already gets plenty of traffic both on foot during stadium events and by boat during the spring and summer months, yet the renovation of the building will increase this tenfold. By creating a visible, sustainable onsite water treatment and educational display, we will be showing visitors how both saving an existing building and treating its onsite water in a way that respects the environment and salmon is the highest level of sustainability.

Feasibility & Accountability

The feasibility study phase will be led by Kathryn Merlino, a faculty member in Architecture and Director of the Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse.  We will also be using the resources of the CBE and the Green Futures Lab, as well as UW project staff on the shell house team. Grant funds for this phase. will be used for a Licensed Landscape Architect Consultant (approx. $20,000), a graduate research summer assistant (200 hours/ $8000) and studio supplement ($1000) for a total of $29,000 (est). We are excited to launch this project, and appreciate your consideration for the Campus Sustainability Fund grant.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Rogers Merlino
Associate Professor, Department of Architecture
Scan Design Foundation Endowed Chair in Built Environments
Director, Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse
Department of Architecture, College of Built Environments
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Project Lead: Daniel Dimitrov (PhD Student)

My name is Daniel Dimitrov and I am a second year PhD student in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. My research interests are in sustainable facility maintenance and innovative sustainable technologies for building operations. I am writing this letter of intent with the hopes of receiving funding for my doctoral research project titled "Energy, Information, and the New Work of Building Operations in the Digital Age".

Within the United States, buildings are some of the leading consumers of energy as they account for over 40% of the energy consumption nationwide (energy.gov), impacting both humans and the environment in which we live. On a campus as large and complex as the University of Washington, buildings vary in age and technology making it difficult to manage the campus energy consumption and reach sustainability benchmarks. At the UW, new digital twin/energy modeling technologies have been integrated into many of the University buildings, however it is very difficult to achieve energy efficiency if work practices and building operators do not change the way they do "work" around these new and more complex technologies. With an excess of data that can be used to increase campus sustainability coming from such technology, it is essential that we understand how to make this data actionable by the technicians and operators who are interacting with the technology regularly. The aim of this project is to understand how organizations/operations will need to change and adapt in order to leverage modern and advanced building automation systems, such as digital twin technologies/strategies, to achieve lower energy consumption and better performing built environments. An example of such a University building technology initiative that we would like to investigate is the UW Energy Meter Monitoring Program which aims to assist in achieving long-term carbon reduction goals, making this study timely and relevant to reaching the sustainable potential of the University.

This project seeks to understand the evolution of "work" with the implementation and use of technology promoting sustainable energy operations as the main driving force. Our team would like to develop a guideline, or practice memo, which can be used by managers with specific recommendations for things like training, team formation, technological guidelines, routine formation, and collaboration in order to accelerate the sustainable transformation of this university and help ease the burden of technological adoption. The traditional methods of data management in the facility maintenance sphere will need to change as modern technology calls for new methods of data collection, governance, and analysis in order to make data actionable for sustainable operations. The outcome of this project will guide operations managers in sustainable technology adoption and therefore address the needs and goals of reducing their facilities' energy consumption and carbon footprint.

The research questions are outlined below:

1. How will the existing work (roles, responsibilities, teams, practices) change for facility managers/operators on the UW campus when transitioning from a traditional BAS to a modern energy management system to promote energy efficiency on campus?
2. What new work will emerge when transitioning from a building operated by a BAS to a modern energy management system such as a digital twin?

The University of Washington will serve as a perfect site for this study due to its abundance of campus buildings at different levels of technological implementation for sustainable energy management in addition to its extensive and active facility management teams. To complete this research we propose a series of case studies centered around UW facilities at different stages of technological implementation in order to compare older practices with new ones. Using a comparative case study strategy for this research will allow us to see and explore the organizational changes which will need to accompany a building that is managed using a modern energy management system and strategy. As part of this case study process we intend to use a qualitative approach including methods such as participant interviewing, participant observation, and document collection. Participant interviewing will focus on members of the facility management team including facility managers, technicians, University sustainability strategists, IT professionals, and any other facility operators. We would also like to leverage our professional network of building technology professionals from both the technology and management side of operations for interviews in order to validate our results and compliment our case studies. Participant observation will include spending time with the facility management/maintenance team and shadowing them for an extended continuum of time during their regular operations and meetings. Our team has already had the opportunity to speak to a facility manager at UW and have determined our proposed study to be very fitting to the University's current sustainable energy management position due to the general lack of organizational understanding and integration of modern energy management technologies being implemented on campus.

Our project team for this research study will be student led by me, Daniel Dimitrov, with the guidance of Prof. Carrie Dossick from the College of Built Environments. We will also be supported by the help of a UW graduate student from the Department of Construction Management. This graduate student's role will be to support in interviewing, data collection, observation, and analysis. We intend to disseminate our adoption guideline/practice memo as well as our research findings to be used by the facility maintenance teams at UW as well as in industry and academic journal articles to build awareness of the research results. For examples of similar research led by our research lab please visit https://cerc.be.uw.edu/ctop-lab/, and focus on projects such as  Integrated Project Delivery: An Action Guide for Leaders. Through this project partnership with the University of Washington, we hope to be able to fully immerse ourselves into the facility management sphere of the University and pinpoint just how the campus facility management organization needs to evolve how they do "work" in order to reduce the energy consumption of our campus buildings and utilize modern technologies to their full potential.

Thank you,
Daniel Dimitrov, Ph.D. Student

We need funding to make and install three interpretive signs at the UW Farm's Center for Urban Horticulture site: an entryway sign with a map and a history of the farm, a "Where Does UW Farm Food Go?" sign, and a sign for the new vermicomposting facility.

This project should be finished by the end of Fall Quarter 2022. The signs are already designed and sent to the UW Botanic Gardens Sign Committee for printing.

We plan on installing three signs, two of which need steel signposts ($1212 total). The UWBG Sign Committee outsources sign printing ($645 total). We will put braille on the signs ($50). We will attach interactive ceramic elements to the signs ($200).

Each year, up to one billion birds are lost to bird building collisions in the United States (Loss et al., 2014). This enormous yearly loss is one of the four top anthropogenic threats birds face leading to a 29% net loss of avian populations in North America (Rosenburg et al., 2019). Additionally, this critical conservation issue threatens biodiversity locally, regionally, and for migrating bird, throughout the Americas. Protecting biodiversity such as birds also increases overall human well-being through visual and audible connections to nature.

Birds are unable to perceive transparent glass surfaces as solid or distinguish between reflections of habitat space or flight paths in the glass. Birds collide head-on into transparent and reflective glass surfaces, killing them, in most cases, instantly. To date, the majority of bird building collision studies focus on fall and spring migration in the central and easter areas of the United States. A 2021 study by DeGroot et al. monitored collisions on the University of British Columbia Campus for five seasons (two winters, fall, spring, and summer), indicating bird building collisions are a year-round problem and collision patterns can vary regionally. College campuses are a hot spot for bird-building collisions, with the University of British Columbia estimating a loss of 10,000 yearly. However, collisions can be prevented through gathering local collision data, bird protecting designs, and education strategies.

This letter proposes the intent to conduct a two-phase, two-calendar year monitoring of a set of University of Washington Seattle campus buildings that have reported collisions. The first phase will monitor campus buildings for collisions beginning in September 2022 during the most fatal season, fall migration, followed by winter, spring, and summer for 45 days each. The collision victims will be collected by student volunteers who will enter the details of the site and species in a data collection file. The deceased birds will be donated to the Burke Museum, which has approved their addition to their collection.
The goal of the first year of monitoring is to provide a year-long set of data to determine the vulnerable species and indicate deadly designs for retrofitting. The first deliverable is a document outlining the collisions monitoring results to be submitted for publication.

With the data gathered from the first fall season, the project can begin to identify buildings to retrofit. Phase 2 of the project will monitor retrofitted buildings for effectiveness. Two issues prevent widely implementing bird protecting designs. First, when comparing current product testing methods such as flight tunnels to case studies, Judy found they overestimate the product’s effectiveness. This will be the first study monitoring bird protecting designs for their effectiveness in an ecologically salient setting. And second, though a few building guidelines advocate protecting biodiversity through preventing collisions, it’s not required, nor do any standards exist. Based on the data gathered in the second year, Phase 2, the second deliverable will provide architects and designers with a set of standards to implement effective bird protecting designs. The data will also be documented and submitted for publication. Further, in the second phase, the project will conduct a perception study of how students, staff, faculty, and campus visitors perceive the bird protecting designs by asking if their site or campus experience is impacted by the addition of these designs. This data will also be documented and submitted for publication, the first on this topic.

Throughout both phases of the project, education and outreach about the importance of preventing bird building collisions will be crucial. A third reason preventing bird building collisions is not widely implemented is the lack of awareness. By reaching students who will enter careers in many of the fields that contribute to collisions, this project will create no stewards for protecting birds and biodiversity. This can be achieved through campus events such as art installations, volunteering opportunities, and informational signs near retrofitted buildings. Local firms and campus architects will be included in the drafting of collision standards. Further, through publication, the data and standards have the potential to educate a global audience of researchers and designers. Through education and outreach, this project will engage with the four main stakeholders:  students on campus, the community on campus, in Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest, researchers in avian conservation, and designers or architects.

Conducting a large two-year project requires a project lead who has experience in project management and research. Judy Bowes is a Ph.D. student in the College of the Built Environments and has been a researcher and project coordinator for five years at Penn State University on two NSF projects. The budget reflects a full RA position for two years as the demands of the project do not allow for other RA positions. Judy’s estimated contribution is 800 hours per year ($25,652). Student volunteers are crucial to this project and will require 10-35 volunteers. The students will not only benefit from contributing to campus research but will build a foundation of knowledge of sustainability, bird biology and identification, active stewardship, and increased well-being through campus walks. To support Judy and the volunteers, the budget includes an undergraduate research assistant (160 per year/$2,720) who will assist with entering data, cleaning data sets, and filling in for volunteers as needed. The project requires a faculty member researching daylighting and views for 40 per year ($2,773), Judy’s mentor, a faculty member in architecture (30 hours per year/$2,080), a faculty member (ornithologist or wildlife sciences) to review the publications (12 hours per year/$951), and a collision research consultant (4 hours per year/$800). The material costs to collect the deceased birds are estimated at $3,000 a year. The total yearly budget for the project is $37,975, with a total budget of $75,950.

As humans build with large amounts of glass surface area to increase human well-being through views of nature and natural daylight, we are placing birds in danger threatening local and continental biodiversity. This project asks to consider its funding to further collisions to protect local biodiversity and reach a large audience of researchers and designers.

Dear CSF Committee,

We are the Biomedical Engineering Society at the University of Washington, and we are writing to express our desire to obtain the support of the Campus Sustainability Fund to fund our novel mentorship program centered around educational equity. Our mentorship program aims to not only create a mentorship ecosystem centered around underserved and underrepresented communities, but also aims to increase awareness of equity issues throughout society.

Sustainable Impact

The main goal of our mentorship program is to give prospective first and second-year engineering students, especially those from underrepresented communities, equitable access to opportunities at UW by pairing them with a junior or senior in the bioengineering department. Through our recruitment process, we tabled at large-scale events such as the 1000+ person Engineering Launch and also reached out to identity groups such as the Engineering Dean’s Scholars Program. Programs like these specifically provide academic support to engineering students from low-income neighborhoods, which is the same demographic that our mentorship program aims to support.

Data from Autumn 2021 indicate that within the College of Engineering, women and underrepresented minorities only constitute 30% and 13% respectively of all BS degree recipients, and they only make up 22% and 6% of all PhD degree recipients. Oftentimes, students from these backgrounds are systematically barred from opportunities that prepare and enable them to pursue a career in engineering due to a number of factors. For example, women were traditionally discouraged from a career in STEM because of deeply-rooted gender expectations (Xu, 2017). Underrepresented populations often coincide with socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and students are subsequently raised in neighborhoods that simply lack the institutions that can provide professional development opportunities. From a pool of 50+ mentee applicants, our committee of four diverse BMES officers across all three bioengineering cohorts hand-picked over 30 mentees hailing from underserved and underrepresented communities. Through this selection process, we not only aimed to increase future representation of these communities in the Department of Bioengineering, but also throughout the College of Engineering as a whole. Through our year-long mentorship program, mentees have biweekly meetings with their paired mentors, and will gain their mentors’ perspectives into engineering major placement, bioengineering research, and extracurricular leadership. These are all areas that have traditionally favored students of higher income strata. Socioeconomically advantaged students are more likely to afford and hire private tutors or counselors that support students in their coursework as well as career planning decisions. They also enjoy the privilege of a broader selection of research opportunities to choose from, whether or not they are paid or volunteer-based, whereas their socioeconomically disadvantaged counterparts have to worry about securing an income to sustain themselves and can thus only consider paid opportunities, which are already rare and more competitive to begin with. Therefore, our goal is to provide students of lower income brackets and underserved communities with these same educational enrichment opportunities as their peers free-of-charge and to enhance their careers in bioengineering, competitiveness for research opportunities, and leadership potential in the future. Through these mentorship pairings, we also hope to spread awareness of equity issues such as environmental equity throughout the bioengineering department.

Leadership and Student Involvement:

The BMES Mentorship Program is completely driven and run by students passionate about enhancing the accessibility of selective engineering majors to underrepresented student bodies. The program is primarily led by the Mentorship Chair, President, and VP of Community Engagement of BMES at UW. The other 14 BMES officers provide assistance accordingly along with professional development, outreach, and wellness programs to our mentors and mentees. We created this program over the summer and have since been involved in driving the program and seeking partnerships with other organizations to broaden the reach and impact of our mentorship program to other departments. As of November, we currently have over 50 mentors and mentees, with over 20 more mentees on our waitlist. Mentors consist of third- and fourth-year undergraduate bioengineering students with diverse academic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, as well as career aspirations. The mentees consist of first- and second-year undergraduate pre-engineering and pre-major students from similarly diverse backgrounds mentioned above. Our leadership team provides these students with a wide variety of enrichment opportunities by leveraging our network with other BioE-related student organizations such as BioEngage, BioE Justice Equity Diversity Inclusivity (JEDI) Committee, and Bioengineers without Borders. Our faculty advisor, Dr. Wendy Thomas, also helped us tailor our mentor/mentee selection process to specifically reach and serve underrepresented student populations. The JEDI committee that she chairs is also working closely with us to integrate our mentorship program into a larger mentorship ecosystem within the Department of Bioengineering, including monthly informal “Coffee Chats” with bioengineering faculty, industry and research-based mentorship, and graduate student mentorship within the department.

Education, Outreach, and Behavior Change

The mentorship program fulfills both the educational and outreach components through a cohesive combination of discussion prompts and large-scale events. Every month, the BMES and graduate JEDI committee create a monthly list of 10 discussion prompts centered around both educational and equity themes. For example, themes such as “Dead Week December” (finals) and “No-Reply November” (research/internships) these past few months have provided light-hearted guidance for mentors and mentees alike about academic-related topics that are of high priority to them. Simultaneously, themes such as “(Environmental) Justice January” (environmental justice) and “Fairness February” (equity in education) help to build up a more aware and understanding community about current issues in social and environmental sustainability. Through our emphasis on environmental justice, we hope to not only spread awareness, but also allow for mentors and mentees to take direct action for environmental justice by empowering them to make the bioengineering department and other engineering departments more sustainable for future research.

Through the discussion guide that we will be sending out at the beginning of each month, we will include prompts about the dire environmental issues that biomedical research generates; for example, the overreliance on single-use, disposable plastics (such as pipette tips) that are responsible for 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2014 (Urbina, Watts & Reardon, 2015). Besides plastic waste, laboratories also produce infectious, cytotoxic, and radioactive waste that end up in landfills and incinerators, which then contaminate water sources and release heavy metals and other toxic particles into the air (World Health Organization, 2018), which disproportionately impacts minorities and underserved communities. Mentors and mentees will be encouraged to discuss these current issues, brainstorm potential solutions, and connect with leaders on or beyond campus that tackle these issues. Some of the funds will be spent on hiring and paying students who are passionate about environmental issues to create informative and illustrative visual-audio presentations and also compile a database of contacts that students can reach out to should they want to pursue this direction even further. Through these one-on-one discussions between mentors and mentees, we hope to foster an active approach to tackling environmental justice and sustainability within bioengineering and throughout the College of Engineering.

In addition to one-on-one discussions between mentors and mentees, we also plan to use our budget to schedule program-wide guest speaker events for group networking and awareness across participants of our mentorship program. These events will host environmental justice educators and other prominent figures in higher education, and will be held in conjunction with current events such as the BMES/JEDI “Coffee Chat” series focused on informal mentorship with bioengineering faculty members. For example, Dr. Kelly Stevens hosted our November “Coffee Chat” and covered the topics of inclusivity and diversity in our communities. As such, bringing in prominent environmental justice proponents will help to not only supplement this informal networking between mentors, mentees, and experts in the field, but will also spread awareness of current environmental justice initiatives that they can apply their knowledge of bioengineering toward in the near future.

Feasibility and Accountability

As part of BMES, we have a diverse team of 17 officers that work together to support initiatives like the BMES Mentorship Program. With the support of this established leadership structure, as well as our affiliation with the national BMES program, we believe that we have the networking necessary to build a diverse and effective coalition of bioengineers for both educational and environmental justice. In addition, our close collaborators in the graduate JEDI committee and meetings with Dr. Wendy Thomas have helped to establish a broader view of our long-term impacts across the university. We meet with the JEDI committee every month, something that helps us with not only our financial outcomes and budgeting goals, but also our goals with growing our program across the College of Engineering as well. We aim to expand this mentorship program to different engineering departments and we believe that our own networks, such as the Engineering Peer Educator Program, the General Studies 199 class, and our close collaboration with the BMES Outreach Program are key cornerstones to this plan.

Similar to our expansion plan, we also believe that our experienced financial team has the capability to manage and organize a budget necessary for this plan. The current Treasurer of BMES at UW works closely with Elizabeth Mounce, the current Fiscal Specialist Supervisor of the UW Bioengineering Department, to track and manage our spending throughout the year. In addition, our current treasurer has held multiple treasurer positions in the past, managing annual budgets of over $400,000 in the past. Combined with the oversight from our faculty and graduate student collaborators, we believe that we will be able to manage funds granted to us both efficiently and responsibly.

References

• Health-care waste. (n.d.). WHO | World Health Organization. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/health-care-waste
• Urbina, M., Watts, A. & Reardon, E. Labs should cut plastic waste too. Nature 528, 479 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/528479c
• Xu YJ. Attrition of Women in STEM. Journal of Career Development. 2017;44(1):3-19. doi:10.1177/0894845316633787

The Project's Impact on the Sustainability of the Campus:

The University of Washington defines sustainability as the “capacity to create and maintain healthy, equitable and diverse communities now and into the future.” To achieve this capacity, we need present collective understandings of how we commune with each other, other beings, and our environments to build this future. This proposal asks for funding to provide space, materials, and community for a collective of queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) creative graduate students at UW for the sake of maintaining our own well-being and the well-being of our communities at this institution. Funding this project will allow us to demonstrate that one of the ways personal and communal sustainability in academia can be implemented is by building a community where our arts, which are tied to our self-expressions and how we move with the world and our communities, and our scholarship, which seeks to add to ongoing conversations about our knowledges, cultures, and beings, are not forced to be separated because of academic discipline standards— standard, we might add, that are rooted in hegemonic and colonial ways of producing and sharing knowledge. Furthermore, funding this project will allow us to impact this larger need to build healthier, more equitable and diverse communities in academia because we can offer support to undergraduate artist-scholar who early on in their academic career and don’t have adequate support and understanding for how to infuse their arts into their scholarship or the other way around.

The starting group for this collective are graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, and DX Arts and have already been in conversation with each other as we hold frequent meetings, shows, and viewings to witness and talk with each other about our artistic practices and how they respond to the scholarship we engage in. However, we are at a point where we realize that in order for our artistic crafts to be more intertwine with our scholarship, we need more support that we aren’t receiving from our disciplines— like the knowledge of both our crafts and scholarship, adequate materials and education to work on arts and studies, and time and space to dedicate to both. We are also at a point where we can see the power in our conversations through the works we create, and we want to expand these conversations to the wider public and community by offering showings, workshops, residencies, and supporting other artist-scholars’ projects.

Many of our disciplines are focused on teaching us to produce our research findings in academic style writings; however, this collective realizes such restrictions are detrimental to our learning processes, our creativity, and how we intend to contribute to our respective fields of study. This collective addresses a trend in academia of wanting more creative, interdisciplinary projects, and although we often have encouragement from our departments to explore more creativity and theory in our disciplinary works, we lack the education and learning communities necessary to adequately contribute to our fields of research with our creative mediums. Therefore, this collective seeks to fill this gap by offering a space for dialogue and group critique by other scholars in our fields, who also understand the artistic mediums that we work within, as well as, inviting instructors of creative medium to lead workshops to help us hone in our creative mediums as responses to academic conversations.

Another goal of this collective is to build community with other artistic Queer and trans BIPOC graduate students for us to build safer spaces for us to discuss concerns that are salient to our identities. So much of our creative work stems from our cultural backgrounds; therefore, this collective seeks to build a community where we are not holding each other’s works against a colonial background for critique. Rather we are able to see our work as valid, understandable, and valuable contributions to our fields in their own right.

This collective seeks to build a sustainable community for those who’s identities, scholarly interests, and creative mediums are not adequately supported in our disciplines, yet our creative mediums and identities are intricately tied to the contribution we intend to make in our fields; thereby, calling attention to a need to build a space for us to imagine what a new wave in academia can look like when queer and trans BIPOC peoples are able to contribute with our imaginations.

What we will do and educational elements:

• Peer to Peer Opportunities-- As a collective of graduate students and creatives, we will be providing peer-to-peer opportunities through: Graduate to undergraduate mentorship by assisting selected undergraduate students in supporting their creative endeavors and offering guidance on proposed projects and residencies for spaces to work through proposed projects.
• Group Critical Feedback-- collective comes together on a bi-monthly basis to offer peer feedback on in-process creative projects.
• Community Education Opportunities-- Following the trend of various disciplines encouraging creative liberties in academic work, we will encourage community educational opportunities through inviting working artists and creatives to facilitate workshops on the praxis of fusing academic and creativity in their respective fields.
• Funding Opportunities-- Recognizing the barrier of resource accessibility to the materialization of creative projects, we will provide funding opportunities through: Accepting applications from undergraduate students for resource support for their proposed create projects and material/supply grants; Allocating funds to support members of collective to fund their own respective projects; Offering employment and compensation to contracted creative contributors to undergraduate and cohort projects.
• Exclusive Collective Opportunities-- Recognizing the need of physical space to collaborate and produce meaningful work, we will offer studio space where members of the collective can collaborate or individually draft or produce intended creative projects.
• Residencies-- Recognizing a need for cultivating a safe space to work through our artistic practice, we will offer a residency during the year as 2-daylong intensives for creatives to work on collaborative projects while also receiving peer feedback and support.
• Group Showings-- One of the results of our collaborative process will be group showcases of the work in process and fully produced. Our work will be featured collectively in spaces such as the Henry Art Gallery, Wa Na Wari cultural center, or other art institutions/ galleries.

Our roles and how it speaks towards student leadership:

It is our intention to foster and facilitate a collaborative community lead environment, which will function through a student governed committee structure. Based on the scope of our proposal, we have identified the need for the following positions to be filled by members of the collective:

• Residency Coordinator-- Responsible for managing project requests for creative sustainability funding submitted by students via proposal for support with supplies, space, and other resources needed.
• Internal Outreach Coordinator-- Will act as liaison for undergraduate mentorship programs, by connecting with university creative arts schools across campus. Will organize and facilitate mentorship opportunities for undergraduate candidates.
• External Outreach Coordinator-- Will coordinate with creatives, organizations, and facilities outside of the university to facilitate regular opportunities for learning workshops, collaborative creative opportunities, and public work presentation.  
• Administrative Coordinator-- Undergraduate artist-scholar who will support operations with administrative tasks as needed.
• Treasurer-- Will oversee management of financial affairs.

Accountability:

In order to ensure that the project is organized and functions according to projections, we plan to implement the following structural elements within the program:

• Budget Creations & Maintenance-- The development of a programmatic budget that will be regularly reviewed, and adhered to for project stability.
• Development of Selection Criteria-- The development of a criteria for residency proposals acceptance, as well as internally and externally coordinated resources.  
• Monthly Organizational Meeting-- All members of the committee will meet monthly to review and discuss proposals, events and workshops, budget projections and day to day operational functioning.
• Bi-Monthly Budget Forecasting-- We will review the budget twice a month to consider any re-forecasting needs.

Timeline:

Spring 2022: For initial planning; outreach; placing events on calendars

• 3 Monthly meetings to plan and discuss how we’d like to use each quarter. Plan of actions to be implemented after each meeting. Planning Spring quarter in detail while having malleable ideas for Summer, Fall, and Winter quarter.
• Plan for collective additions: solidify who will be a part of the collective. Ideally, at least 7 dedicated members.
• Plan for residency for the year: discuss who we’d like to lead the residency, who can host us, ideal dates, and budgets.
• Plan for regular peer-to peer activities: brainstorm how we can facilitate group critique, collaborations, and group showings
• Plan for workshops: compile lists of people for workshops; the types of creative and scholarly practices for the workshops, dates, and frequencies
• Plan for undergraduate support: develop applications for funding undergraduate projects and discuss funding max
• Studio Space: Start looking for affordable studio spaces and equipment needed for arts and space
• Start an official, shareable calendar of events
• Funding: brainstorm other grants and fellowships to apply for funding so that we can keep this project going

Summer 2022: The start of activities for collective

• Studio Space: move into one and place equipment
• Undergraduate Support: put out calls, vet applications, and send out acceptance. Start mentorship process, for every 2 members of the collective mentors, one undergraduate student to support
• Residency: host quarterly residency
• Workshops: host 2 summer workshops  
• Group Feedback Critique: host 4 session of feedback group dialogue
• Studio Visit: host a studio visit where at least 2 member of the collective show their works-in-progress to public  
• Group Show: work on application and proposal for end-of-year group show.
• Funding: develop applications for found grants and fellowships for funding

Fall 2022: Continue quarterly activities

• Undergraduate Support: work with mentee to help develop project
• Workshops: host 2 fall workshops  
• Group Feedback Critique: host 4 sessions of feedback group dialogue
• Studio Visit: host a studio visit where at least 2 other members of the collective show their works-in-progress to public  
• Group Show: send out application and proposal for end-of-year group show and beginning of quarter. Do site visits at the middle-end of the quarter. Confirm gallery by end of quarter  
• Funding: apply for second round of funding from Sustainability grant and other grants/ fellowships

Winter 2023: Finish up year of the collective

• Undergraduate Support: work with mentee to finalize projects and put them out to the public  
• Workshops: host 2 winter workshops  
• Group Feedback Critique: host 4 sessions of feedback group dialogue
• Group Show: collaboratively work on finalizing our project, plan the layout of the show, prep the gallery space, hang works, put on show  
• Funding: secure funding for next year around and re-visit budget and activities

Budget:

• Funding Undergraduate Students’ projects: $900 ( 3 projects at $300)
• Funding the collective projects and materials: $7,000 ($1,000 per collective member)
• Studio Space and equipments: $16,400 ( $1,000/month and $2,000 equipment)
• Compensation for workshop collaborators: $1,800 ($300 per workshop (6))
• Compensation for collective members: $3,150 ($450 per collective member)
• Residency: $700

Total: 29,950

Project Summary

Established in 2016, the Supplier Diversity Program is a student-run organization that is dedicated to ensuring the equality of UW business opportunities for small, minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBT-owned, and historically underutilized businesses. This includes educating the student body on the importance of Supplier Diversity and the types of businesses that are contracted by UW as suppliers of goods and services. We are planning our third Eat Local Food Fair, our largest outreach project. This will be the first Eat Local Food Fair since 2019, as 2020 and 2021 efforts had to be cancelled due to COVID (our CSF Grant for the 2020 Food Fair was approved but not paid out after we were forced to cancel the event). The Eat Local Food Fair invites local vendors from the Seattle community to campus (HUB Walkway) during May and helps them to be further exposed to UW, both students and staff. Thanks to the support of Campus Sustainability Fund, the most recent Fair saw huge success. It hosted eight catering vendors and thousands of students who visited the booths. This unique and interactive opportunity gets to the heart of what the Supplier Diversity Program works toward daily – advocacy for diverse-owned business, education of our student body, influencing sustainable decision-making by the University, and creating a more equitable community.

Sustainable Impact

Our project strives to improve both social and environmental sustainability of the UW community. From the social perspective, Supplier Diversity promotes diversity, inclusivity, and equality on campus. Small businesses present new employment opportunities and spur innovations in the community. However, these historically underutilized businesses often face various challenges including lack of access to money, markets, exposure, and opportunities. Therefore, by providing a space where these local businesses can generate revenue and be exposed to a larger consumer base, we believe it will help expand the diversity of businesses being affiliated by UW and support the local economy.

On the other hand, purchasing more local food provides positive environmental benefits as well. The production of food accounts for 68 percent of greenhouse gas emission in the world, while its transportation accounts for 5 percent. Eating locally helps prevent global warming because local restaurants often use food grown closer to home which requires less fuel to transport. In addition, local farms are more likely to adopt environmentally friendly practices including using less pesticides, preserving genetic diversity, and enriching the soil with cover crops. Furthermore, to minimize the environmental externalities of the Eat Local Food Fair, we will encourage garbage classification by having different types of garbage bins and creating signages with instructions. We will make sure that participants of the Fair are environmentally conscious and educated on how to dispose of food waste correctly.

Student Leadership & Involvement

Student Leadership and Involvement is the driving force behind the Eat Local Food Fair. The Supplier Diversity Program is a student-run organization, which means that students are the ones who propose and organize projects. Currently, the program has 10 members from 7 different majors on campus. The Executive Board of the program is comprised of 4 students, who take roles of the Director of External Relations, the Director of Internal Relations, the Director of Funding, and the Director of Recruiting. The members are divided into three different committees: Brand Awareness, Education, and Community Engagement, each with a committee lead and other members. The Eat Local Food Fair is led by the head of the Community Engagement Committee and the Executive Board, who together manage the Fair logistics, funding, and vendor recruitment. The Brand Awareness committee is in charge of creating promotional materials and social media campaigns to advertise the Fair. The Education committee will be tasked to educate Fair participants on the importance of Supplier Diversity and ask them to sign the Supplier Diversity Pledge Card. In addition, we will recruit more student volunteers to promote the event, collect feedback, and aid set-up the day of the Fair. The audience of the Fair will primarily be students as well.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

The Eat Local Food Fair strives to reach out to diverse groups on campus and educate them about the importance of Supplier Diversity, with the end goal of increasing diversity of the University supply chain and influencing students to make more conscious buying decisions. We have brainstormed multiple ways to improve the Fair this year to reach a wider audience and better engage the participants:

• Vendor Selection Process: We would like to share this wonderful opportunity with more local businesses this year. Therefore, we developed a vendor application form that is currently being distributed with small businesses in our network and the Foster School of Business. We will prioritize vendors that have high potential and interest to be a supplier of UW.
• Student Outreach: We will advertise to students heavily on social media including our Facebook and Instagram pages. We will then reach out to student organizations through the Foster School of Business and HUB.  We will also design poster boards and flyers that will be placed and distributed around campus.
• Staff Outreach: We are planning to invite staff from UW Procurement and other campus departments that would be interested in using catering services. We will then create a handout that lists the vendors present, their stories, and their products to share with the UW staff.
• Feedback Cards: We plan to partner with Chef Tracey, the Campus Executive Chef to gauge interest in some of the most exciting and diverse-owned businesses in our community. Fair participants will be given rating cards to provide feedback on selected vendors. We will then analyze the results and assist Chef Tracey with her team's vendor selection process for UW Housing and Food Services. This would have a direct impact on diversifying the supply chain of the University.
• Gallery: We believe in the power of stories. Therefore, we will design poster boards for each vendor to share their entrepreneurship path and the adversities that they overcome. In addition to trying the products, we hope UW students and staff can also be inspired by these stories and change their buying behaviors.
• Supplier Diversity Pledge: The Supplier Diversity Pledge was created to gain feasible metrics that will allows us to measure the support for our program mission. This year, we will have printed pledge cards, QR codes for participants to sign online, and a signing board. The Pledge will include statistics showcasing the importance of Supplier Diversity and actions that participants can take to support the movement.

Feasibility & Accountability

Spring 2022 will serve as the third Eat Local Fair in which the Supplier Diversity Program aims to again showcase a diverse group of vendors to the campus community. We have built a solid planning and execution plan to sustain this event and for years to come. Historically the program has received guidance from advisors from CBDC, UW Athletics, Student Activities Office, Northwest Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council, and Microsoft. We are confident that with CSF's help, we will be able to bring another successful Eat Local Food Fair to campus and support diverse-owned businesses in the community. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Summary

Amid the ongoing protests that followed the death of George Floyd, the student-led Diversity and Inclusion Group (DIG) in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences organized a department-wide conversation on race. Participating graduate students, faculty, postdoctoral researchers and department staff discussed problems and solutions within small groups and a consensus emerged that, as a precursor to becoming more anti-racist, we must educate ourselves about the history and the present day manifestation of racism within our field. Following this meeting, a smaller group of department members participated in a student-led reading group about race in academia. Motivated by the fruitful discussions in this reading group and a desire to engage a larger portion of the department in this conversation, we created a special topics class for Autumn quarter For the first time in its history, our department will offer students academic credit for learning about issues of racism and equity as they relate to our field. DIG recognizes that as atmospheric scientists we can practice anti-racism in two primary ways. First, we can work to make a more inclusive environment within our own field. Second, we can take into account the systemic inequities that exist when developing our studies and when we inform policy decisions. The latter mission is consistent with goal 10 of the UN sustainable development goals, which states that, “To reduce inequalities, policies should be universal in principle, paying attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations.” We have identified five main topic areas for our course: 1) Indigenous rights 2) Environmental justice in cities 3) The history of scientific racism 4) Climate Justice and the global south 5) Whiteness, science, and academia Our course will focus on guest speakers and will be made broadly accessible to the entire Department of Atmospheric Sciences. We are currently recruiting at least one guest speaker to speak to each of our five focus areas. Some of these topics are best addressed by non-academic speakers, such as climate justice activists or employees at non-profit organizations. Giving an honorarium to speakers not only shows our appreciation for their work but also compensates them for their time. Moreover, it allows us to recruit more diverse speakers who may not have community outreach and service built into their salaries as many academics do. With the support of our department chair, we have leveraged virtual learning to our advantage to ensure that all interested department members will be able to participate in this course. In a typical quarter, the Atmospheric Sciences department has two seminars each week, which are consistently attended by much of the department. The chair has allowed us to use the time slot of one of these science seminars for our course. Additionally, a virtual platform allows us to recruit a more diverse set of speakers as the burden of traveling to the department to deliver a talk in person is removed.

Background

The immediate impact of this project will be realized within the Atmospheric Sciences department. Initial evaluations of success will be based on the number of attendees and the level of engagement from department members. Another short-term goal will be to foster broader faculty and community participation in DIG. DIG is student-led and has primarily been a graduate student group, but is open to all department members. Our short-term goal is that this course increases the number of people regularly attending DIG meetings, and doubles the number of faculty and administrative staff attendees (2-3 additional attendees). A medium-term measure of impact is an increased focus on anti-racism in the Atmospheric Sciences curriculum in future quarters. This is the first time that the Atmospheric Sciences department will offer a formal course on race and equity. The materials that we develop for this course can be used again for future courses on this topic and components of the course can also be interwoven into the required science curriculum. Thus, our medium-term goal is to create an accessible archive of our materials (including slides, readings and recorded lectures) at the conclusion of the course. Our long-term goal is that this course and the discussions and actions that follow it lead to higher representation of underrepresented groups within the student body and the faculty of the Atmospheric Sciences department. However, due to small sample sizes and slow turnover, we will only be able to evaluate changes in racial diversity on the timescale of multiple years. If this project is funded, we will use departmental funds to invite a keynote speaker in addition to our other five speakers, such as Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, that will likely solicit broad interest throughout the College and university. We plan to open and advertise the keynote speaker to a broader audience so that members of our College and the university at large can participate. Additionally, this course will provide a template that other departments can follow if they wish to design a similar course in future quarters. Our best quantitative tools for measuring the impact that this course has had on the culture of the Atmospheric Sciences department, the College of the Environment, and the University of Washington, are the University Climate Survey and the College of the Environment’s Culture Survey. Finally, we have invited academics and activists from the Seattle area who have not engaged with our department before to be guest speakers for our course. We hope that our discussions with these speakers initiate more longstanding communication and collaboration between our department and other academic departments as well as activists in the Seattle area who focus on climate justice, urban environmentalism and anti-racism.

Budget

1. $200; Honorarium; Guest speaker on the topic of indigenous rights
2. $200; Honorarium; Guest speaker on the topic of environmental justice in cities
3. $200; Honorarium; Guest speaker on the topic of the history of scientific racism
4. $200; Honorarium; Guest speaker on the topic of climate justice and the global south
5. $200; Honorarium; Guest speaker on the topic of whiteness, science, and academia

Matching funds

Our department chair has pledged up to $500 for speaker honoraria. If this proposal is funded, we will use the departmental funds to support additional speakers not included in the five listed above.

The University of Washington Q Center is requesting $1,000 from the Campus Sustainability Fund Mini-Grant to purchase and distribute sustainable, eco-friendly menstrual products to 100 UW students in need. The products--reusable cotton panty liners, reusable cotton pads, and menstrual cups--will be purchased from GladRags as part of the Q Center's upcoming initiative called Menstruation Station. The Menstruation Station program, led by Graduate Program Coordinator Joie Waxler, will advance menstrual justice by providing wraparound services that center the experiences, needs, and desires of bodies that bleed. The Q Center's Menstruation Station program aims to undo and mitigate the structures of oppression that impact menstruating bodies with a focus on the needs of queer and trans folks who are often left out of menstruation discourse and care. Our goal is to re-empower bleeding and alleviate the financial and emotional burdens experienced by people who menstruate, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Purchasing and distributing free of cost sustainable menstrual products for UW students will meet this need and fulfill important program goals.

Menstruation is a nearly ubiquitous experience for people who have uteruses, but it is often not discussed or tended to in the ways people with uteruses may need in order to thrive alongside this bodily process. Everybody experiences the menstrual cycle differently, but menstruation and ovulation can often be painful, fatiguing, emotional, and expensive. Over the course of their life, a person who menstruates will have around 456 periods and will spend upwards of $18,000 on menstrual care. That is an enormous amount of money. And the issue is not just financial, it is also deeply environmental. Each year, menstrual products account for 200,000 tons of plastic, and most menstruators will generate anywhere from 250-300 pounds of plastic waste over the course of their lifetimes. Covid-19 has wreaked financial havoc across the globe this year, and even in non-pandemic times, the impacts of White Supremacy, colonialism, and hetero-patriarchy disproportionately impact menstruators. Menstrual wellbeing remains under-funded and menstrual stigma continues to create hostile environments for bodies that bleed. Providing free and environmentally-friendly menstrual products to menstruators is an important step towards eradicating the economic and environmental burdens of menstrual care.

The Q Center is partnering with GalPalz, Hall Health, LiveWell, the Counseling Center, and the UW Food Pantry to ensure our menstrual health initiatives reach a diverse swath of the UW community. The UW Food Pantry will be supplying disposable menstrual products to anyone whose access needs require disposable products, allowing the Q Center's Menstruation Station to focus our efforts on sustainable menstrual products and wellbeing. Additionally, these campus partners already helped facilitate outreach for an early needs survey put out by the Q Center to gauge the specific menstrual product needs for folks who menstruate, as well as the best methods of getting sustainable menstrual products to participants. Follow-up surveys and future promotion through the Q Center and our partners will expand the initiative's contact with the UW community. All promotional material will be explicit in its subversion of menstrual stigma, homophobia, and transphobia.

Joie Waxler will oversee the Menstruation Station program as well as the distribution of any products purchased with this grant. They are a professional sexual health educator, and have been published on both national and local stages speaking to building effective means of providing affirming and accessible health care to queer and trans individuals and communities. They have successfully built the first menstrual equity and access program for the Ryan Health Network, a major Federally Qualified Health Center in New York City, as well as one of the first pregnancy and parenting programs that centers queer and trans homeless youth in NYC. Their experiences building sexual health equity programs that center the experiences, identities, and voices of communities that are often overlooked in this field will be put to good use in building this new initiative for the Q Center.

The Menstruation Station initiative is in part inspired by, and deeply aligned with the Q Center's mission to engender a brave, affirming, liberatory, and celebratory environment for UW community members of all sexual and gender orientations, identities, and expressions. We approach our work with intentional interpersonal processes that strive to create holistic, culturally embedded, and appropriate services. Menstrual health and equity is imperative to maintaining emotional and physical wellbeing, and the funds from this grant will help the Q Center engender equitable, sustainable, menstrual wellbeing for all bodies that bleed. Thank you for your consideration, and for the sustainable community you are helping to build with this funding. Please reach out to Joie Waxler at jwaxler@uw.edu or budget administrator Lindsey Mitchell at lchale@uw.edu with any questions regarding this application.

Sincerely,

Joie Waxler
Graduate Program Coordinator
Q Center, University of Washington They, them, theirs
jwaxler@uw.edu

With the growing popularity and evolution of electric bicycle technology, we believe that college students will soon turn to electric bikes as an alternative mode of transportation to and from campus, due to both a cost efficiency and sustainability standpoint. Through a partnership with UW Solar and PotentiaLi, a student led company participating in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Competition, we will build a solar powered electric bicycle (e-bike) charging station to demonstrate and spark a means for meeting this future demand for e-bikes on campus. If granted support from CSF, we will be able to develop, assemble, and test a network of charging stations on the UW campus supported by a battery and solar canopy. The stations will incorporate repurposed second-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries for storage so that the system can be independent from the electrical grid. Our project team includes UW Solar members, who are currently conducting a study of the solar power viability of existing bike canopies on campus based on how much sunlight each canopy receives. Based on initial calculations, one charging station can charge up to ten e-bikes using only one second-life EV battery, five solar panels, and a maximum power point (MPPT) charge controller.

Prior to implementing the physical system, we will conduct a feasibility study. This involves the previously mentioned solar power site capacity study as well as discussions with UW Transportation and UW Facilities to assess and gain approval for the location of the charging stations. UW Solar already has a partnership with UW Transportation through a Seattle City Light sponsored project for managed electric vehicle charging in conjunction with the ECE capstone course. We can leverage that relationship to extend to this project. Additionally, we are aware that UW Mail Services uses e-bikes (due to a CSF grant) and will reach out to them as a potential first use-case. Another consideration is that the system may require maintenance. We plan to talk to the team that initiated the bike repair stations at UW to gain insight as to how a similar system can be set up for the charging stations. After conducting a feasibility study and gaining approval for a location, we will purchase off-the-shelf components for the system. The appropriately sized components are shown in Table 1 along with an estimated cost. Therefore, to implement the first prototype of the charging station, we are requesting approximately $6000. Since this is a mid-sized project, we would like guidance from the CSF to determine whether this project should be funded in one or two stages. We are also aware that construction will require approval from and participation of UW capital projects and engineering personnel. Therefore, we anticipate working with them as well as with UW Transportation for a feasibility study, approval, design review and support, construction, and maintenance.

The solar-powered electric bicycle charging station is the ideal project to showcase UW’s commitment to sustainability and to clean technology innovations. Since the system is solar powered and off-grid, there are no emissions associated with using the system. Additionally, the use of a second-life electric vehicle battery not only eliminates grid dependency, but also provides a use for Lithium-ion batteries that would likely otherwise go to a landfill. Additionally, this project can demonstrate to UW Transportation (which currently has 39 Chevy Bolts in the fleet) an application for downcycling (reuse) of batteries. At the end of their useful life in a vehicle, EV batteries still contain about 80% charge capacity. Once repurposed, these batteries are ideal for small-scale energy storage systems. The idea of repurposing is at the forefront of technology and several pilot projects have been implemented with second-life EV batteries at universities such as UC San Diego and the University of Delaware. Finally, the system encourages the use of sustainable transportation; electric bicycles are sustainable alternatives to a conventional vehicle and thus every electric bicycle that is used can be thought to replace a conventional vehicle on the road. Each charging station will be equipped with an interface to display the state of charge for each bicycle that is plugged in. These interfaces can also be used to display solar power production. In order to provide even more publicity on campus regarding the system, we will place signage near the canopies describing the system and its environmental benefits. Finally, we plan to choose the first locations based on not only solar power feasibility, but also visibility to people walking through campus. For example, one potential site we have identified is outside of the electrical engineering building near Red Square, which is a heavily trafficked area. Long-term, we hope to create an entire network of charging stations and provide a model for such a system that can be replicated at other universities or businesses that have large campuses.

Table 1: Estimated Cost of one Solar Powered E-bike Charging Station

Dear CSF Committee:

We are Washington iGEM: a team of undergraduates at the University of Washington dedicated to solving problems in medicine and the environment by using synthetic biology. We are writing to determine the Campus Sustainability Fund’s interest in supporting our synthetic biology project centered around wastewater pollution.

Environmental Impact

Our goal is to engineer E. coli to extract lead and arsenic from wastewater with target proteins, and construct a biofilm-based filter. We expect to present at the iGEM Jamboree in Fall 2021 upon its completion.

Heavy metal toxicity is responsible for many health crises. It interferes with blood, bones, and the nervous system, resulting in anemia, osteoporosis, and cognitive defects. The true extent of damage is difficult to quantify due to the many effects, but lead poisoning alone accounts for half a million deaths a year and 9.3 million disabilities (WHO).

Thus, this is a prevalent problem and affects many stakeholders. Smelters have historically been huge contributors to heavy metal pollution in the environment. However, their cleanup efforts have been extremely expensive. Our solution will be much more cost-effective and efficient in preventing heavy metals from entering the environment, benefitting both the smelters and the people affected. For example, Teck is upstream of many cities that are found along the Columbia River and has the potential to affect large populations of people in Eastern WA.

With the support from CSF, our team can design a sustainable biological solution to treat water pollutants. This may include sources of water used in UW’s daily operations, and can be further expanded into other local/state-wide bodies of water that are harmed by toxic pollution.

Student Leadership and Involvement

Our team is composed of and primarily run by UW undergraduate students who are strongly motivated to induce environmental change. There are 24 undergraduate students divided into teams: Dry-Lab, Wet-Lab, Human-Practices, Web-Development, Fundraising, and Design. The team is assisted by three advisors who are UW graduates. In addition, Dr. Frank DiMaio is a UW professor from the Biochemistry Department who provides our team with his expertise in protein modeling, while Dr. Mari Wrinkler from the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department mentors us in the kinetic modeling.

Education, Outreach, Behavior Change

In addition to requesting support from CSF, our team aims to participate in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge, apply for the Husky Seed Fund, and the EarthLab Innovation Grant in near future. Our project is very locally focused so we hope that UW can provide necessary support for our goals. We believe that participating in competitions will give our project exposure and honest feedback which can be used to further its development.

Our team is devoted to educating the UW and local community on pollution. Spreading awareness is one of our goals and helps our team form partnerships with other organizations when our interests align. We want to partner with companies conducting similar research to host events to teach the general public about local pollution and how synthetic biology is the long-term solution.

Due to the pandemic, opportunities for UW students to gain research experience are fairly limited. We provide students who are interested in applications of synthetic biology to harness their passions for scientific research to learn and explore. Our sister group, Synbio for Everyone, focuses on spreading knowledge on synthetic biology to younger children. We made a 200-page curriculum, which has been translated into 20+ languages, and won the Best Education and Public Engagement Award in the international competition last year.

Our team is composed of members from various majors such as engineering, biochemistry, computer science, biology, and business. All of these sectors are essential in executing a successful project, allowing collaboration of students from various backgrounds. Anyone with a passion for synthetic-biology, environmental sustainability, and health is welcomed to our team because we want to create an inclusive environment for UW students who want to make a difference.

Feasibility and Accountability

The CSF has a huge interest in contributing to solutions for environmental issues. This also aligns with UW’s goal of minimizing waste and sustainability. Our project aims to satisfy both CSF’s and UW’s interests by filtering harmful heavy metals in local waters.

Our project focuses on developing a biofilm-based filter that is sustainable to treat the local bodies of water in the UW/Greater Seattle area, and expand to affected areas in Washington state and beyond. With the support from CSF, we hope to be able to conduct a feasibility study as our first course of action to determine effectiveness of the currently used filtration systems. This will provide our team with necessary information on what needs improvements and how we should design our engineered biofilm filters.

The project timeline will proceed in the following phases: conduct feasibility study, perform lab experiments, and develop a usable prototype. A majority of the funding provided from the CSF will go towards experiments and purchasing reagents and hardware for building the models. Our goal is to finish the project by Fall 2021 to participate in the iGEM Jamboree and Environmental Innovation Challenge. Depending on our research during our feasibility study, success in competitions, and feedback, it is also likely that we will continue this project and build it up into a startup.

We estimate the total cost of our project to be $25,000-$30,000. We have already raised $8,000, thus we would need CSF to provide the remaining $17,000-$22,000, which would support our team’s efforts in conducting extensive research locally and experimentally.

We hope to get the chance to provide you with our full proposal detailing our project timeline and full comprehensive budget for further review. Until then, we are happily available to answer any questions that arise in reviewing our application. Thank you for the opportunity and your time.

Sincerely,

Washington iGEM

Arnav Jolly
Junior
Bioengineering - Data Science
925-999-5898
jollya2@uw.edu
    

Conrad Yee
Junior
Business - Finance
206-209-9161
yeecb@uw.edu

Christina Chen
Senior
Biochemistry
971-295-2328
ziyuanc@uw.edu

Our group EarthGames would like to build a video game Sustainability Action Arena that illustrates the targets of the UW Sustainability Action Plan. We will create ten levels of the game, one for each target of the plan. Sustainability Action Arena will be playable on web browsers and mobile devices. The game will be designed and tested by EarthGames staff, students participating in the ATM S 495: EarthGames Studio independent study course in autumn 2021, and paid undergraduate student employees.

The Games

We will design mini-games for each level that illustrate the concepts of each Sustainability Action Plan target. We hope to include actionable items that the players could participate in in the real world, as well as some quantitative information about the targets.

For instance, for Target #1, Doubling Sustainability Engagement of Students, Staff, and Faculty, we might design a level in which virtual characters are led through a maze to reach sustainability events such as Sustainability Stories, Whole U Quarterly Seminars, as well as volunteer opportunities on campus and around the community. The player would be successful if they can reroute enough virtual characters to the events to double the number of people participating in the events. In between levels, links will be provided for real-world events on campus.

Previous CSF Project

EarthGames developed a game called 60 Second Sustainability in 2018 with funding from CSF. The game had 21 different levels, which each introduced the work of a different environmental RSO in short level. Our staff member Rivkah Parent first worked with EarthGames doing art for these games, and learned programming and game design then as well. The game was successful in communicating the mission of the RSOs in a concise manner, and is still used in orientation and classes at UW to introduce environmental RSOs.

Other Prior Experience

EarthGames has experience developing high-quality, visually appealing, fun games in a short time and on a limited budget. Our team includes a programmer/artist, students from UW Seattle and UW Bothell who have taken the EarthGames Studio independent study course or volunteered, and two faculty liaison with a strong track record of supporting student outreach and engagement. EarthGames has released 13 apps to the Apple and Google Play app stores, and our itch.io page.

Creative Commons Licensing

We will make the code and art available under a creative commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA), so other higher educational sustainability initiatives can adapt the games for use on their campuses. We believe the CC licensing will also help with generating more impressions of the game and the Sustainability Action Plan. The game will be designed in the open source game engine Godot.

Timeline

The core EarthGames team would work on the project during summer of 2021. EarthGames has been successful working in a virtual education setting over the last year, and are confident we can continue this work over the summer.

The ATM S 495: EarthGames Studio would be offered in autumn 2021, allowing more students to participate in the development of the project for course credit. The focus of the class would be on testing the effectiveness of the games developed over the summer, and polishing the games.

The game would be completed by December 2021.

Funding Estimates (all numbers are approximate)

We are requesting funds to support:

• EarthGames programmer and artist Rivkah Parent: 5 months at $5000/month = $25,000
• Undergraduate student employees: 5 students @ 50 hours each = 250 hours, at $20/hour = $5,000
• Prof. Dargan Frierson (Atmospheric Sciences): unfunded project lead
• Prof. Jessica Kaminsky (Civil and Environmental Engineering): unfunded collaborator

Total: $30,000

To the CSF Committee and Staff,

Eraced Magazine is a print and online media publication focused on race and intersectionality, amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous, and people of color. It was founded by a UW journalism and environmental science student, wanting to form a newsroom that celebrates difference and promotes inclusivity. The team comprises UW students from a variety of majors and departments, with contributors from colleges and universities all across the country. 

We are a publication chronicling the ways racial trauma of the past impacts all spheres of life today. Our mission is to redefine traditional journalism by working to dismantle systemic oppression in journalism, art, and literature. We are aligned with principles of social and environmental sustainability, as we promote messages of intersectional environmentalism and racial justice, and support deeply-contextualized work that seeks to educate. 

Eraced Magazine is hoping to receive a $1000 fund to increase our readership and fund our first print magazine. We believe Eraced would be an excellent candidate for this mini-grant, as it closely exemplifies the CSF’s 4 Project Criteria. 

Sustainable Impact

At its core, principles of social and environmental sustainability inform Eraced. From a social sustainability lens, Eraced contributors all promote content of inclusion and cultural awareness, as curated pieces examine the world through the lens of race and intersectionality — contextualizing and preserving the deep origins of various communities’ values. Sources for articles are primarily BIPOC, as the magazine strives to represent these communities by directly amplifying their voices. In this way, writers are encouraged to interview and work closely with marginalized communities to tell their stories and raise awareness of issues affecting them. 

The magazine’s sections and subsections depict interdisciplinary collaboration, as writing about the environment also entails community work, scientific research, and equity-based insights. We offer multiple mediums for discussion, supporting a number of subjects, including everything from technology to politics, and many forms of communication, such as graphic arts, photography, podcasts, and the written word. 

Our magazine also promotes themes of environmental justice and sustainability. When we print our first magazine we want to focus on producing the smallest amount of product to sustain the demand. We do not want to create excess waste, but rather maintain intentionality with our production. In addition, we are looking to print and distribute our magazines without excess packaging.

Eraced also has a section focused entirely on the environment. This section offers tools for discussion, learning and unlearning, and ecology-based articles. Most of these pieces relate to the Seattle area and could educate the UW in their environmental projects. For example, a recent piece discussed green spaces in Seattle and how the city’s new draft of its Urban Forest Management Plan better engaged the community. The article discussed the co-benefits of green spaces and how urban forestry has been unequally distributed, and what the city can do to address that. Environmental articles, like this one, could have a positive impact for the UW in its collaboration with the city’s environmental policies. 

Leadership & Student Involvement

Eraced is a fully student-led magazine and one that enables mobility with leadership and involvement levels. The core executive team comprises the editor-in-chief, editorial lead, arts lead, social media managers, and media outreach lead. For writers and content creators who have improved with time and who are seeking leadership positions, we offer editorships and closer collaboration to give them the space to grow. Because we are an interdisciplinary and multimedia magazine, there are wide-spread opportunities for students of different backgrounds and interests. 

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

Eraced supports many education and outreach initiatives to improve our campus and community and boost awareness of intersectional issues that affect BIPOC. Firstly, each of our articles, photo essays, poems, podcasts, and graphic pieces are created by students amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in the hopes that their peers may learn and gain cultural awareness. In addition, we engage with our audience and readers to encourage them to submit “pitches” for specific content or lines of inquiry they want to see represented. In this way, we are actively facilitating conversations with the campus and community to bolster knowledge of intersectional topics. 

Feasibility & Accountability

Eraced will meet its goals through a $1000 mini-grant. Around $800 total will be used for the first print edition, and we predict a higher sum will be returned producing a net profit. We plan to sell magazines for around $12 to 15 dollars and the proceeds will be directly saved for future magazine print publications and advertisements. 

We estimate $200 to be used for advertisements on various social media platforms to bolster our readership and audience. This method of advertising has proven effective in the past, as a week-long advertisement campaign on Instagram found us about 50 new followers. Expanding this on a larger scale would significantly boost our following. Increasing our readership is vital as a magazine because that expands our reach in individuals reading and viewing our content, and eventually supporting our work by purchasing magazines or donating. 

Throughout this entire process the Eraced team will update our budget advisor and the CSF to depict our promise in using funds responsibly, upholding our goals and values. Eraced is truly committed to accomplishing its mission and goals.  

Following is a budget and timeline breakdown: 

• End of January — End of February: Spend around $200 on advertisements on Instagram that showcase our content to thousands of Instagram followers. 
• End of January: Use about $800 on a down payment for the print magazine, producing roughly 75 magazines. We will stop pre order requests after 75 magazines to ensure we do not exceed the $800 needed for print, which we have already calculated using the printer’s online calculation metric. The pieces for print have been selected and we have established the number of pages of the magazine, as well as the layout. 
• February — March: Sell and distribute magazines. 

We thank you for your time and consideration. 

Best regards,

Eraced Team

Dear CSF Committee,

My name is Alex Bartoletti and I am an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. I am the Hull Team Lead for the UW Human Powered Submarine (UWHPS) team on campus and we are requesting funds for the manufacture of our newly designed sustainable hull for the 2021-2022 school year. As a team, we design and build a submarine every year to race at the International Submarine Races (ISR) in Maryland and European International Submarine Races (eISR). We use the same hull for two years in a row, and every other year we design and manufacture a new and improved composite hull to be used in the subsequent two years. This school year (2020-2021), we will be manufacturing a new hull.

This year our team decided that we wanted to take a new approach to manufacturing our submarine hull. In years past, we have almost always used a carbon fiber reinforced polymer layup. All the materials used in this process are very detrimental to the environment. The production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as well as being about 14 times as energy intensive as steel manufacturing. In addition, the epoxy resins normally used in the manufacturing process are plastics that create a lot of waste and tend to sit in landfills after use. With this knowledge, we decided to make it our goal to manufacture the new submarine hull in the most sustainable and environmentally conscious method.

Since setting this goal, our team has immersed ourselves in research on sustainable materials and manufacturing processes that can suit our submarine needs. Ultimately, we have decided that we want to use a natural flax fiber with an eco-friendly epoxy resin in a resin infusion layup process with a recycled foam or balsa wood core material. We chose flax fiber for ease of use and naturally sustainable properties. It also shows desirable strength and stiffness properties suitable for the durability necessary in our submarine. Another option we considered was recycled chopped carbon fiber, but this material is less sustainable and presents a more difficult manufacturing process with more variable results. In addition to a sustainable fiber, we decided that an eco-friendly epoxy resin was equally necessary. Our research pointed us to a few companies such as Entropy Resins, who develop bio-based resins.

We believe that these components can help us become more sustainable, and act as a role model for the many other engineering clubs at the UW and elsewhere who use carbon fiber reinforced polymers year after year. We want to be able to teach our fellow engineering teams how to use more sustainable material and educate them on the differences and benefits compared to traditional carbon fiber. Hopefully, we can motivate other teams to take a longer look at environmental sustainability in their projects.

Our engineering club consists of about 50 members from multiple engineering disciplines. The club and projects are student run and executed with some guidance and advice from our faculty advisor, Benjamin Maurer. The main goal on the human powered submarine team is to give students real engineering experience while working together to build a competitive submarine for competition. At the moment, our team is very young and lacks a lot of technical experience in composite design and manufacture. As the Hull Team Lead, I would be in charge of helping my own team members, as well as members from other sub-teams learn these processes both in person and remotely. In a world where focus on environmental impact has become so important, I see a great opportunity to train these members with a distinct focus on sustainability.

Last year, our team placed first in our virtual design competition and we are motivated by this win to push further and harder. We are currently ahead of schedule, and with this year’s competition already announced to be virtual, we have all the more time and excitement to dive into sustainability. In communication with our sponsors, we have begun to organize workshops and tutorials that can be held in person (if possible) or remotely to teach our members more about engineering composites. It is another goal of ours to get as much positive engineering and sustainability experience out of this project as possible. This will help put forth more experienced and environmentally responsible engineers into the workforce.

We are asking for your funding to purchase flax fiber, eco-friendly resin systems, and any other necessary environmentally sustainable materials or supplies to complete the manufacture of our submarine hull. We are already in communication with suppliers and plan to order material by the end of Autumn quarter and begin manufacturing of the hull by the end of winter quarter. We expect the flax fiber to cost about $1800, the resin to cost about $650, and core material to cost about $100. Our annual Hull Team budget is normally about $1350 but this year there may be some additional funding moved around to help us pay for the new hull. Our Hull Team budget includes the money also needed to manufacture other system components not included in this sustainability proposal. This includes manufacturing the window, control fins, and fairings and the materials necessary for these processes.

We believe that we can start a positive change towards sustainability in the engineering clubs at the University of Washington and our team is dedicated towards making this happen. Please reach out to me if you have any more questions about our project or plan. I, as well as my whole team, am very excited and passionate about what we are trying to do and I would love to speak with you more.

Sincerely,

Alex Bartoletti
alexbart@uw.edu
425-753-7458

Summary

The goal of this project is to better understand how food systems and traditional health care services can work together to support the needs of food-insecure (defined as uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all household members because of insufficient money or other resources for food) families, and to share these lessons learned with relevant UW, Seattle-area, and WA state stakeholders. The Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC) is a community health clinic located in the Central District of Seattle that provides low-income and predominately BIPOC families with free or low-cost medical, dental, mental health, and nutrition services for children from prenatal care-21 years. Addressing fundamental causes of ill health is a major focus of this clinic, and as a result they often partner with non-profit and governmental organizations to address basic needs such as food security and stable housing. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when everything shut down, OBCC staff recognized that many of their already low-income families would be unable to work or lose their jobs. Many families already struggled to navigate government programs pre-pandemic, and OBCC also serves undocumented families who are further limited in their ability to access government relief programs. In order to respond to this crisis, OBCC staff stopped seeing children for standard wellness visits (besides vaccinations) and pivoted almost entirely to basic needs services, the primary of which was food security. Staff working on this, or the “Food Brigade”, did this through a variety of approaches – e.g. partnering with other food systems stakeholders to gather food for home delivery, and linking families to community-based organizations also providing food for families in need. Because of the current Black Lives Matter movement and increased awareness around systemic racism as the fundamental driver of negative health outcomes, we expect (and hope) to see more health care systems focus on addressing social needs (e.g., food security, housing) of patients as part of the basic standard of care. OBCC has been at the forefront of this movement – the clinic was founded in 1970 by Odessa Brown, a Black community organizer who saw a need for culturally-relevant and high-quality health care in her Central District community. We are requesting funding in order to conduct interviews with 1) OBCC clinic staff and 2) food-insecure families about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and meeting basic food security needs. Interviews with families will be conducted in both English and Spanish, with a particular focus on families with undocumented household members. We plan to share the successes and lessons learned with other community stakeholders (e.g. health care systems, other hunger and food systems-focused organizations, policymakers) to start a dialogue around increasing coordination to meet the needs of food-insecure families. With 20% of UW students across all three campuses reporting that they ran out of food and didn’t have the money to buy more prior to the pandemic, the results of this work will directly impact the health and well-being of UW students.

Background

While definitions of food insecurity include the traditional concept of hunger, food insecurity also includes needing to skip or reducing the size of meals, purposely compromising nutrition by purchasing lower quality foods, and seeking food from emergency food sources. Approximately 15.8 million households in the United States experience food insecurity each year; communities of color are both at higher risk for food insecurity overall and are disproportionately affected by the negative health outcomes that result. Chronic food insecurity is associated with a number of chronic diseases in both adults and children including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and asthma. Prior to the pandemic, 36.8% percent of low-income households at or below 130% of the federal poverty line were food insecure at some point in the last year. At the start of the pandemic, in Washington state the number of individuals experiencing food insecurity nearly doubled from 85,000 to 1.6 million, one-quarter of whom were children. As the pandemic continues and we head into another economic crisis, taking the time to better understand, share, and address integrating food security initiatives in health care settings is critical to ensuring the most vulnerable families in our community are reached and served. We want to share stories of this from OBCC because they represent an excellent example how to provide culturally relevant, high quality care and develop trusting relationships with families marginalized by and excluded from traditional health care systems.

Impact measured

These interviews are the first part of a multi-step project meant to increase dialogue around food justice and integrating food systems-focused organizations with health care settings. Many of our intended impacts are long-term and would require policy changes, which we are unlikely to be able to assess during the project timeframe. However, we do have a few shorter-term measures that will indicate we are on the way to reaching those long-term goals: 1. Number of completed interviews with clinic staff (n=~9) and heads of household (n=~16). 2. All transcripts coded and analyzed using traditional qualitative methods (all interviews will be audio recorded). 3. For student mentorship, whether the student is able to and feels comfortable conducting interviews on their own by the end of the project. Additionally, if the student is interested, their ability contribute to coding and analysis of transcripts will also be an indicator success. 4. Published report and policy brief of findings vetted by OBCC staff and families disseminated to relevant stakeholders. Additional communication materials may be developed in partnership with OBCC staff and families. 5. Our ability to use these findings to hold further conversations with other stakeholders, namely other health care organizations/systems, food systems-focused organizations, and policymakers. The number of stakeholders reached and number of meetings/conversations held is how we anticipate measuring this. In particular, we are hoping to present our results to the City of Seattle sugar-sweetened beverage tax working group. 6. To the degree we are able, any actions taken or changes made as a result of these conversations. In particular, based on initial conversations with OBCC staff, we hope to see more strategic alignment and coordination between COVID food security initiatives. The result of this would be more individuals able to access food assistance resources. We plan to complete these tasks by the end of October 2020. Additionally, back in the fall, we received a small grant to work with BIPOC food-insecure families to find out what food justice would look like to them and identify priorities for policy advocacy work. The plan was to use Photovoice, which is a community based participatory qualitative approach in which participants take photographs to visually represent, communicate, and critically examine a given topic. Participants bring these photos with them to small group discussions where they lead the discussion, develop the findings together and share the photos and results with community stakeholders (typically a public community forum) to identify further action. Due to COVID, this project was put on hold. However, our secondary goal with these interviews is to identify how we can adapt this original project for an online/digital format due to COVID and the need for social distancing. Our ability to successfully adapt this Photovoice project based on families’ needs and preferences is an additional secondary goal of this project. Depending on COVID-19, we would also like to host a community forum with the families and their photos that would likely be held at Othello Commons and be promoted to the entire UW community.

Budget

1. $1,100; Funding for graduate or undergraduate student assistant; 55 hours* $20/hour rate
2. $1,900; Funding for postdoc (me); 70 hours*$27/hour rate

Matching funds

We have a $5,000 grant from the UW Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity for the original Photovoice project. Since the project has shifted due to COVID, we plan to use most of that funding for incentives to distribute to OBCC staff and families following the interviews and for the Photovoice sessions down the line. This funding can also be used to support a student (which we plan to tap into if the funding from this is not enough). It cannot be used to support my time.

Additional details

This project is not part of my current postdoctoral work and I do not receive any funding/salary support for this work at the moment, I volunteer my time. I did my PhD in Health Services at UW (graduated in December 2019), and have volunteered with Odessa Brown on food security projects with BIPOC families since 2016. I am working towards getting funding to support my work/time, but do not have any yet. National Institutes of Health postdoc salaries are not cost-of-living adjusted, so I have to take on side jobs support myself. Essentially getting even some funding for this project allows me to commit time outside of my postdoc appointment to this project instead of other jobs. Additionally, my career goal is to be a professor at a university, and as a multiracial POC who is part of a Black family, I am also deeply committed to mentoring BIPOC students as part of my job. Finally, I just wanted to say thank you for being open to supporting my own and a student’s time for this project! I do a lot of community-based work/research, and even though folxs’ time, including my own, is always the largest expense I have on these projects, it is also the hardest get support for.

Summary

This project is co-led by a group of graduate Students of Color at UW and Dr. Shanee Washington, a faculty member in the College of Education, who volunteer at various community learning spaces outside of schools. One of these spaces is Nurturing Roots, a 1/4-acre urban farm that dedicates itself to cultivating healthy food options by growing organic produce and engaging with community members through farm tours. They also invite the community to help tend the farm through community work days where they learn while they get their hands dirty: weeding, planting, harvesting and caring for the soil. Since our time volunteering at Nurturing Roots, we notice many people routinely visit, contribute to the garden and feel welcomed by staff members at the garden and other community members. These types of spaces where Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color (BIPOC) feel safe and supported exist in pockets around Seattle, but it can be difficult to find. Because of this, this project aims to better understand the ways community learning places in Seattle foster belonging and learning among BIPOC communities and what motivates them to keep coming back. By creating and implementing a survey to BIPOC at Nurturing Roots, this project will build out a community map of places that foster belonging, learning and healthy connections to share with the community, conduct in-depth interviews to better understand and highlight strengths/assets of community spaces, and conduct follow-up surveys for evaluation. Responses from the in-depth interviews will be used to compose counterstories, which is a methodology that, “serves to expose, analyze, and challenge shock stories of racial privilege and can help to strengthen traditions of social, political, and cultural survival and resistance,” (Martinez, 2020). The proposed illustrated map will bring awareness, recognition and support to various places and businesses across the community while telling their story. Using this community map, we also plan to create a community map mural and virtual community map. Because we have seen many youth attend Nurturing Roots and other justice-centered community learning spaces, the community map mural and virtual community map will be developed as a way to advocate for a credit retrieval program for youth in schools. By building relationships with local schools the students attend, we hope to build an accord that allows the students volunteering to obtain a credit to count towards school, especially during school closures in light of COVID-19 in order to promote sustainable learning over time. Being able to receive course credit would encourage BIPOC youth to continue volunteering and engaging in justice-centered learning and advocacy spaces that heighten and foster their critical consciousness. With this community building initiative and credit retrieval program approach, we are promoting a view of possible selves (Yowell, 2002) that allows for career development in the environmental field, promotes academic achievement and motivation, and allows students to work towards graduation while building a relationship with UW and the broader Seattle community.

Background

Bell hooks (1990) suggest that African Americans have historically believed that constructing a homeplace had a radical political dimension (Davis, 2005), and this homeplace allows for Black bodies to be fulfilled and whole. homeplaces specifically are where “Black folx truly matter to each other, where souls are nurtured and healed by loving Blackness” (Love, 2019). Places of learning have the potential for elements of a homeplace, by dismantling antiblackness and oppressive norms, or working the other way and perpetuating these negative stereotypes. This provides insight into some of the sociocultural factors that may play a role in the construction of a homeplace, as well as a framing to potentially categorize the settings within learning spaces as homeplaces or spaces of healing/belonging such as Nurturing Roots Farm. For spaces of learning, belonging is key. This desire is so universal that the need to belong is found across all cultures and different types of people (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Since we know belonging promotes wellbeing (Bowles, 2007; Allen et al., 2018) we can hypothesize that belonging promotes learning and identity with the added component of an intersectional lens in a space. By supporting multiple identities at their intersections (race, gender, class, religion etc.) we can ensure the space is equitable and fosters belonging. As people experience a homeplace, they are able to foster belonging in their space of activity through learning and resisting systems of oppression.

Impact measured

Since our outcome for this project is to create a resource for the greater Seattle community, we will evaluate this project by: 1) creating and implementing a survey that will target our aims of understanding how community places foster belonging and learning; 2) completing the community map by September 15th using data collected from the surveys; 3) distributing the community map to at least 10 community spaces in Seattle, including the UW, by October 1st in order to bridge and/or strengthen relationships between organizations and the UW; 4) conducting a 3-month follow-up survey at Nurturing Roots to evaluate how people utilize the community map; 5) collaborating with local schools to create and implement a credit retrieval program which would hopefully result in an increase in local high schools allowing students to count volunteering at community places such as Nurturing Roots, towards course credits and service-learning requirements. Most importantly, because of our prior relationships with Nurturing Roots, we would be able to evaluate our project through informal conversations with community partners and members. Because this is a long lasting relationship with Nurturing Roots and other local community spaces, we value the continued feedback and work that will stem from this project. This project is just one step towards continuing to build and bridge authentic relationships between the UW and BIPOC-led community spaces and organizations.

Budget

1. $1000.00; Materials used for maintaining and contributing to Nurturing Roots garden Gloves Compost for expanding garden to street level Shovels, materials used to deconstruct invasives Chicken feed Artist compensation for illustrated community map
2. $1000.00; Compensation for Nurturing Roots community members and youth who participate in this project @ $50 a response
3. $800.00; Honorarium for community partner, Nyema Clark
4. $200.00; Materials needed for community map, mural and virtual map Paper printing and laminating from Saigon Printing (poc owned and operated) Compensation for augmented reality map creation Illustrative art supplies

The proposed project utilizes the biannual UW Food Systems Seminar (NUTR 400/500) to support student learning and dialogue about food systems amidst the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism, which together amplify the need for health and food equity. This seminar will showcase researchers and organizers working at the confluence of these pandemics for positive and impactful change. Sessions will highlight challenges as well as potential for resilience and equity to root across the food system. Funding from the CSF Intersectional Sustainability Grant would support honoraria for community leaders with expertise often housed outside of academia. Such expertise is important, now more than ever, to better understand the lived experiences across communities and to amplify community-identified solutions. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities are disproportionately impacted by both COVID-19 and exploitation throughout the food system. This funding will help center voices from beyond the university and lift up solutions to food system-related environmental and societal problems. Additional funding is requested to support collaboration with the Food Systems Coalition (FSC), a graduate student RSO dedicated to food systems equity and leveraging academic privilege for community benefit. FSC is supporting seminar planning and facilitation of the culminating session; they played a similar role for the Autumn 2019 seminar on Food Justice. The Food Systems Seminar is a popular course on campus; over 200 undergraduate and graduate students from programs across the university have already registered for the Autumn 2020 offering. The seminar was initiated by the Nutritional Sciences Program (NSP) in 2014; last year we launched a UW NSP/Food Systems YouTube Channel to extend the learning beyond the classroom and extend access to the seminar. The seminar is increasingly a tool to center sustainability, equity, and community expertise. The seminar is part of the new and growing UW undergraduate major in Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, housed within the Nutritional Sciences Program, School of Public Health. This major was launched in January 2019 and there are already approximately 200 students enrolled. The major’s core courses tend to focus on local to national food system issues; as such, there is a need to engage community leaders beyond academia to enhance the context and content for learning. This seminar complements academics with food system community leaders from organizations across the region and nation to speak to the particular and complex challenges of this time. These seminar invitations will extend or initiate relationships and contribute to the community-engaged scholarship crucial for the success of the Food Systems major. Goals: 1. Showcase food system academic and community leaders working for positive and impactful change amidst the ongoing pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism 2. Create a platform for key food systems stakeholder groups who are often omitted from food systems education 3. Foster valuable relationships with guest speakers for future collaboration and community-engaged scholarship 4. Provide a wide breadth of engaging and critical perspectives to support greater understanding of impacts and manifestations of both systemic racism and COVID-19 across the food system.

The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism are illuminating health equity, food equity, and structural vulnerabilities across the food system. The Navajo Nation, Black Americans, and other Indigenous and communities of color, including Yakama Nation and Latinx communities, are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. This disparity is the result of the complex interplay between racial, health, environmental, and economic injustices. Social distancing is the most effective strategy to reduce COVID-19 transmission, and yet this is not always possible for those deemed to be essential workers – especially within the food system, which often has majority BIPOC workers. Look no further than the nation’s meat processors like Smithfield Foods and Cargill Foods, or closer to home here in Yakima, Washington, where farmworkers are experiencing massive spikes in infections. This knowledge has ignited a fire in the bellies of many in our UW community. That’s a good thing. A key requirement for change in any system is a public that is sufficiently outraged by “business as usual”. We should not want to go back to “normal” – to a food system that harms its producers, workers, consumers, and the environment; or a health care system plagued by racial and economic disparities. Therefore, as a culminating project, seminar participants will be invited to create a food system vision (Anderson, 2019). This powerful exercise is known to be a key component of food systems change that can help to inspire and empower participants to push forward not as individuals, but as a collective. Reference: Anderson M. The importance of vision in food system transformation. J Agric Food Syst Community Dev. 2019;9(Suppl. 1):55-60.

As we continually bear witness to the racial, economic, health, and environmental inequities present within our food system, which have been further exacerbated by COVID-19, it’s more critical than ever to ensure that our community relationships are strong and reciprocal. By cultivating motivation and celebrating resilience, this seminar series aims to uplift the voices of organizers in our local community and to enable those within the UW community to envision radical change. To honor each speaker’s time and energy, and to increase student engagement, students will be asked to submit follow-up reflections. This weekly assignment will provide students opportunities to summarize key concepts and discuss any perceptions that may have developed or changed as a result of the seminar. These reflections will also enable the instructor to evaluate student learning. Students will also be invited to reflect on the entire series upon its completion. The seminar series will culminate with a final vision project intended to encourage students to synthesize what they learned during the series, reflect on the issues they found most salient, and develop a vision for how to address any gaps presented by those issues. This exercise will also provide students the opportunity to identify resources available to them through the UW community, and identify how they can best use these resources to get involved with community efforts outside the classroom. Additionally, this final project will serve to evaluate what students found most impactful and inform potential themes for future series. End-of-term student evaluations will also be used to determine ways to improve the series, and there is room to create an evaluative process for guest lecturers as well. Maintaining strong community relationships continues to be critically important during this time of collective uprising against racial violence and the extractive relationships that pervade our society and food system. In the spirit of this, guest lecturers will be invited to provide brief feedback on their experience with the seminar and whether they would consider collaborating in the future. This feedback will inform subsequent seminar series. In the spirit of fostering and maintaining reciprocal relationships with guest lecturers and the communities they represent, the speakers will be invited to voice any needs that may be fulfilled by undergraduate volunteers or the Food Systems Coalition, a graduate RSO. This could offer non-monetary benefits to guest lecturers and connect students to efforts that benefit the local community, to potentially contribute to change within our food system. Furthermore, the seminars will be widely advertised, recorded, and shared broadly via our Youtube channel to amplify these important voices and break down institutional barriers to education.

$250; honorarium; compensation for guest speaker: 10/27: Elizabeth Torres, Research Coordinator, El Proyecto Bienestar - Co-developing Culturally Relevant Messages for Farmworker Safety and Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic $250; honorarium; compensation for guest speaker: 11/2: Speaker TBD - Why voting matters to food systems $500; honoraria; compensation for two guest speakers: 11/10: Ray Williams, Director, and Hannah Wilson, Program Manager; Yes Farm with the Black Farmers Collective – Growing a more sustainable, equitable future for communities of color: The Black Farmers’ Collective and Yes Farm. $500; honoraria; compensation for two guest speakers: 11/17: 2 Makah tribal members - Food security of the Makah Tribe; harvesting seafood before and during COVID-19 $500; honoraria; compensation for the graduate student RSO Food Systems Coalition’s involvement in class-planning and facilitation: 12/8: Food Systems Coalition – What Next? A student perspective on engaging the future of our food system

Dr. Sipos has applied for a UW Global Innovation Fund Teaching and Curriculum Award to develop an international component to the seminar. If successful, funding from this award will support inclusion of the Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching & Learning (IFSTAL) program through the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, UK.

Since 2018, the Food Systems Seminar (NUTR 400/500) explicitly incorporates texts and guest speakers focused on racial equity and Indigenous studies. For example, we incorporated the Health Sciences Common Book last year (Let’s Talk About Race by I. Oluo) and will do so again this year (How to be an Anti-Racist by I. Kendi). We prioritize featuring diverse guest speakers; in the past two years, some of our featured guest speakers are listed below, along with affiliations and titles of their talks. The complete speaker lists can be found https://nutr.uw.edu/news-events/seminar/ Honoraria for previous speakers have come from Nutritional Sciences alumni who are eager to promote and support the successful launch of the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health major. We have also previously partnered with CHanGE (Center for Health and the Global Environment) for supporting diverse speakers. Currently though, as budgets constrict, we are required to look for new potential sources of funding to support these important voices from beyond academia. NUTR 400/500 highlighted speakers from AUT 2018 - WIN 2020 (in order of presentation): Valerie Segrest, MA; Author, Scholar, Nutrition Educator (now, Regional Director, Native Food and Knowledge Systems, Native American Agriculture Fund), “Indigenous Food Systems as the Original Sustainable Food System” Rosalinda Guillen, Executive Director, Community to Community Development (C2C), “Farmworker Rights and Women in the Labor Movement” Hajime Sato, Owner and Chef, Mashiko Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar, “Sustainable Seafood and Beyond” Vero Vergara, Sweet Hollow Farm, ROAR Mobile Farmstands, and WA Young Farmers Coalition; Lorna Valesca, Owner of Sariwa Farm & Velasco Arts, and Incubator Farmer with Viva Farms, “Farming in the Context of Food Justice” Carlos Marentes, Co-Coordinator, El Comité, “Decolonizing the Food System: Immigration and Loss of Food Sovereignty” Chef Edouardo Jordan, Owner & Chef of Salare, JuneBaby & Lucinda Grain Bar; James Beard Award winner 2018, Best Chef NW & Best New Restaurant, “Cooking Up Food Justice & Cultural Identities in Restaurants” Veena Prasad, Previous Director, Project Feast, Ubuntu Street Café, “Culinary Apprenticeships for Immigrants & Refugees” Maria Blancas, Outreach and Education Specialist, PNASH Center and PhD Candidate, Environmental and Forest Sciences, UW, “Labor and Climate: Climate-Related Occupational Impacts on Agricultural Workers” Libby Halpin Nelson, Senior Environmental Policy Analyst, Tulalip Tribes Treaty Rights Office and Ryan Miller, Manager, Tulalip Tribes Treaty Rights Office, with Holly Zox, Botanist (Contractor, Tulalip Tribes), and Harriet Morgan, Climate Impacts Group, UW, “Sustaining Indigenous Foods on Treaty Lands: A Co-Management Approach on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest” Finally, thank you for your consideration and for opening up this important funding opportunity!

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to nearly 14,000 confirmed cases and over 600 deaths in King County.[1] Furthermore, people of color are dying from COVID-19 at disproportionate rates in comparison to the white population.[2] Washington State Governor Inslee issued the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, this mandate does not apply to custodians who are considered essential workers. To protect the health of the University of Washington Seattle Campus community, 259 custodial workers continue to work, cleaning and disinfecting various campus areas. The majority of custodial workers are immigrants, refugees, and people of color. Many are over 60 years of age and vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The purposes of this project are to bring visibility to the people who take care of the UW Seattle Campus and facilitate dialogue among the UW community that focuses on the health impacts to UW custodial workers.

Through continued dialogue there is an overarching goal to advance health equity. Specifically, the project aims to:

1. Identify custodians’ perceptions of their workplace and home or neighborhood as sources of health opportunities or barriers.
2. Identify attainable workplace improvements that protect and support the health of custodians, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Informational flyers translated in Amharic, Tigrinya, Korean, and Tagalog will be distributed in all seven areas of UW Seattle Campus. Languages were selected based on Evalynn’s experience growing up around UW custodians, and more recently, her weekly breakfast deliveries throughout campus. 15 custodial workers will be recruited (approximately two workers per area) who identify as: immigrant, refugee, Black, Indigenous, or person of color. Each participant will be compensated with a $100 Visa gift card. Lunches will be provided during sessions.

There will be four sessions with adequate social distancing measures and health standards in place. The UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies has offered logistical support that include reserving meeting spaces on campus for the sessions.

Session 1: A 1-hour orientation to the project and how to take photos with smartphones or project-provided cameras.

Participants from one or two areas will form discussion groups (three to four people per group) for the project duration. The guided questions for the photographs are:

1. What does your work look like for you? a. How does your work impact your health?
2. What does your home or neighborhood look like for you? a. How does your home or neighborhood impact your health?
3. How can the UW community best support your work and health? Questions will be translated to their preferred language for reference and additional clarity.

Sessions 2 and 3: 1-hour discussions where participants will provide descriptions of photographs (first in their native language and then English).

The descriptions are guided by the SHOWED process (what do you See here?, what is Happening?, how does it relate to Our lives?, Why does this situation exist?, how can we Empower/Educate to address it, and what can we Do about it?).[3] Discussions may be audiotaped if participants agree. Session 4: Evalynn with one additional UW student, staff or faculty will analyze information collected from all sessions, present findings to the participants and gather feedback, and ask for ideas on the design of the public art installation. An art installation will be located at a public space on campus. Participants are encouraged, though not required, to attend the opening. Photographs with descriptions selected by each participant will be displayed. The participant may decide to include their name or a pseudonym with their pieces. Recommendations and action steps for how the UW community can support custodians will be part of the installation. A website will also be available for wider accessibility.

A growing literature points to the importance of structural racism in an unequal labor market and in persistent racial health inequities.[4,5] Not only are lower employment positions like custodial work linked to greater stress, but work-related stress combined with other life stressors that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color result in poor health.[5] Furthermore, custodial workers face a wide range of health and safety issues in the workplace that include exposure to cleaning chemicals and demands of physical labor. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach that focuses on inequities through active involvement of community members in all aspects of the process in order to either directly benefit participants or use the results to inform action for change. This project will follow the key principles of Israel et al.’s (1995) community-based approach in examining health and quality of life inequities.[6] Visual image is one way to enable people to think critically about their community. Photovoice is a method often used in CBPR to reach, inform, and organize community members, enabling them to prioritize their concerns and discuss problems and solutions.[7] It invites people to become advocates for their own and their community’s well being, acting as potential catalysts for change.

The evaluation questions for the project are:

1. How many custodians completed this project?
2. What prevalent themes did custodians identify pertaining to how their work impacts their health?
3. What prevalent themes did custodians identify pertaining to how their home or neighborhood impacts their health?
4. What prevalent themes did custodians identify pertaining to how the UW community can best support their work and health?
5. What are the changes or actions from the UW community in response to this project?

Budget

1. $1500; 15 - $100 Visa gift card incentives
2. $100; Printing costs for recruitment/informational flyers, orientation packets
3. $400; Translation services
4. $300; Costs for developing photographs
5. $700; Frames and supplies for mounting photographs

I am the daughter of UW custodians. UW Building Services leadership and many UW custodians have known me since I was a child. I have also been leading an appreciation effort for UW custodial workers since March by delivering and serving breakfast to each area of campus per week. I am well known in the UW custodial community and have built rapport with them through the many years and especially this year. https://facilities.uw.edu/blog/posts/2020/06/15/custodians-breakfast https://globalhealth.washington.edu/news/2020/07/23/update-mph-student-h... References 1. King County. COVID-19 Data Dashboards. Available at: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/daily-summary.aspx 2. King County. Race and Ethnicity Data Dashboard. Available at: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/race-ethnicity.aspx 3. Wang C. Youth Participation in Photovoice as a Strategy for Community Change. Journal of Community Practice. 2006;14(1-2):147-161. 4. Gee GC, Ford CL. Structural Racism and Health Inequities. Du Bois Review. 2011;8(1):115–132. 5. McCluney CL, Schmitz LL, Hicken MT, Sonnega A. Structural Racism in the Workplace: Does Perception Matter for Health Inequalities? Soc Sci Med. 2018;199:106-114. 6. Israel BA, Schulz AJ, Parker EA, Becker AB. Review of Community-Based Research: Assessing Partnership Approaches to Improve Public Health. Annu. Rev. Public Health. 1998;19: 173-202. 7. Wang C, Burris MA. Photovoice: Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior. 1997;24(3):369-387.

Background:

There are a few medical centers affiliated with the University of Washington recently closed down their own printing services earlier this year. In other words, these medical centers especially Seattle Children’s Hospital would need UW Mailing Services’ service. With the increasing demand of mail delivery, UW Mailing Services is planning to increase the capacity of mail preparation as well as the bike delivery service in response to serving new business customers.

UW Mailing Services is looking to obtain 2 Cargo boxes.

The Rhino-Berlin cargo boxes can help the Mailing Services electric bicycles to increase the delivery capacity and enhance the performance in general to benefit all UW departments. As UW Mailing Services start having new business with multiple medical centers in Seattle Area, we are looking into obtaining more vehicles and equipment to meet the increasing demand. Mailing Services would potentially be hiring two student employees to get involved in this program.

As for now, we are hoping to get the fund to buy two new cargo boxes for the electric bikes to meet the demand of two runs a day to Seattle Children’s Hospital. Without the electric new cargo boxes, Mailing Services would have to use trucks to deliver mails multiple times a day, because the current cargo boxes are not user friendly enough for the entire Children’s Hospital and would be a pain for bikers to ride over there.

Benefits of having these two new cargo boxes:

1. Increasing the electric bikes capacity by 50% so the bikers can carry mail 1.5 times as much as before.
2. Decreasing the demand of using trucks to avoid 0.02 metric tons/gallon GHG emittance.
3. Exposing Mailing Services’ dedication to sustainability and showing staff of Seattle Children’s hospital and even people in the U-district the electric bike program to promote sustainability.
4. Having potential student riders to experience the electric bikes with trailers and promoting such great sustainability idea all over the campus.
5. Increasing sustainability awareness of staffs at the medical centers that partner with us and helping them out if they want to implement similar program.
6. It's easier to maintain the new sliding style cargo cap over old hydraulic style.
7. The cargo boxes can satisfy the increasing demand of delivering packages due to the campus shut down.

Overall, having these two new cargo boxes would definitely increase the mail delivery capacity of UW mailing services and avoid using trucks to deliver mails to Seattle Children’s Hospital multiple times a day which would be really environmentally friendly. Plus, it is a great way to promote sustainability off campus and would be a great opportunity for us to mentor our partners if they want to implement a similar program.

Background

Life as a high school student is not easy. Between all assignments, extra-curriculars, maintaining a social life and other commitments, students often experience deteriorating mental health as a result of the immense amount of stress trying to juggle everything.

The fact that mental health is stigmatized and considered somewhat taboo makes it very hard for those who need help to ask for it. The average American takes almost 10 years to seek treatment for mental illness. Public stigma results in discrimination, reduced autonomy and self-efficacy and segregation. The secrecy and stigma associated with mental illnesses often thrust sufferers into a feeling of isolation. If left untreated, mental health issues in children can have important ramifications, bleeding into adulthood and adversely affecting their lives. Thus, there is an urgent need to start and normalize conversations about mental health issues.

Inspired to make a change, we started an initiative called Mental Health for Every Adolescent (MHEA). MHEA is a student run and student led initiative that aims to destigmatize mental health issues. We recruit high school students in India and the middle east to conduct workshops in their schools. Our team, comprising of 11 UW undergraduates here in Seattle, conducts workshops in high schools in the city’s public school system. These workshops were created by students on our team with who are also Peer Health Educators, with the help of Megan Kennedy, the Interim Director of the Resilience Lab on campus.

Additionally, during the current COVID-19 pandemic, we created a guide to help high school students manage stress due to quarantine fatigue and isolation and equipped them with strategies to better manage their mental health during this time. Our guide is currently being used public school districts in Plano, TX, Belmont and Palo Alto, CA, Seattle, Bothell and Northshore, WA, Philadelphia, PA and Southborough, MA and have been received with a lot of enthusiasm and support.

Proposal

Over the past year, MHEA has been able to reach out to several schools in the Seattle community and has been able to host mental health workshops in these schools to a lot of positive feedback and requests for more workshops at these schools. With our success so far, we wish to expand further and deliver these workshops to even more schools in the state of Washington. Given the feedback we have gotten on our COVID-19 guide, we are inspired to take our work out of state, so we can help as many students seek help with their mental health issues as possible.

A major barrier we currently face in expansion around the Seattle community is that public transport options to several schools are unfeasible for us as volunteers. The low cost public transportation at our disposal to schools past Downtown Seattle is very time consuming. Being full-time students at the university and juggling other commitments outside of classes, our team members are hard pressed for time and often cannot spend the 1-2 hours required to commute to a school in south Seattle, for example. Our classes often overlap with requested workshop times in several schools. We require a faster method of travel to reach out to more schools in the area and beyond. Therefore, we propose to use the SEED grant to help us cover travel expenses so we can reimburse our student volunteers for local travel. Additionally, this grant will facilitate travel for us to cities out of state and conduct workshops in schools that requested workshops after using our COVID-19 guide.

MHEA's mission is to empower students to seek the help they need with any mental health issues they may have. In our endeavor to fulfill our mission, we email school authorities to initiate a channel of communication through which we can talk about conducting workshops for their students. However, this is often a time-consuming process since we often have to start fresh with every school. We believe that with some help with PR, we will be better positioned to let schools know about the work we do. Additionally, this will help us reach more schools in the community.

Lastly, we propose to use a part of this grant for printing materials and graphic design. A big selling point of our workshops is their interactive nature, which stimulates thought provoking discussion among our students and gets them to engage with our material. This often involves activities, materials and resource sheets we pass around the class. Given the number of students we have in all our workshops, printing costs for these materials quickly add up. We also put a lot of effort into our presentation to make our materials visually appealing to our students, since we believe a good first impression can hook the students’ attention from the get-go. To this end, we would like to work with a graphic designer and anticipate associated costs. We propose to use a part of the funds we receive to offset these expenses.

Evaluation

We will be evaluating our progress by keeping track of our reach to multiple schools and interest they show in having us come back. Additionally, we will be looking at the number of new volunteers that join us. We will also be assessing the quality of our workshops and their impact by sending pre- and postworkshop surveys to our audience to understand how much students are benefiting from these workshops and what else we can do to cater to their needs. For example, it was through this form of feedback that we learned that students wanted topics such as peer pressure and eating disorders added to our initial workshops. We intend to continue to keep this mode of evaluation open. We have been taking feedback in class from both counsellors and students in high schools we have previously conducted workshops in. This feedback is usually verbal right after we finish a workshop, we plan to continue this method of feedback as well. After combining feedback from counsellors and students we will be able to access the impact of our work and guide the content of our future workshops from there.

Impact

Through this project, we hope to increase awareness on mental health and promote conversations on the topic. Our ultimate goal is to destigmatize mental health issues and create a safe and inclusive community in schools where students can openly discuss mental health. This grant will greatly help us in expanding our initiative to the greater Seattle community and will result in us being able to build stronger connections with schools and create a stronger network of volunteers.

By educating students on topics such as stress, anxiety, depression, peer pressure, eating disorders, body dysmorphia and other such topics, we are encouraging students to take better care of themselves so they can turn their attention to academics and maximize their potential in school. Our long term goal is to also partner with government bodies to implement a uniform curriculum for mental health in schools which we know is lacking, at least in the Seattle Public School district.

By accomplishing our mission, we will successfully promote the United Nation’s goals to work towards sustainable health and well-being, quality education and effective partnerships with people who can implement effective change. I believe that great leaders encourage others to find the leader within themselves and I do this by providing my team the resources, means and freedom to use this platform and find their voice. Not only will this project help us further work towards our passion, but this will also be a great opportunity for each and every one of us on the team to become better leaders and advocate for ourselves and for others.

Being able to feed oneself is an essential life skill and research shows that while cooking at home is finally trending upward, we still have a long way to go. Despite the fact that Instagram was recently inundated with numerous home baking efforts during our collective stay-at-home orders, the anecdotal evidence doesn't reveal all of the failures that were amassed along the way. In reality we have become a nation that doesn't cook.  Instead we rely heavily on food delivery, processed foods, and eating out. Why is this? I believe it is often from fear. Fear is what sequesters people from their kitchens. There are fears of failure, fears of new ingredients,  fears of waste, fears of embarrassment, and a fear of getting hurt. As adults we gravitate to spaces and activities that make us feel safe and competent. The kitchen has lost the status of being such a place.

A primary goal in teaching of food science and culinary arts together is to increase student's self­efficacy in the kitchen. Kitchen know-how is exponential. Each new skill that is acquired, flavor that you are introduced to, or advances in your understanding of how an ingredient behaves adds layers to your total kitchen literacy. Once culinary exploration starts, and success is tasted, it most often leads to a lifelong dedication to learning how to feed oneself and others more deliciously.

Our goals in this project are to offer a platform for community building and connectedness, available to all who have access to an internet connection, and to promote acquisition of life-skills that will contribute to sustainable health throughout the lifespan. We will accomplish those goals by establishing a culinary nutrition science seminar series based on student peer teaching. In cooperation with Chef Matthew Lasof, of UW Dining, we envision a culinary education program that can be accessed by many hundreds of students each year. We want to put together a curriculum that will train student culinary instructors to teach basic kitchen skills and food safety with a smattering of food science and nutrition knowledge to other students at a low cost, utilizing the technology they know best, Y ouTube. In addition to the basics, some other topics might include: shopping at farmer's markets, dorm cooking, cooking on a budget, leftover bonanza, using herbs and spices, processing a whole chicken for maximum flavor and multiple meals, bread making 101.

Learning to cook in a delicious and healthful manner speaks to at least two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 2: Zero Hunger, encourages us to keep domestic supply chains moving by wasting less food and supporting local farmers. As part of our educational videos we will highlight where the ingredients come from and links to local farmers who produce the ingredients. Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth includes a target of creating job opportunities for youth using creativity and innovation. Work in this project will guide students in producing creative and innovative videos while both acquiring and demonstrating skills that can be used in the workforce. Additionally, this project would bring students together to create community, be trained as peer educators, and build resilience by giving students an essential life skill. Having spent the bulk of our lives and careers in and around food and kitchens, Chef Matthew and I know that food is one of the strongest connectors for people from every corner of the planet. Once we enter the kitchen, we are all eaters. Help us help the UW community by Whipping Up Some Resilience in the Kitchen.

Low-income communities of color continue to face inequities when attempting to access high-impact educational practices. The University of Washington is no exception. It offers students a broad palette of activities from which to participate. This includes study abroad, undergraduate research, community-driven leadership projects and internships. Unfortunately, participating in these activities often requires money.

The primary way students access funding outside of financial aid is by applying for competitive scholarships. However, the scholarships process to which we are accustomed is inherently inequitable. Being selected for a scholarship often hinges on gaining access to high impact educational experiences and then effectively writing about those experiences in a compelling personal statement. One of the biggest barriers keeping low-income students from maximizing these opportunities is a lack of confidence in their own ability to compete for scholarships that can facilitate gaining these experiences. However, these experiences make students more competitive for future scholarships. The consequence of this diffidence is that students either do not apply for scholarships at all or do so with the belief that their efforts will result in failure or rejection. This defeatist attitude must be repudiated.

The Educational Opportunity Program, UW Study Abroad and the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards want to partner to create and co-teach a formal scholarships curriculum grounded in and driven by the discovery of and cultivation in one's own resilience. This would supplement the existing class curriculum of the General Studies 391 course offered in spring 2021 by EOP instructor Kristi Soriano-Noceda and provide students a practical means of synthesizing the course objectives of appreciating ones self, thriving at UW beyond the first year and increasing knowledge of UW resources.

The curriculum for this course will be organized in three phases. The first phase will focus on practicing a growth mindset and fostering resilience. All 150 students in the EOP Scholars Academy will read Educated by Tara Westover as a supplement to other texts in the course. This book was selected because it engages students with the themes of growth and resilience using a storytelling rather than a self-help approach so that students can recognize their own agency within themselves and acquaint themselves more critically with the narrative writing style scholarship applications require. In addition, the book introduces students to a first-generation college narrative to which they will likely be less familiar. The second phase will introduce students to the arena of competitive scholarships, illustrate their connection to impactful experiences, and teach students proven strategies to connect their interests/goals to the goals of scholarship programs in compelling ways. The third phase of the course will be the application of content learned in which students will identify a scholarship for which they want to apply and practice learned techniques.

By the end of the course, students will have a completed rough draft of a personal statement for a scholarship of their choosing. The course will culminate by hosting a fail forward event in which individuals will be chosen from throughout the UW community to share their own experiences of failure, how they persevered, and where those failures ultimately led them. EOP Scholars Resilience Project curriculum aims to:

1. Eliminate feelings of diminished self worth so that a student’s quest for scholarships isn’t extinguished before it has a chance to begin;
2. Provide students a solid understanding of the scholarships landscape;
3. Teach students to develop and articulate goals, thus increasing their competitiveness;
4. Create a pipeline of students who have the confidence to study abroad and who are better prepared to utilize the full breadth of services offered by the Office of Merit Scholarships Fellowships and Awards as well as other experiential learning opportunities.

In addition to skill acquisition, this course fits within the University of Washington’s Diversity Blueprint to "attract, retain, and graduate a diverse and excellent student body" by teaching students critically needed writing skills that will be applicable to future coursework. It will also demonstrate to students through their own narratives that they are what makes the UW student body excellent. This course will contribute to producing graduates better prepared for their future next steps and who are more compassionate toward themselves.

Furthermore, this curriculum is also in alignment with the SDG of reducing inequalities. Specifically, our course will contribute to reducing the economic inequality caused by academic debt by increasing the likelihood that these students will receive scholarships during their tenure at UW. We have chosen to focus on the EOP Scholars Academy because these freshmen have conditional admittance to the UW and thus are more likely to have less confidence in their own abilities and may struggle to visualize themselves participating in the activities mentioned above. In addition, EOP students tend to have significant financial need. According to the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, 61% of EOP/OMA&D students at UW Seattle were Pell-grant eligible for at least one quarter through spring 2020.

This course will utilize multiple assessment strategies to measure the effectiveness of this curriculum. The assessment period will be from June 2021-to June 2022. Surveys will be used at the beginning and end of the course to measure student self esteem, confidence in their writing skills and overall knowledge about scholarships. We will also track how many of these students connect with the Office of Merit Scholarships through advising, workshop attendance, and/or submitting a scholarship application over that period. In addition, we will track how many students participate in any of the activities offered by the Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity and UW Study Abroad. We are seeking the support of the Resilience and Compassion Initiatives Seed Grant to purchase the common book for this added curriculum. Our hope is that we can use this course to pilot this curriculum, and if successful, offer this training to all EOP students as a formal stand-alone course.

SECTION A.

Transfer students, now more than ever, need our support as we prepare and look towards the start of a new academic year grappling with the impacts of COVID-19. Our project proposes to identify and support community college transfer students through their transition process to UW this fall 2020 and through the first year. CCRI’s existing research has lessons to share about what transfer capital looks like, in particular for students of color, first generation and low-income students. Transfer capital builds on notions of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986)1 in that students need the knowledge and skills to perform as well as the networks, relationships and resources to thrive. Higher education has tended to place the burden on transfer students to navigate the system. They were expected to possess sufficiently deep knowledge of higher education to transfer credits and manage day-to-day processes, often without considering their diverse backgrounds and experiences. The literature on community college and transfer shows that students transferring from community college to a four-year institution are more likely to be successful and persist into their second year if they have a high competency for resiliency, meaning their ability to develop knowledge and skills to help adapt to change and adversity. Higher education institutions can help build resilience in students by improving the transfer capital elements needed for successful transition to and completion of a four-year program. These elements include counseling, financial awareness, mentoring, study habits, coping skills, and other skills to enhance their well-being.2 To anchor these concepts in the project, a framework will be used to understand how the institution is providing resilience or transfer capital support to transfer students during this health crisis. We will use the Northeast Resiliency Consortium’s Resilience Competency Model that highlights five competencies for high resilience: critical thinking, adaptability, self-awareness, reflective learning, and collaboration.3 The COVID-19 pandemic adds, as yet, unknown layers of adversity that will test the resilience of incoming transfer students to UW. This is particularly true for students from vulnerable populations such as people of color and low-income families. Intrusive research to discover what transfer capital these groups need to successfully transfer and persist is crucial for more equitable outcomes. The overall goal of this project is to document transfer students’ resilience competencies, and ascertain how higher education programs can help raise their transfer capital with compassion for their health and well-being. Uncovering this information to better support transfer students who may be at risk of dropping out is important. Sharing this information to enable faculty and advisors to communicate with compassion while giving avenues to help them create community in this crisis is extremely important.

SECTION B.

CCRI intends to support incoming community college transfer students as they transition to the UW community during COVID-19 for the AY 2020-2021 through qualitative research methods including focus groups and individual interviews. The qualitative data gathered will assist in identifying the students’ most pressing needs and how they can be supported in the transfer process. Examining their resilience competencies relative to their navigating the transfer process is critical in supporting transfer student success during the COVID-19 health crisis. Potential participants will be identified in collaboration with UAA transfer advisors from incoming transfer students in fall 2020 who have not declared a major. We will assemble a focus group of 10-20 students and also conduct an interview each quarter individually with six students. The ongoing 1 Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241– 258). New York, NY: Greenwood. 2 Moser, Kristin, "Redefining transfer student success: Transfer capital and the Laanan-transfer students' questionnaire (L-TSQ) revisited" (2012). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 12414. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/12414 3 View the Resilience Competency Model at https://www.achievingthedream.org/resources/initiatives/northeast-resili... CCRI Project Proposal: Applied Learning that Supports Growth of Transfer Students’ Resilience and Transfer Capital During COVID-19 2 individual interviews make it possible for building towards deeper conversations as the academic year progresses and allow us to learn about their resilience competencies, skills, and knowledge are being applied to support their first-year experience in a COVID-19 environment. CCRI will conduct this inquiry to disseminate what we will learn to UW and its network of community and technical colleges in the state. Doing so will assist UW and these networks in their own processes for assisting students requiring aid in the transfer process.

The following goals further clarify what this project will achieve for our students, strengthening inter-department collaboration, and the University:

• Goal 1: To foster among the students in the focus group a sense of resilience, including belonging and connectedness to each other through the opportunity to share with one another.
• Goal 2: To identify and describe transfer student resiliency and discover what supports may bolster their success in their first year during a pandemic.
• Goal 3: To advance the research and grant writing skills for a graduate student who is participating in the genesis of this project by co-writing this proposal and will be an integral member of this project gathering and analyzing qualitative data.
• Goal 4: To support UW-UAA transfer advising with what we are learning in our transfer research. We will enhance the compassionate environment for transfer students by building a reciprocal relationship between our research team and the UAA transfer advising team. We will share what we’re learning periodically throughout the project and request feedback from transfer advisors.

SECTION C.

We will evaluate if we met the intended goals by monitoring the student outcomes. Successful outcomes will be co-creating with transfer advisors’ ideas on how to support transfer students during the pandemic, using their stories of resiliency. We will also strengthen our relationship with UAA transfer advisors and provide a venue for students to share and hear about others' journeys. Also, our graduate research assistant will utilize his new skills in future coursework. SECTION D. #3. Staying Healthy in School Builds Future Health Capacity: Building resiliency is crucial for mental health and well-being and transfer student persistence. Education and income levels are correlated with health in this country. #10. Equitably Aiding Students: Meeting students where they are to increase their transfer capital and resiliency competency helps reduce inequality. In this pandemic, minoritized student groups face increased challenges, such as equity issues that arise with remote learning, which has potential to further elevate the emotional, financial and physical stress. By intrusively researching what transfer capital students need the most, colleges create more equitable outcomes for all student populations by providing better advice on how to manage their first years in college, cope with the stressors, practice self-care, and strengthen resilience while also improving their mental and emotional health. This connects to the health, education, and inequality SDGs. #17. Building Resilience in Partnership: This applied learning project will foster CCRI’s connectedness to communities by leveraging partnerships with student success networks and community colleges to harness and disseminate student knowledge of their resiliency needs. The above describes key areas where our project connects to the SDG’s. The way we connect to the remaining goals is that by helping transfer students to strengthen and maintain their resilience to complete postsecondary degrees opportunities are created for them in the workforce to be change agents who actively participate in our communities to cultivate a more sustainable future.

Project Background:

The ASUW Bike Shop is a student run, full repair bicycle resource for UW students, staff and faculty. Through its affordable services the shop incentivizes the UW community to choose biking as a sustainable alternative to other modes of transportation. Relative to cars, trains, planes or even buses, bikes are the cleanest mode of transportation. While the Bike Shop is committed to climate resilience efforts by promoting sustainable transportation, the manufacturing of bikes, shipment of inventory, and short life span of tubes generates GHG emissions. The Bike Shop continuously seeks ways to support the campus cycling community’s commitment to climate response. 

Problem Identified/Sustainable Impact:

Every year the Bike Shop generates between 150 to 250 pounds of tube waste. This is equal to roughly 50 to 60 pounds of waste per quarter. Recycling centers in proximity accept used bike tires, not used tubes. Prior to this year the Bike Shop would throw 150 to 250 pounds of bike tubes in the landfill every year. Most bike tubes are made from butyl rubber, a synthetic rubber that is petroleum based. Bike tubes contribute to the embodied carbon of a bike which refers to the carbon dioxide emitted during the manufacturing, transportation and building process. Upcycling or recycling rubber can help save energy and is a small action to reduce the carbon footprint of bikes. Specifically, by upcycling tubes, the Bike Shop will divert waste created through its operations. 

Solution Requested:

Alchemy Goods is an apparel company that makes backpacks, messenger bags, purses, belts, wallets and travel kits from upcycled bike tubes. It sources raw materials from bike retailers across the US. All of its consumer goods are made right here in West Seattle. The mission of Alchemy Goods is to provide goods for eco-friendly people. 

This Fall Quarter (2019) the Bike Shop began dropping off used tubes at Pham Sewing, the sole sewing facility for Alchemy products. Doing so gives these bike tubes a second life. Upcycling tubes takes place once a quarter and requires a U-Car rental. U-CAR rentals charge per hour, per mile. The drop off center is 15 miles away and the process takes approximately two hours. The cost per drop off is about $20 per quarter, excluding the cost of the Bike Shop Managers time. The Bike Shop is looking to partner with the UW Electrical Bicycle Mail Delivery Service to pick up and drop off used tubes at UPS twice a quarter. A request for $800 would fund this tube upcycling project for 5-7 years depending on the amount of tube waste generated each quarter. If this project is approved, the Bike Shop is committed to the Campus Sustainability Funds project criteria which are: sustainable impact, leadership, student involvement, education, outreach, behavior change, feasibility and accountability. 

Leadership/Student Involvement/Education/Outreach:

The tube upcycling project will be directly managed by the Business Manager of the ASUW Bike Shop. The Manager will be responsible for packaging the tubes and coordinating routine pickup times with UW’s E-Bike delivery service. In addition, they will regularly promote this upcycling program through campus events put on by the Bike Shop and its partners. Throughout the year the Bike Shop supports campus events with the mobile maintenance trailer and will advertise and accept donations on site. The Business Manager will keep an inventory of how many bins of tube waste are diverted, reporting these numbers to the community. The Bike Shop is changing its behavior of throwing away tubes by taking this action. They will advertise the acceptance of tube donations via the shop’s website and social media accounts. 

Feasibility and Accountability:

This project will require coordination with successive Bike Shop Managers and UW Mailing Services. The current Managers will explain and pass down this project to the next Shop Managers in transition documents and meetings. 

Funding/Execution Timeline: 

• April: Coordinate with E-Bike Mailing Delivery Services
• June: Advertise Used Bike Tube Upcycling Program to the Public, advertise/accept used tubes in the Shop *if shop is open due to COVID-19
• Summer Operations (Mid June): First pick up/drop off with E-Bike Mailing Services
• Mid August: Second pickup/drop off with E-Bike Mailing Services *if the shop is open

Example of Pickup Schedule for FY21:

• Summer Quarter:
  • Pick Up 1- July 22nd, last day of A-term 
  • Pick Up 2- August 21st, last day of B-term 
• Fall Quarter:
  • Pick Up 1- November 2nd (5th week of Fall Operations) 
  • Pick Up 2- December 14th, first day of Finals Week 
• Winter Quarter:
  • Pick Up 1- February 1st, (5th week of Winter Operations) 
  • Pick Up 2- March 15th, first day of Finals Week 
• Spring Quarter:
  • Pick Up 1- May 3rd (5th week of Spring Operations) 
  • Pick Up 2- June 7th, first day of Finals Week 

Cost:

Cost per UPS shipment (~25 pounds of bike tubes) = $18.45 Annual Shipment Cost (assuming 8 shipments/year)= $18.45*8= $147.6

Total Shipment Cost (5 year project) = $147.6 * 5 = $738 

The Bike Shop will reuse boxes from QBP packages to ship tubes in. 

Resources

1. E-Bike Partnership: 

The Program Supervisor of Mailing Services was onboard with the E-Bike partnership when it was discussed this Fall. For outgoing mail, the Bike Shop will need to fill out the required form which is provided by the Student Activities Office (SAO). The E-Bikes would pick up the tubes at the Bike Shop and deliver them to Mailing Services to be shipped by UPS. This project would require the E-Bikes to transport the tubes to Mailing Services once or twice a quarter. I was not able to find University UPS rates but was told each shipment would cost less than $20 (refer to cost estimate above). 

Sources: 

Link to one life cycle assessment of a bike: http://www.designlife-cycle.com/bicycle *Relative to the frame, the embodied carbon of bike tubes is much lower.

February 2020

Overview

In our initial request, we mentioned that while University of Washington agriculture groups are among the greenest operations on campus, currently all horticulture and agriculture groups are using plastic pots for their needs. With the technology, expertise, and resources available in the UW Wollenberg Paper and Bioresource Science Laboratory, there are opportunities for producing biodegradable pots on campus to replace the thousands of disposable plastic pots.

In 2017, our student team was awarded $70,000. Shortly thereafter, the manufacturer of the proposed pilot equipment confessed that they could not actually produce our design. A 4-month search commenced and a new manufacturer was found. They confirmed that the original design exceeded the capability of the raw materials with respect to the limits we placed on total fiber content. Working with the Center for Urban Horticulture, a new, slightly smaller, pot was designed, and progress began again. The new manufacturer also pointed out the original technology would not have met our criteria either. They worked with us to design a pilot machine that would deliver our desired product, but it came at a significantly higher cost - $125,000. Current tariff requirements have also raised the cost. The PI for the lab was able to secure a commitment from an organization in New York to cover the gap in funding. After a year and half and many teleconferences, it became clear that our urgency wasn’t shared.  

Additionally, our team sees an opportunity to expand our project’s impact to sustainability on campus with a second mold for a second sustainable product made from the same pilot machine. For instance, molded trays used by food services across campus produced from 100% wood fibers can be replaced by a new mold that uses some non-wood fibers. We request that you consider additional funding to match the cost gap of the pilot machine while also adding value by adding a new sustainable mold.

Environmental Impact Expansion

Currently, molded clam-shell trays used by food services on campus to serve food are produced from wood fibers. Although they are produced from recycled fiber, they are still based on wood pulp. As with the biodegradable pots, we could replace some of the wood pulp in our clamshell mold with wheat straw, enhancing the sustainable footprint.  A potential collaboration with the University of Florida may also present additional non-wood opportunities in the form of kenaf fibers.

Additionally, after meeting with The UW Society for Ecological Restoration (UW-SER), they proposed another way to make the project more sustainable. They are currently in the process of removing ivy and blackberry growth across campus, which are both invasive species. The UW-SER inquired as to whether we could use these plants as material in our molds. This is a topic of research our team is dedicated to delve further into.

Student Leadership and Involvement

This project is overseen by a core of four Bioresource Science and Engineering sophomores, juniors and seniors as well as students from UW-SER, each specializing in different areas. With support from the UW Wollenberg Paper and Bioresource Lab, each member of the team has a specialty in analytics, chemical composition of the pots, machinery, molding technologies, or black liquor fertilizer implementation, soil and plant community ecology.

As stated in our initial project, this grant covers a new molding system which can provide UW students a chance to apply classroom concepts in the lab, experiencing a production line from starting bio materials to end-product. This machinery can specifically be used for Bioresource Science and Engineering curriculum, providing students with hands-on experience with pilot-scale industry machinery to produce a sustainable finished product.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

This interdisciplinary project currently involves a close partnership across majors and campus groups. Currently, our closest partnership is with UW SER. By servicing UW SER alone, we will replace the need for approximately 500 seedling containers per year. Once this product can be produced to scale, we can provide our biodegradable pots to any interested group on campus. Expanding our capability with a second mold to initially support one of the foodservice cafeterias on campus would displace approximately 200 trays per day.

Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability

This team of students is competent in their respective specialties, has experience in the Paper and Bioresource Labs and the Center for Urban Horticulture. This team will be overseeing the full implementation of the project throughout,  with continuity of the team ensured by bringing representatives from all classes.

Timeline

After submitting this letter of intent, our team will dive further into researching the feasibility for each mold. Within the next couple weeks we will contact HFS to find out how much their current clamshells cost, and to discuss the possibility of replacing them with our molded clamshells. Additionally, we will begin researching how to implement the woody mass from ivy/blackberry bushes into the molds, so that the project can have further impact on campus sustainability. All of this research will be culminated into a presentation that will take place in April. If our proposal is accepted, we will then order the mechanical equipment from the contractor, which will have a variable arrival date. After the equipment is installed, tests will begin to verify our molds are effective. Beyond that, the project will continue by collecting  plant mass and producing/distributing the molds to the proper entities.

Budget Estimate

• KZ-80 Pulping System Cabinet: $2,500
• ZJW2-6650K Mould Machine: $79,000
• Pressure Washer: $1,000
• Forming Mold Set  1 - Square pot: $24,000
• Forming Mold Set 2 - Food Tray: $24,000
• High pressure water pump: $1,000
• Vacuum Pump: $5,500
• GZ Auto drain system: $4,500
• Air compressor: $4,500
• Air Tank: $500
• KZ-80 Pulping System Cabinet: $2,500
• KH40B Forming/vacuum system cabinet: $2,500
• Wiring MCC: $5,000
• Freight To Jobsite: $5,000
• Tariff (25%): $37,875

Previous Project Funding: $70,000

Project Total: $129,375

Please accept this letter of interest as an initial proposal to the UW Campus Sustainability Fund to support a program for monitoring the establishment of the prairie plant communities recently installed as part of the landscape for the new Burke Museum. The design and planting of this native habitat type on campus offers an excellent learning opportunity to for students, faculty, and Burke visitors and employees to learn more about rare and endemic ecosystems.

In a recent survey, it was estimated that in the early stages of Euro-American settlement in the region there was more than 5,000 acres of prairie habitat of what is today King County. While not a dominant ecosystem type within the region the prairies offered critical habitat for many plant, insect and animal species, while further providing resources for nourishment of native communities and peoples. Today, very little of the historical extent of prairies in the region remains, with only a few scattered remnant patches of any significance in size and the plant communities of both have been heavily impacted by the encroachment of invasive grass species.

The landscape design for the Burke Museum included eighty thousand native plants. Most of these plants were propagated by locally collected seed. For example, much of the camas seed was collected on a small island in the San Juans and the bulbs were nurtured for up to four years in a nursery prior to planting. Our team, which includes students, a faculty member, and the landscape architect of the project propose to monitor the establishment, growth, and plant community development of the habitat over a 3-year period. The results of the monitoring research will be a findings report and recommended maintenance manual to be shared with UW Grounds and Facilities and other agencies and design teams interested in understanding how to establish and nourish this rare habitat type.

The project proposed here is designed to create a 3D printer material recycling program that all offices, laboratories, and communal spaces at the University of Washington can benefit from.

Advancements in manufacturing technologies have allowed 3D printers to literally become household items, making them relatively inexpensive rapid prototyping devices for engineering, research, and teaching purposes. This has made them incredibly common on UW’s campus, as they can be found in many classrooms, engineering spaces, and laboratories across disciplines. This invaluable resource has come with a significant environmental drawback as a large amount of the material (known as filament) used to create 3D prints is wasted in the process of creating a final print. Three sources of waste in the 3D printing process are the high rates of print failure, extra filament left on spools, and the extraneous material needed to support prints (known as scaffolding). Although in theory all used-material can be reheated and used again, this excess or wasted material is almost always in practice thrown away as recycling is not ubiquitously available, requires high upfront costs/long wait on returns, or can not be refurbished at an appropriate quality.

Given the ubiquity of 3D printers on campus and the high amount of waste generated, this project seeks to create a small space where any office, classroom, or lab on campus can bring their excess/waste filament to be ground down, melted, and respooled into usable filament for future projects. Recycling the material on campus would reduce the amount of material that ended up in landfills and would also reduce the amount of new product that needed to be ordered. As 3D filament is not commonly found in brick-and-mortar stores, all of it is purchased online (usually from Amazon) involving the manufacturing and shipping of all materials to campus. As this project will generate usable filament, we plan on giving back a portion of recycled material to donors to incentivise participation. All of the remaining filament generated will be donated or sold at a steep discount to groups on campus or in the community that may not be able to easily afford their own material. This would allow underrepresented and underprivileged groups to have the ability to become involved in 3D printing in cases where material cost may have been prohibitive.

Students involved with this project will be tasked with any of the following duties including: designing/posting posters/flyers about services this project provides, answering emails sent to a project specific email, bringing collection materials (bags, labels etc) to requesting groups, bringing donated materials to the project office, sorting/cleaning donated materials, maintaining donation records, processing & recycling materials, and handling returns of purchased materials.

In order to give back to the community the members of this project will not only be involved in all of the aforementioned tasks but may also volunteer to speak about the project at events such as orientations or ‘trash talks’ given by Waste Management and sustainability groups on campus. Collaborating with Waste Management on UW campus will be the most important part of networking the project can do as they already have a large number of collaborations for recycling in the community and can reach an even larger audience. In order to get as much participation as possible for this project it will also be important to circulate posters and emails about our services to a broad audience on campus. Not only will we be able to educate people about the recycling opportunities associated with 3D printing, but our donations of filaments to makerspaces and libraries will improve education about 3D printing to a wider audience.

As founder of this project, Lydia Smith Ph.D. (lab manager in Amy Orsborn’s Lab), will be the project manager and in charge of purchasing materials, selling/donating recycled material, and organizing/managing students involved in this project. She has extensive experience with 3D printing as well as mentoring undergraduate students. There are also several makerspaces on campus with staff that are proficient and well versed in 3D printing who can be called upon for expertise. Initially we will include a line item  paying for at most 5 hours/week for Lydia to be the project manager, but as more students join the project, the amount of time required will lessen. Given that this project has the ability to generate a small amount of revenue, we would be able to help support student workers throughout the year.

Timeline:

Purchase initial equipment for recycling materials: Weeks 1-2.
Begin recycling material (we have a stockpile to start): Week 3.
Get approval for posting: Week 3.
Post outreach materials: Week 4.
Begin collecting donations: Week 5.
Distributing recycled material. Week 9.

Budget ($7500):

Initial Equipment for Recycling materials: $2000
Outreach materials: $1000
Project manager salary: ($25/hour, 5 hours/week, 10 weeks) $1300
Student help salaries: ($16/hour, 5 hours/week, 10 weeks/quarter, 4 quarters) $3200

Project Proposal Summary

In order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to respond to the climate change emergency, it is necessary for University of Washington to invest in new building technologies that can reduce building energy consumption while at the same time improving the student experience and supporting the institutional mission of the University. Currently, the University is in the planning and design process for a new Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB) located on NE Pacific St. on the South end of campus, which will serve students, faculty and staff for generations.

A relatively new technology, the electrochromic window (ECW) is being considered for a number of the teaching spaces. This technology aims to reduce energy consumption, increase visual and thermal comfort, and reduce maintenance over the life of the building. Like self-tinting prescription glasses, ECWs are an optical glazing (window) technology by which the visible and solar transmittance of a window can be controlled between a transparent state to a very darkened state thus providing a range of visible light transmittances (Tvis) and solar heat gain coefficients (SHGC) when modulated by a control system and sensors to adjust to climate conditions.

This proposal requests a total of $65,000 from CSF to fund three project components: (1) an initial feasibility and evaluation phase for two students to work with the UW Project Development Group and the Miller Hull Partnership (leading the design team) to assess the technology and evaluate its potential impacts ($6,000); (2) to fund a portion of the incremental cost (added cost beyond conventional windows) of installing the ECWs at the HSEB (approximately $45,000) ; and (3) student labor to provide education, outreach, and post occupancy evaluation and storytelling about the technology ($14,000). If, after the initial feasibility phase, the design team or the UW Project Development Group elects not to incorporate ECWs the balance of the funding will be returned to CSF.

Furthermore, the process of design and evaluation of ECWs and dynamic shading systems will be incorporated into a UW course (ARCH 535) offered in by a faculty member in the College of Built Environments during spring quarter during the duration of the project.

If funded, this project will contribute to UW campus sustainability by maximizing energy performance, and improving the classroom experience while showcasing new building envelope technology that sets new sustainability standards on campus.

Sustainable Impact

In order to reach carbon reduction goals and achieve net neutrality by 2050, it is necessary for the University of Washington to invest in new building technologies. Electrochromic Glazing, an electronically tinted glass system, has been shown to improve building performance by maximizing solar energy and minimizing unwanted heat and glare. By adopting this emerging technology, the University of Washington will reduce its carbon emissions and set new standards for building performance. Campus must continue to serve as a living laboratory for sustainable solutions, promoting a culture of environmental stewardship into the future.  

Goals and objectives

1. Maximize Energy Performance
2. Showcase An Emerging Building Technology
3. Enhance Occupant Satisfaction

A primary goal is to improve thermal comfort and reduce glare. This is very important if facility managers are concerned about productivity costs.  It is essential that the academic sphere remain the best place to generate positive experiences for occupants.  Buildings that encourage people to connect is an objective the university recognizes as an important aspect of the UW’s character.  Studies show that a connection to the outdoors can improve cognitive function.  Natural light and outdoor views can boost worker productivity. Implementation of electrochromic windows will allow for a higher square footage of glass because of the inherent energy savings.   Not only will electrochromic glass improve the social sphere but it also brings the heat load of a building down, allowing for a smaller HVAC system.

Education & Outreach

The evaluation of and incorporation of a new technology for a future teaching facility offers a number of educational an outreach benefits. First, it will provide the opportunity to include UW students in the decision-making process inherent in evaluating a new technology for the Campus. This will provide hands-on engagement in life-cycle-cost assessment where critical issues of user experience, energy performance, and operations and maintenance are evaluated. The findings from this process will inform future projects at UW and will be incorporated in the outreach and education component. Once the project is constructed, students will have the experience of a new type of classroom experience using the dynamic glazing to improve their comfort and the classroom experience.  This project will offer an opportunity to develop messaging and storytelling via visual displays and/or interactive media that is exhibited in indoor public spaces and shares energy-savings and other aspects of the design. Specific strategies for community engagement will be established in the initial phase of the project, depending on the interactive feedback capabilities of the specific ECW system.

Concurrent with the design process students in the College of Built Environments will have the opportunity to learn more about ECWs and the project development process for the HSEB in a course, ARCH 535: Daylighting Design taught by Associate Professor Christopher Meek, with assistance from Connor Beck and Ben-Hsin Dow, the students participating in the CSF-funded project.

Methods and Strategies

The electrochromic windows will be placed in the “heart” of student communal areas, specifically multi-use spaces and classrooms. The majority of these spaces are oriented facing south so it is important to implement appropriate glazing mechanisms on the southern facades that handle large volumes of sunlight.  With user and/or automated controls that change tint, electrochromic glass eliminates the need for blinds or louvres, providing options for user and automated controls tint.  This allows the building to have a more tidy appearance with the lack of shading devices. The windows are to be placed in rooms that require varying light levels to accommodate multi-use activities.  

Plan of Evaluation

The long-term scope of the project may require a post-occupancy questionnaire and will require data collection from the system to evaluate impacts and tell the story of the system as part of the demonstration. This would be done in coordination with the UW Office of Sustainability. Additionally, post occupancy studies could measure building heat loads and light intensity.

Budget

This funding request includes two components: (1) $20,000 of student labor; (2) approximately $45,000 to cover the incremental cost of upgrading conventional code-compliant glass to ECWs in the new HSEB facility. Since the project is currently in design, it is unclear the total amount of ECWs that would provide significant benefit to the building, but at minimum 1000 ft² in a prominent, visible, and accessible location is projected. Any funding that is not used will be returned to CSF.  Furthermore, the project team will seek additional sources to defray the cost of this incremental investment including, the ECW manufacturer and local utilities.

EC glazing cost about $145 per square foot. Since the design is in process the exact amount of ECW glass area is yet to be determined, but we anticipate an approximate incremental cost of $45,000 compared to conventional glazing. A breakdown of budget items includes:

1. Incremental capital costs of electrochromic windows:
   • $45,000 -- CSF
2. Student Salaries for two students for one year total:
   • $6,000 – CSF at .25 FTE for 1 quarter per timeline (Feasibility/Design/Education)
   • $14,000 – CSF at .25 FTE for 1 quarter per timeline (Post-occupancy evaluation/Outreach/Education)

Timeline & Accountability

Phase I -- Initial feasibility and design, student education (1 year).

Phase II – Procurement and installation, and student education, (1-3).

Phase III – Post-occupancy evaluation, and public outreach (2022).

Accountability:  Core Project Team

Master of Architecture Students (Project co-Leads)

Connor Beck, M. Arch Candidate

Ben-Hsin Dow, M. Arch Candidate

Additional future students TBD

Will lead the CSF project and coordinate with all external and internal participants in the project. Will be responsible for reporting progress, activities, and outcomes to the CSF.

University of Washington Project Delivery Group (HSEB) UW Facilities

Point person: Julie Knorr, Architect, Project Manager

Will serve as the point-of-contact at the University of Washington Project Development Group and provide connections to UW stakeholder groups involved in the project.

The Miller Hull Partnership (A/E Lead)

Point persons: Chris Hellstern, Living Building Challenge Services Director

Elizabeth Moggio, AIA, Associate

Will serve as the primary point of contact for the architecture and engineering team.  Person will lead technical analysis incorporating student activities in the design and evaluation process of the ECWs and provide coordination with the energy engineering team at PAE Engineering (project mechanical engineer).

University of Washington Integrated Design Lab/Department of Architecture

Point person: Christopher Meek, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture

The Integrated Design Lab (IDL), will provide technical modeling support and will provide space support and computing resources for the student project leads. Prof. Meek will also incorporate ECW modeling and design developed with the CSF project student leads in the course ARCH 535: Daylighting Design offered in spring quarter in the College of Built Environments. This course is at the graduate level, but is open to undergraduates with instructor permission.

Summary 

The Africa Now Association exists to educate, organize, and mobilize youth to imagine and create a sustainable future for the global African community. Our association focuses on enriching global perspectives, supporting grassroots efforts across the African diaspora, and providing individuals with the network and resources to tackle problems facing the African continent and its diaspora.  

Africa Now is seeking $25,000 from the Campus Sustainability Fund to aid in funding our third annual conference, focused on inspiring young Black students and professionals to join the movement for sustainable African development.

Within our 2nd year of operating, we created the Africa Now Association - a non profit organization that hosts the Africa Now Conference and aides community projects with volunteers and funding for sustainable projects that benefit the African community. CSF has been instrumental in helping us achieve this milestone. As we aim to build our community and collaborators on the UW’s campus we’re also working hard to create local and global alliances that will help sustain Africa Now’s mission and funding. This year’s funds will not only be used to plan the conference but to also jumpstart our efforts to establish long term funding, alliances, and start community projects that align with our theme - “Progress Through Sustainability”.

From the start, our hope was to help foster relationships between attendees from diverse academic disciplines leading to new foundations, entrepreneurial ventures, group sponsored initiatives and ideas that will translate into action, not only in Seattle but across the world. Today we’ve met up with several individuals and organizations that have been inspired by the Africa Now Conference. This year we plan on hosting activities that will allow students to learn and take action with us. Along with inspiring and educating our community through our annual conference we plan to be a resource that also takes action in our community - leading by example.

Sustainable Impact 

Our primary goal for the 2020 Africa Now conference is for attendees to have a forum to explore strategies for developing sustainable solutions in their communities throughout the African Diaspora and in Africa. Africa Now defines sustainability as addressing the environmental, economic, social, and political aspects of Africa’s continued growth. This year, our theme is centered around environmental sustainability. We want to analyze and identify practical solutions for environmental sustainability through the lens of  politics, business, education, media and technology. Our holistic approach to environmental sustainability also takes into account that black and African communities bear the brunt of climate change. From the scorching temperatures along the African equator to rising sea levels throughout the carribean, the global African community needs to properly equip themselves with the knowledge and the skills to adapt to these extreme changes in the climate.   

The conference will provide attendees learning opportunities, discussion forums, tools and resources that will allow them to leave the conference with actionable solutions they can implement so as to contribute to environmental sustainability in their communities. One of our main ways of sharing this information throughout our conference will be through our breakout sessions which will provide opportunities for learning and discussion. This year, we plan on incorporating seven separate breakout sessions throughout the conference in order to allow our attendees to learn from individuals who are experts within their fields but also tap into their existing knowledge as a collaborative group. We want to provide new interactive ways for our attendees learn, network, and take action with those who are in these fields and those who are interested in the development of the African continent. 

Leadership and Student Involvement 

Following the tradition of the past two years, the Africa Now conference is organized entirely by students, most of whom are current UW students in the Seattle Area and supported by two UW alumni who are founding members. This year’s conference planning committee is comprised of students from a variety of departments and student organizations on the UW campus and they each offer unique experiences and talents that will enhance the group dedicated to organizing this conference. In addition, each member of the team brings their own set of networks that will allow us to expand out impact not only on the UW campus, but throughout the Seattle Area. Our goal is to bring together the communities each of our committee members represents and build solidarity within these communities.

Education, Outreach, Behavior Change 

Each year, the Africa Now conference continues to expand and collaborate with Black and African organizations within the Seattle community and continues to connect with organizations back on the African continent. Our goal is to expand our network of connections in order to increase the number and diversity of our attendees. On campus, we collaborate with many of the other black organizations such as Black Student Union, African Student Association and the African Studies Department for lead up events in order to stimulate interest around the campus community and encourage attendance. We also collaborate with non-UW organizations, such as Mother Africa, in order to target the young black professional community within Seattle. The purpose of targeting both groups, is to create connections and bridges within our communities that will foster continued conversations and promote tangible actions to be taken even after the conference is long over. 

Feasibility and Accountability

The feasibility of this project is best demonstrated by the past two annual Africa Now conferences, which conference attendees rated as a success. The first, which was held in May of 2018 had over 100 registered attendees. In our 2019 conference, we accommodated for over 180 attendees. This year’s planning committee will leverage and build on the experiences of these past two conferences, as well as the feedback from the surveys that our conference attendees completed. For our 2020 conference, we will spotlight the work that has been continued since our last annual conference. We want to showcase those who have taken what they have learned at our previous annual conferences and applied it to real life actions that promote sustainability here in the diaspora and back on the continent. 

These past few years we have been supported by mentors such as Professor Brukab Sisay in the American Ethnic Studies, Emile Petri of the OMAD department and king county Judge LeRoy McCallough. Along with the professional expertise of these individuals we’re also heavily supported by the two founders of Africa Now - Wole Akinlosotu and Jeanne Dore.

Preliminary Budget

Outside of the CSF, we will be seeking funding from the ECC Student Event Fund, as well as other community organizations and businesses (e.g. African Chamber of Commerce, Africans at Microsoft, Africans at Boeing, Africans at T-Mobile, etc).

Agenda:

• 9:30 - 10:00      Registration / Gallery Walk
• 10:00 - 10:05       Introductions
• 10:05 - 10:45      Case Comp
• 10:45 - 10:55       Transition
• 10:55 - 11:55       Workshop 1
• 11:55 - 12:05        Transition
• 12:05 - 12:35    Case Comp
• 12:35 - 12:45    Transition
• 12:45 - 1:30        Lunch
• 1:30 - 1:40       Transition
• 1:40 - 2:50       Workshop 2
• 2:50 - 3:00      Transition
• 3:00 - 3:30       Case Comp
• 3:30 - 4:00       Resource Fair
• 4:00 - 4:30       Closing Remarks //  Raffle

Introduction

The UW Farm began in 2006 as a student-powered project growing vegetables behind the old Botany Greenhouse. Today, thanks to the power of their vision and the support of the CSF, the UW Farm cultivates about 2.5 acres of growing space with two full-time staff and three part-time student staff. With the introduction of the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health major and the hard work of Farm Manager Perry Acworth, the UW Farm has expanded dramatically. This past year we hosted classes from across University departments, interacted with more than 500 students, and grew more vegetables than ever before. However, with this expansion we have felt a squeeze on our tool shed. Due to the inevitabilities of working with enthusiastic beginners some of our tools have been broken, while others we simply do not have enough of, leading to bottlenecks in production.

We would use this CSF grant to restock with high-quality tools designed to last, allowing the next generation of students to experience the efficiencies that small-scale farming has to offer. In addition to having enough tools, this grant would allow us to purchase the tools necessary for a no-till system. No-till systems are part of the so-called “brown revolution” in agriculture, which combines ancient ways of growing with new understandings of soil health (Montgomery 2017). Given the proper tools, we will be able to demonstrate a highly efficient system that produces healthier plants, sequesters carbon, saves water, and preserves soil health for the long haul.

Background

Tillage is the act of turning over or otherwise disturbing the soil, and has been practiced by farmers for thousands of years. Tillage helps introduce oxygen into the earth, stimulating the activity of soil microbes and encouraging the breakdown of organic matter into plant soluble nutrients. This is a boon for farmers, who appreciate the burst of fertility that tillage gives to their soil. Tillage can also be used to incorporate crop or weed residue into the soil, creating a clean planting surface.

However, scientists and farmers are beginning to realize that long-term tillage can destroy the productivity and health of soil. Soil is made up of rock particles held together by an incredibly diverse ecosystem of organisms. Plants interact with these systems by emitting exudates through their roots to feed beneficial microbial communities. Organisms in the soil can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, emit growth-promoting plant hormones, scavenge micronutrients from mineral deposits, and much more. While we are far from understanding the processes behind these feats, one thing is clear: tillage destroys soil life. Soil disturbance kills earthworms, shreds fungi, and pulverizes the aggregates that create soil habitat.

The effect of tillage on soil intersects with a number of crucial environmental and social problems relating to the sustainability of human agriculture. Long-term use of tillage can cause a precipitous decline in the amount of organic carbon stored in the soil, which is then released into the atmosphere. It is estimated that by the time of the Industrial Revolution, humans had already contributed one-third of our total greenhouse gas emissions simply by tilling the soil (Lal 2004). Soils with less organic matter absorb less water, contributing to poor crop performance in droughts and leading to increased erosion. Plants in unhealthy soils require more chemical fertilizer and more pesticides to resist predators. Tillage also brings new weed seeds to the surface with every pass, creating a vicious cycle of more cultivation and more work (Montgomery 2017).

While the UW Farm currently operates on a low-tillage system, having the right tools would allow us to engage students more effectively in different models of sustainable agriculture. Every item in our budget fits into our system in a specific way to promote soil health, sequester carbon, grow better crops, and make our labor more efficient. In our letter of intent, we will focus on three specific items and how they fit into our system: the broadfork, the flame weeder, and compost.

Broadforks are the most important garden bed preparation tool for any no-till grower of our scale (Fortier 2014). They allow us to aerate and loosen the soil without disturbing soil life. They also will reduce weed pressure, because they do not invert the soil and bring buried weed seeds to the surface.

In order to further reduce the amount of soil disturbance from weeding, we propose to purchase two different models of flame weeder, one for each of our sites. Flame weeding uses a gas torch to kill weeds when they are just beginning to germinate. This technique can be used to quickly create weed-free beds without cultivation of the soil, allowing us more time to focus on other farm systems while also improving soil health. While it may seem counterintuitive to burn fossil fuels to kill weeds on a sustainable farm, the flame weeders in our budget actually use very little natural gas due to their efficient design, and they are a long-term investment in reducing the weed seed bank present in our soil.

One of the largest expenditures in the budget is for sixty yards of compost. No-till systems generally apply layers of compost that are several inches thick in order to boost soil organic matter and suppress weeds. We currently have access to compost made from UW leaves and coffee grounds, but that is only available in the fall and contains plastic and other litter. A large quantity of high-quality compost from Cedar Grove would be an important investment in soil health for the UW Farm.

Conclusion

No-till agriculture is one of the world’s best chances to reduce carbon emissions from agriculture and improve soil health. We plan on using both qualitative crop evaluation and quantitative means, such as soil testing, to evaluate our practices. We thank you for your consideration for this grant, which would allow the UW Farm to practice and teach the future of agriculture.

Stakeholders

• Aisling Doyle-Wade, Lead Student Staff
• Duke Clinch, Student Staff
• Reily Savenetti, Student Staff
• Adam Houston, Assistant Farm Manager
• Perry Acworth, Farm Manager
• Eli Wheat, Lecturer, Program on the Environment

Works Cited

Draft Budget

No-Till Soil Health Management

Weed Management

Grand total: 12,680

Timeline

• Winter 2020 - purchase and assemble tools
• March 2020 - begin soil testing with UW Soil Science class
• Spring, Summer, and Fall 2020 - use tools during growing season
• November 2020 - autumn soil testing to evaluate progress

Black Student Union’s 8th Annual Legacy Soiree

Estimated Amount to be requested from the CSF: Max $1,000

Project Summary:

The primary purpose of the Legacy Soiree is to display the success of different African-American professors, students, and professionals within the Seattle community.This year will be our 8th year hosting this event. It will be held on February 1st, 2020. And for the past 8 years, through this event, we have fund raised enough money to officially start our endowment and last year we finally awarded our first $1000 scholarship for one exemplary students! We plan to continue and award our second scholarship. For this year, we have centered our objective around service and transformative justice. We will honor/recognize exemplary Undergraduate,graduate, faculty and community members who embody this theme in their work and studies. This year's soiree, held in the Intellectual House, will involve a night of live music, musical performances from a prominent Seattle artist as well as dance performances including a stroll/step show from Black Greek organizations on campus. This year we will feature two prominent community leaders to speak. The first is Edwin Lindo, a UW Law Alumni, School of Medicine faculty member and founder and curator of Estelita’s Library. The second and keynote speaker is former mayoral candidate for the Seattle People’s Party, activist and lawyer, Nikkita Oliver. BSU will also be continuing their tradition of recognizing ten exemplary high school students with our Talented Ten Awards, in the hopes of inspiring them to attend the University of Washington. We will include a catered dinner for our attendees. We hope to attract undergraduate, graduate, faculty and community members from the greater Seattle area to join us in recognizing and promoting black excellence both inside and outside of the classroom. For students who are not part of the Talented 10, we hope they learn about the work that is being done by community members and UW students, build connection with the upperclassmen, graduate and community members that will lead to lasting relationships, a sense of community with the Black folks at UW and in Seattle.

Estimated Project Budget: $13,898.00 (See next page for budget breakdown)

Environmental/Sustainable Impact:

Aligning with our theme, by tapping into the network of young, Black students and professionals in Washington, our event seeks to inspire service for a sustainable future within UW and the greater Seattle area. We hope to bring together driven individual to realize how their skills can be used to serve the sustainable growth of their communities. Afterall, the biggest impact we can make is in our own communities. We aim to do this through recognition of the achievements and contributions of underrepresented students and minority community members. This event promotes social sustainability by removing some of the financial barriers to higher education through awarding our second scholarship. As well, providing high school students with guidance, potential mentors and exposure to university. In addition, we will have our keynote speaker will speak on social sustainability in our communities through service and the work that she’s done.

This year we are making an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of our event. So we plan to cut the number of program pamphlets we print for our event in half. We will use compostable utensils and dinnerware as well as donating any leftover food from our event to reduce waste. Instead of purchasing new ones, we will recycle our table clothes from last year. We have also decided not to print paper flyers for our event and instead chosen to advertise through TV monitors, social media, newsletters, and emails, and word of mouth.

Student Leadership & Involvement:

This event is a student initiated and student led project. Our advisers, Reesha FLavors of the ECC and faculty member Brukab Sisay, provide guidance and support throughout this process. We, the executive board of the Black Student Union, consisting of ten undergraduate students, are in the process of planning and executing this event.

Our roles and duties include:

• President/Program Coordinator - Safiya Bansfield
• Treasurer - Tayah Greene
• VP of Campus Affairs - Julian Cooper
• VP of Community Affairs - Jordan Jackson
• VP of Communications - Betellihem Ghebretinsae
• Chair of Outreach and Recruitment - Ruth Mulugeta
• Senator - Ebsitu Hassen
• SAB Representative - Mahilet Mesfin
• Webmaster/Historian - Kiana Reynolds

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change:

As mentioned above, a key part of our event is dedicated to recognizing the academic achievements of ten young minority high school students in the greater Seattle area in our Talented Ten ceremony. We spend months reaching out to high school counselors and principals to recommend to us their stand out students. Once we have chosen these ten students, on the day of our soiree we give students a tour the UW Seattle campus and share with them what it is like attending this university. These efforts are all in hopes of inspiring these young talented students to attend UW.

Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability:

The Black Student Union has successfully hosted this event in the past. This year will be our 8th annual Legacy Soiree. Our advisers, Reesha Flavors, staff member of the ECC and Brukab Sisay, a UW faculty member, provide guidance, support, and mentorship throughout this process. Jon Solomon is our SAO adviser. We will also be consulting previous BSU executive board members. This executive board has successfully planned and hosted an Art Showcase last October and we plan to use the skills we have learned in the process to this project.

Contact information:

• Primary Contact: Safiya Bansfield safiyabansfield@gmail.com 734-239-0973
  • Campus Affiliation: RSO
• Secondary Contact: Tayah Greene tayahg@uw.edu
  • Campus Affiliation: RSO

This proposal is for Natya UW, a competitive Indian classical dance team, and is written by their treasurer Sowmya Magham. The primary goal of this team is to preserve and share traditional Indian culture with not only our university but across the nation as well. As a competitive team, we travel twice a year during February/ March to other universities across the nation, and accordingly, our expenses pile up quickly. Unfortunately, recently one of our members had to step down from our team due to the high financial burden (travelling expenses), so this funding would be extremely beneficial in allowing our current and new potential members to continue their passions without any financial stress. Losing a team member took a huge toll on this team and it would be quite devastating if we lost more members due to financial matters. As pop culture and modern styles are increasingly overpowering the classical Indina dance style, Natya aims to preserve and spread the true beauty of this traditional art form. The dancers of Natya are highly passionate about this team and each member dedicates nearly 10 hours per week towards practice which occur as early 7AM an as late as 11 PM. Due to a lack of funds we often practice in any open areas on campus rather than dedicated practice rooms, and as a student-run team, dancers have to balance logistical work as well as academic workload. Recently, the team has also gained nationwide recognition- we have placed 2nd twice and 3rd once nationally within the past two years, and these achievements marked our first national standings ever. At such a peak time for the team, this funding would be a great motivating factor and validate the team’s efforts in preserving this art. 

This funding fits the criteria in multiple ways. Starting with sustainability, this fund would immensely preserve Indian traditional culture and simultaneously help the team spread awareness by easing travel and performance expenses. It would greatly help a dying culture stay alive and thrive while also igniting passion among other fellow students. Furthermore, each year we tend to buy cheap quality costumes in hopes of reducing costs, but this funding would allow us to invest in greater quality material, thus reducing the amount of waste we generate due to our costumes. Additionally, instead of using plastic bags for our dance anklets, the team would be able to afford woolen bags, which would reduce our use of plastic while ensuring that the anklets stay in good condition.

Regarding student and leadership involvement, the team is completely student run. The various titles on the team include, President, Treasurer, Public Relations Officer and Social Chair. The rest of the team is split up among various committees regarding choreography and music compilation. The president supervises the entire team and ensures that everyone is participating. The treasurer is in charge of securing funds, managing the checking’s account, and tracking all financial transactions. The public relations officer helps promote all events/fundraisers of the team to help spread awareness, and the social chair coordinates all internal meetings/team-building events.

As for education, outreach and behavior change, Natya would use this funding to travel to more competitions and perform more on campus to spread cultural awareness. Just last year, so many more people became aware of this art form, and in order to further engage the community, Natya needs financial assistance, of any amount, to secure venues and pay for travel expenses.

This project is quite simple and feasible- with the money; Natya will be able to further the spread of the art form. We have all of the tools to do so except the financial stability to travel, which occurs in February and March. We are a dedicated team of dancers who are willing to give it their all to help Natya persevere and thrive not only on the UW campus but on campuses all across America. The amount of $1,700 would mean each girl on the team would save $170 this year- it would mean that each girl on the team could travel for $170 less. With this sum of money, Natya could go above and beyond, and reach its full potential without hesitation.

Thank you for taking your time and reading through this proposal. Natya really appreciates your efforts and interest in preserving our traditional Indian culture. Below is a timeline of how we will use our funds.

The UW Center for Child and Family Well-Being (CCFW) has invited David Treleaven to facilitate a one-day workshop on trauma-informed mindfulness practices. David is a writer and educator working at the intersection of mindfulness and trauma who has worked with universities including University of California Los Angeles, Brown University, University of Massachusetts, and University of California San Diego. Through workshops, keynotes, podcasts, and online education, David focuses on offering mindfulness providers with the knowledge and tools they require to meet the needs of those struggling with trauma. His work comes from research based on making mindfulness safe and effective for people who haveexperienced trauma, as well as his own lived experience. This training is timely to the University of Washington as the university has seen an increase in student demand for mental health service provision and access to care. From Fall 2017 and Fall 2018, the Counseling Center saw a 70% increase in the number of students seeking a crisis counselor.

The proposed method to address this question is to create a heat density map highlighting where people identify as a healing space for them on campus. I want to administer a mapping survey where students, faculty and staff are able to identify places on campus where they seek refuge during the work/school day, before and after their time spent here. This type of survey data can then be aggregated to create a specific map. I will also aim to ask questions for how people are using the space itself. This will give UW facilities some indication around what's being done in a particular space, the frequency of use and why it's significant to certain people. This survey could also be administered over the course of an academic school year, or seasonal cycle, to identify where individuals seek refuge during particular seasons. If students, faculty and staff indicate being inside for a large portion of winter, we could make the move to combat seasonal depression by improving lighting, life in a space and the feeling of an indoor space to be more healing as indicated by biophilic design philosophy.

This project aims to provide a safe healing space as well as a space to strengthen community for Queer and Trans people of color (QTPOC) through a 2 night 3 day camping trip in the North Cascades National Park. Queer and trans people of color have been historically excluded from spaces such as the outdoors and through this project we aim to connect the QTPOC community with the outdoors. Many studies have shown the incredibly positive emotional and physical effects that being outdoors has--especially in places like the North Cascades-- on someone's health and wellbeing. Access to the outdoors is incredibly exclusive and only easily accessible by certain groups such as wealthy white families and particularly white cis men. Within the Queer community we face oppressive structures day to day and often that is physically and emotionally exhausting. The idea of chosen family with the Queer community, especially the QTPOC community is incredibly important and for many the QTPOC community is their chosen family. Being outdoors and being able to step back from our daily lives can be incredibly grounding. We will engage in community building and healing activities such as day hikes, reflective journaling, edible native plant lessons, and other naturalist activities. The aim of this project is to provide a place where members of the UW QTPOC community can come together, heal together, and build community with each other. Overall this trip is meant to be grounding and reflective and ultimately helps in connecting members of the QTPOC community to the outdoors.

Capillaries works within the genre of narrative medicine, a movement which invites healthcare providers and patients to reflect on their experiences using writing and art and to develop appreciation for the inherent humanity in all people. We are expanding awareness of and participation in narrative medicine at UW, encouraging undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff -from all departments, not just in medicine -to share their stories with us. Since February 2018, we have worked towards reducing the stigma against discussing mental health, shame, disordered eating, suicide, sexual assault, and our most vulnerable and often silenced experiences. We have also sought to uplift the voices of populations marginalized by our fractured healthcare system by collaborating with the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research, and Practice (CHSIE), the UW School of Medicine's Narrative Medicine Interest Group, and the Seattle-King County Clinic. Thus far, we have produced four quarterly publications, each with more pieces submitted than the last. This increase in submissions indicates the need for a permanently available space to engage with narratives of diverse healing processes. We look forward to serving as this much needed space in the 2019-2020 academic year. We will be gathering stories for Autumn 2019, Winter 2020, and Spring 2020 publications and will share these narratives with the greater community through an updated website, print copies of the journal, and at our quarterly open-mic events.

The project is going to be dope. Being able to better understand how folks at UW use space, and especially what elements and factors within a space draw them to use a particular space can tell us a lot about the ways in which UW can strive to be more healing. Through research we know and understand how valuable nature and place are, and we don't know what is important to the people using UW's campus quite yet.

This collaborative project is built on a longstanding partnership between UW's Pipeline Project and Neah Bay Elementary School and has been developed to address a community-identified need. The result is an exciting project that will focuses on encouraging Neah Bay students to envision their futures. The goal will be to not only have Native students see themselves pursuing higher education, but learning, as early as fifth grade, of career paths that could ensure their being able to live and thrive in Neah Bay after graduation. The 2019-2020 UW Team is made up of predominately First Nation students who wil be leading this project.

This initiative brings together a group of College of Built Environment (CBE) faculty to explore the relationships and synergies of three themes that inform our theory and practice--resilience and well-being; systems thinking; and biophilic design--as a potent means by which to enrich CBE faculty, pedagogy, and students in not only what our students need to know, but how their learning process reflects these interrelated concepts towards greater compassion. Building from insights gained through our course pilot this Spring, and as part of the Well Being for Life and Learning (WB4L&L) faculty community of practice, we look forward to engaging interested CBE faculty in collaboratively developing, applying, and reflecting on approaches.

We emailed all CBE faculty an invitation to participate and held an information meeting about the project. Interested faculty are responding to a Catalyst survey, and we hope to draw faculty from across the College's five departments. This group will co-create a three-day faculty retreat (up to 10 people) at UW's Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island this September to:

1. better understand and find common ground among each other's disciplinary framing of these concepts;
2. explore results from the UW WB4L&L Spring Course Pilots and models of well-being and resilience practices from other universities;
3. experience and reflect on affordances of different environments for active learning and fostering well-being;
4. create a framework of approaches to incorporate into our Autumn courses.

We will meet early, mid- and post-Autumn quarter to share findings, successes, failures, and next steps. Students enrolled in these courses will be asked to share feedback through optional Catalyst surveys. Our process and findings will be shared across the College and with the UW Resilience Lab, and we aim to explore potential for continued development within CBE.

WAMM is a student-run directed reading program that pairs undergraduate women interested in a mathematics-related field with Ph.D. students from the Applied Mathematics Department at the University of Washington. The pairs meet every week over the course of a quarter to work through a project decided upon during the first meeting based on the mentee's interest. Projects typically involve a combination of reading texts or papers to learn new mathematical ideas, analytical work done by hand with pencil and paper, and numerical experimentation using a relevant programming language. In addition to their project material, participants are encouraged to discuss with their mentors other topics such as potential career paths, the graduate school application process, and what graduate school is actually like.

To promote a sense of community among the women in our program, we host and/or invite participants to a set of informal, but academically-oriented social events throughout the quarter including study halls and departmental "tea time". The program culminates with a mini-symposium wherein the undergraduates give short presentations on what they learned and accomplished during the quarter.

Small Project SEED Grant

Proposal:

The goal for this project is to begin a carbon-labeling initiative at the University of Washington which would bring awareness to the campus community about the environmental impacts associated with the food agriculture business and allow for people to make more environmentally conscious decisions with their food consumption habits. The Mini-Grant Seed Fund would provide money to make brochures and posters to handout and display throughout campus food stores and dining halls with an estimated amount of CO2 emissions and water intake it takes to produce particular food products. These brochures and posters will also be printed from a company (GrinterPrinter) that prints with 100% recycled material and works with CarbonFund.org to offset their carbon emissions from shipping. With this information available, we could allow the community to find more ways in their day-to-day life to make more environmentally sensitive decisions and learn to leverage our power as consumers to show support for sustainable, less carbon-intensive practices.

This idea of carbon-labeling was brought to public eye mostly by a law school professor at Vanderbilt named Michael Vandenbergh. His research shows that consumers greatly underestimate that amount of emissions that comes from food. For example, in one study conducted people were asked to estimate the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of different food products in comparison to a lightbulb. The study found that people consistently underestimated food impacts on emissions. Carbon-labeling could help correct these misconceptions and this is critical to creating more productive individual green action. Significantly, Californians use 1500 gallons of water per person per day and almost half is associated with their consumption of meat and dairy products. And, animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than the combined global exhaust from all transportation.  If people had more awareness of their carbon footprint with they eat meat and dairy, I believe many people would make an effort to consume less in the hope to lower their footprint. The United Nations University released a report stressing the importance of switching to a more plant based, less carbon intensive diet and quoted from the World Wildlife Foundation’s sustainable food policy officer- Bridget Alarcon- who claims, “Our LiveWell project has shown we can cut a quarter of our climate emissions from the European food supply chain by eating more pulses, fruit and vegetables and by reducing our meat consumption. National governments should improve food education to encourage healthy eating habits and environmental sustainability as a first step.” However, if we start the charge for carbon-labeling here at the University of Washington, we do not need to wait for our National Government to educate and spread this awareness for us. As a powerful research university with high driven students, I believe we can make powerful change within this community now. 

If response to the carbon labeling posters and brochures are positive, a long-term goal would be to expand our outreach by creating an RSO dedicated to promoting more official carbon-labeling initiatives within the campus and the Seattle area. To gage the feedback and responses from our posters and brochures, we will provide a scannable QR code that will reference people to a quick survey where members of the community can provide us feedback to the carbon-labeling information. 

The group working to jumpstart this project will be assisted by Professor Jessica Holmes who works within the English Department. She will be a vital tool helping us determine the rhetoric that is powerful for people to receive from our brochures and posters. In addition, she is extremely knowledgeable in the topic of Environment Humanities so she has experience and passion for sustainable education. She supports our group, Zach Murphy, Chris Olsen and Denise Devlyn to make this project possible. Zach and Chris are students within the Civil Engineering school so they have practice planning and creating projects and Denise is a student within the School of Oceanography and has knowledge of the effects of CO2 of our environment. To help create the brochure, Dustin Mara, a current graphic design student, has agreed to work with us to design brochures and posters. Our plan is to finalize our outreach materials and have them ready by the start of the 2019-2020 school year so we can start the new school year with the project set into place.

Timeline:

Finalize Research for Project...…..…………………………………………………...November 2019

Create Posters and Brochures………………………………………………………December 2019

Print & Administer Brochures and Posters…………………………………………January 2019

Budget:

50 Posters……………………………………………………………………………………$120

500 Brochures……………………………………………………………………………….$350

Shipping…………………………….………………………………………………………...$30

……TOTAL:    $500

See attached documents

Taiko Kai's third annual Spring Concert aims to provide a cultural and educational experience for individuals of all backgrounds through musical performance. Taiko Kai at the University of Washington is a Japanese drumming club that was founded in 2013. Led by students, the club teaches individuals how to play and perform taiko (drums) and various narimono (percussion). The club has grown into a 30-member performing ensemble and is one of the only groups on campus to perform Japanese art. Because of its ever-increasing size and musical ability, Taiko Kai saw the need to put on their first spring concert in 2017. This year, Taiko Kai is continuing the tradition with its third annual Spring Concert. The main goal of our Spring Concert is not just showcasing taiko skills that members have learned this year, but creating an opportunity for members to plan and participate in a formal performance that will share Asian cultures with UW students and the general public. With so many members, it is difficult to involve all of them without a performance of this scale, making this event a vital part of keeping members engaged with learning the art form.

Taiko Kai has decided to bring some focus to environmental sustainability with our event this year. Each year, we advertise to the student body, and this year will be no different. However, we will be using some strategies to try to lessen our environmental impact. Our biggest change will be the introduction of a digital program. We will still have some physical copies of the program at the event, but we will strongly encourage people to view the program on their phones instead of using the paper copy. We will also be giving out compostable plates and silverware as is required with any snacks that we sell. We will assign someone to ensure that the waste is disposed of in the correct bin. Finally, we will have digital promotional materials like flyers to give digital information about the event.

Taiko drumming is a really interesting and detailed art form originating sometime around 600 C.E. that continues to be an important part of Japanese culture today. Traditionally, taiko was used to accompany theater performances such as Kabuki or Noh, or to perform in ensembles such as gagaku. In 1968, Seiichi Tanaka founded the San Francisco Taiko Dojo which brought taiko to America for the first time. Since that day, Tanaka-sensei, his students, and other incredible players from Japan have cultivated taiko's presence in America. The variety of taiko that Tanaka-sensei brought to the U.S. is known as kumi-daiko ("group drumming"), which was first created in the 1950s as a modern development of taiko for performances outside of traditional settings. This arrangement of taiko is heavily influenced by modern music genres and is thus more relatable for an American audience while maintaining its history. Taiko Kai is proud to be a group in Seattle that can continue the span of this beautiful art form. We work very hard to teach our members everything we can about taiko and share this art with audiences in the UW community and general Seattle area.

Taiko Kai is a club that is completely student-run. We are composed primarily of undergraduate students and therefore must prepare experienced members for the roles that they will need to step into teaching in upcoming years. Our leadership team is re-elected every spring for the following school year, and they decide the direction for the club for upcoming years, making the club's well-being a priority. One of the biggest responsibilities of the leadership team is coordinating learning schedules for members, whether it is practice led by students or a workshop taught by a local or visiting taiko professional. Another large responsibility is coordinating with local events and groups about hosting performances by Taiko Kai. These leadership roles give the leadership team great opportunities to solve problems and work with external organizations.

Our club is committed to educating the next generation of inspired drummers, and we work on a weekly basis to fulfill that goal. However, there are only a couple of performances through the year where the players perform for an audience in a formal performance setting. Thus, the annual Spring Concert plays an important role in the timeline of our club. It allows players who are striving to improve their technique to work toward an "end goal," or a target that will motivate them. This year, more advanced members have even been able to compose and teach songs themselves to share at the concert. This performance is a culmination of the year that allows members to work through the difficulties in keeping up with a time schedule and being actively aware of their complete role in setting up and preparing as well as performing. Without this concert, there would be a lot less excitement building through the year, potentially leading to a lot less member retention.

This will be the third Spring Concert for Taiko Kai, so the club is confident in its ability to successfully execute this performance. After performing at dozens of events over the years and beginning coordination for this event even before the start of the school year, Taiko Kai is positioned very well to have an enjoyable, successful Spring Concert. The addition of the Campus Sustainability Fund would greatly help the club afford this concert and allow the club to open up its budget to pressing concerns about equipment and costumes.

Summary of project proposal:

The societal problems we face transcend sectors and disciplines, and while businesses and organizations are well-positioned to solve them, they need responsible leadership. Unfortunately, the future situations students will find themselves in are ambiguous and difficult; determining what’s best for all stakeholders is challenging. The solution is not simply teaching students about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, but it also entails giving them hands-on experiences with creative problem-solving about leading responsibly.

This is why we four students, Ben Weymiller, Emily Menz, Nabilla Gunawan, and Ricky Perry with support from the Global Business Center and Foster’s Certificate of International Studies in Business program (CISB), have formed a planning committee for the Global Leadership Summit on April 24th. Its purpose is to convene a campus-wide dialogue on CSR and sustainability in different sectors, and provide practical creative problem-solving experiences for students. A campus that doesn’t speak to these issues in a sustained and comprehensive way is letting its own students down by not properly preparing them for a present and future that demands, if not depends on, greater social responsibility and sustainability in leadership.

The Summit will focus on responsible leadership in socially-responsible business, public health, cross-sector collaboration, and cultivating change in your future career, all in a global context. Through its workshop and panel format, the Summit will provide a space for UW students, the Seattle community, and other curious learners of the Pacific Northwest to engage with real-world cases and discussions on topics related to leading responsibly and sustainably in the world. The element of leadership we believe most fundamental to enacting change is the willingness to learn from everyone and everything, and help others do the same. In the end, the mission of our summit is about helping students become hands-on learners in the field of CSR and sustainability so that when they face ambiguous situations or companies with dubious corporate governance, they can act responsibly and teach others to do the same.

Briefly explanation of how the project will meet the requirements and preferences of the CSF:

Environmental Impact

This kind of public education can have huge implications for how our students come to act mindfully as future leaders, to unite a more and more ideologically polarized world. Students going into public policy, research, business, and health organizations can catalyze change in their roles that help mitigate and heal our environment. With responsible leaders in our government, corporations, and research institutes, these entities can be more easily enlisted in improving community health, green tech innovation, and ending global hunger. Moreover, students who attend the summit and get involved with environmentally-minded RSOs as a result of mingling at the reception or working together in the workshops will go on to strengthen their RSO’s projects and create a more sustainable campus. 

Student Leadership & Involvement

Any project or change that has progressed in history surely hasn’t come about through one person. Teamwork is a prerequisite for achieving lasting change and is a product of its members’ willingness to serve, learn, and lead. The Summit’s primary student leaders are Ben Weymiller from the Certificate of International Studies in Business program, Nabilla Gunawan from Net Impact UW, Emily Menz from ReThink UW, and Ricky Perry from Husky Global Affairs. Surrounding these individuals are the members of their RSOs and the programs they represent. It is our belief that the summit’s success rests on the involvement of students from all disciplines on campus. It was a student’s idea that bore the idea for this summit just last year, and it has been student energy and consultation that has evolved the idea to its present state, a tradition that will surely carry on in the years to come.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

The Summit will quite possibly be students’ first step in engaging with and discussing sustainability and social responsibility in a global context. The Summit offers the very practical experiences that teach students, hands-on, how to become learners in complex and sensitive fields so that when they face ambiguous situations they can act responsibly and teach others to learn how to do the same. The strategies and experience developed through this project will thus continue to help students in serving their communities.

Several learning goals the planning committee has for the students that attend the Summit are to:

1. Grow students’ awareness of ethical and healthy business and environmental considerations in an international context through experience and practical application
2. Build students’ creative problem-solving ability through cases and discussions that span different cultures and national contexts
3. Connect students from different backgrounds to different RSOs and campus organizations that strive to continue the conversation through real-world applications

Collaborating with diverse groups at UW and leveraging cultural and ideological differences is important to producing an event that serves the many sub-communities in our world. The planning committee’s members came together in part because they believe they can conduct outreach and engage with UW’s diverse sub-communities and RSOs, and in doing so, make this less of a one-off event, and more of a catalyst for change.

Changing behavior is difficult; we are, after all, creatures of habit. Notwithstanding this, the Summit seeks to take students down one step of the way in a learning process of how to effectively advocate and express their ideas for sustainability and social responsibility. Each student will bring their own background and beliefs to the event, and all we can hope is to spark a conversation with them and encourage them to continue it the next day and the day after that.

Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability

Each planning committee member has experience with outreach, large event planning, and a familiarity with the Summit’s key concepts of social responsibility and sustainability in global leadership. Be it through planning the Global Health Business Case Competition, or curating insightful and engaging speakers for club meetings, it is our collective experience that has guided and will continue to guide our efforts and ambitions for the Summit.

While we each hold each other accountable for our commitments and action items, we still have regular check-ins with our mentors at the Global Business Center (Theresa Maloney), and Certificate of International Business program (Deanna Fryhle), with Theresa being our main contact helping with logistics and administrative support. We also look forward to working closely with CSF staff if awarded a small grant in order to ensure funds are used properly, as well as to share any ideas on how to improve the Summit or post-event efforts.

Institutionalizing the Summit and its values is the very task students who attend our discussions and Summit will be charged with when they go on to advocate for responsible leadership in their own organizations. This being the second year the Summit has been held, it was the vision of the first student planning committee to institutionalize this event for generations of students to come. After bringing this event back and creating infrastructure for it to continue, the goal of this year’s planning committee is to adapt the way the Summit is planned allowing for the content to be curated specifically around the present needs of the student body for any given year.

Estimated Project Budget

Total Planned Expenses: $2,640

Non-Food Related Expenses: $840

• Venue Fee ($140)
• 6 Poster boards (2 for advertising,41 for day-of-event details) ($210)
• Catering of Food and Drink for 150 people ($1800)
• Parking permits for speakers ($100)
• 20 color tabloids ($150)
• Student photographer ($90)
• Digital advertisements (150)

Project Timeline

• Student Planning Committee Meeting Timeline (Thursdays 10:30 -11:30)
  • Weekly from 10/24 to day of the event
• Advisor Planning Committee Check-in Meeting Timeline (Thursdays 12:00-1:00)
  • Weekly to biweekly from 10/24 to day of the event
• End of November - First wave of reaching out to speakers
• End of January - Solidify Speaker list
• Present - Finalize speaker list and event format, supplement weaker panels with UW subject matter experts
• 3/20 -  Finalize logo and promo materials
  • Listserv blurbs, quarter sheets, full-size posters (print and digital)
• 4/1 - Finalize Facebook event page and make public
• 4/5 - Increase Outreach Efforts
  • Share and promote the event on Facebook
  • Deliver quarter-sheet handouts to advising offices and desks
  • Contact school listservs (GBC, JSIS, etc)
  • Connect with points of contact on other campuses
• 4/1 - Add RSVP google form to Facebook event and promo materials
• 4/15 - Finalize Volunteer List
  • Set-up, Room Leads, Clean-up
• 4/24 - Global Leadership Summit (Manage Day-of Logistics)
• 4/29 - Send out Feedback surveys to Volunteers, Participants, and Speakers
• 5/2 - Planning Committee Meeting to assess efforts and determine a path forward for next year

Presence' Mission:

The mission of our RSO is community building amongst students, around the topics of wellness and balance through the exploration of mindfulness practices. Through individual and group practice of meditation, students will support each other’s practices in being actively aware and focused in the present moment.

The founding of Presence was inspired from our (Ethan and Shelby) time working together at the UW Resilience Lab. We worked with Dr. Anne Browning, Director of the Lab, to analyze incoming data regarding the mental states of incoming freshmen. We discovered that an enormous amount of students struggled with themes of belonging, social connection, and self-esteem. Through discussion, the two of us came to share that we too had personally struggled with these themes as UW students. Furthermore, we came to recognize that both of us had found support during these tough times through our own personal practices of meditation. We shared the experience of using meditation as a tool to better understanding ourselves, as well as exploring how to heal in the face of personal challenges. Presence was born upon the realization that meditation, having been so useful for the two of us, may be useful for other students as well. Having wished that meditation had been more accessible at UW in our time of need, we hope that it now can be accessible for students in their time of need.

Both from personal experience, conversation with other students, and exposure to mental health data at the UW; It has become glaringly obvious how great the need is at our school for students to be able to experience genuine connection and community. We have experienced how meditation inspires groundbreaking inner-clarity and centeredness, and are adamant about building a community that is based upon the same values of transparency and honesty, as well as true-self expression and acceptance. Presence is a place where students can learn from one another's personal experiences and journeys, and inspire personal growth via the support of a student-led, student-run community.

In order to best facilitate our practices as a community of students, the external resources we require are an (1) appropriate meeting venue and (2) access to a meditation app subscription.

Programming:

Social Sustainability

Forming Relationships; Local university district business owners & UW students:

In a neighborhood that is diverse among many sociological lines, this is an excellent opportunity for community building in the University District. Students are accustomed to staying within the parameters of the UW campus, and encouraging students to venture beyond on their way to the Hatha Yoga Center on 47th will assist students in becoming more familiar with their surrounding community. The University of Washington and small business owners will gain the chance to work with and know each other better, building a more cohesive social fabric between University Street and surrounding campus. A small case-study of the kind of relationships that may assist the University District in revealing commonality and oneness amongst the diversity that has demonstrated at times to be isolating amongst individual perceptions.

Meditation as Preventative Medicine:

Silent practices of thinking deeply and contemplating, have shown to induce relaxation and a sense of inner peace. There have been many studies done regarding mindfulness meditation and mental health, suggesting that it has positive effects on anxiety and depression. For many, meditation is a tool used in coping with minimal to severe anxiety. It has been known to help individuals understand and manage intense feelings such as anger, fear, and such that may have negative effects on one's life. Student run contemplative sessions such as these will introduce self-sustaining emotional healing, and support students in juggling their diverse circumstances.

Accessible (metro buses, off campus housing, on campus housing, walkable):

Hatha Yoga Center is a 14 minute walk from Central Campus, making it an accessible commute from class or studies. For those living on campus in dorms, the commute time is a standard 13 minute walk from both eastern Haggett Hall and southern Mercer Court  (9 minute bus ride using tuition included bus lines 45,71,73, also possible for southern dorm residents). For those coming from off-campus, University Street is a hub for a wide range of bus routes making it accessible for those who commute via metro or light rail. For those who drive, there is street parking, however limited, on a first come first serve basis at an hourly fee. Ethan and I also offer to help transport students if need be.

Diversity: Mindfulness, introspection, contemplation, meditation; whatever you want to call it, can be a useful life enhancing practice in anyone's unique life. That being said, we understand that such practices can fit differently into different peoples’ lives. We recognize that every person comes from a different background, has different experiences, circumstances, demographics, identities. Such factors may play a role in affecting who feels welcome, comfortable, and safe around mindfulness practices. We want to make clear that Presence is a place for anyone and everyone, and aims to present a space that is accessible to all individuals. Furthermore, within the subject of meditation; Presence welcomes all practices, preferences, questions, and attitudes.

Co-op styled structure: We believe a community-run, democratic, honest and transparent organization is crucial maintaining an organization that fosters student empowerment, passion, and belonging. We (Ethan and Shelby) see our roles as facilitators, and aim to encourage fellow students to engage in facilitation and leadership roles as they wish. In structuring group meetings that actively engage members in providing feedback, suggestions, expressing their views, and guiding group meetings, we aim to ensure that each student understands that the organization is existant to represent their wishes as they see fit. This is invaluable in the University setting, as we make space for students to participate in a ‘ground up’ organization in contrast to much of the ‘top-down’ philosophy embodied by many of institutions and classes at the UW. Presence hopes that this model will inspire students to take ownership in their introspective journey, and spread their passion to the rest of the group and all others they may encounter. Presence also abides by the seven cooperative principles of: Voluntary and open membership, democratic management, participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation, and community.

Environmental Sustainability

Green space meditation (perusing in parks, around wildlife, green spaces on campus):

Connection with nature facilitates inner peace & stillness. Being in the presence of the great outdoors reminds us that we are connected with nature and the world at large, not separate from it. In engaging contemplative and still practices in the outdoors, students are provided the opportunity to get curious about nature on their own terms, and gain a recognition for its strong presence in their life. Students gain the opportunity to get more in touch with nature, and to further understand the importance of recognizing the role that nature plays in our lives and our ecosystem. Personal connection and positive experience with the outdoors is the first step in fostering a community which engages in the world both on behalf of their own needs and the intertwined needs of our earth. Additionally, engaging in physical activity also serves to connect us on a deeper level with our bodies, which are often forgotten when sitting in class most days.

Physical + Mental Minimalism:

Mindfulness as a philosophy which explores one’s inner state, students may explore the relationship of thoughts and feelings, mind and heart. They may gain insight into the differentiation as well as relationships, between emotions and thoughts, assisting students in decision backed with genuine contemplation and thought. Taking a moment to breathe, relax, and contemplate will assist students in observing their habits and actions, in so allowing students to recognize which behaviors are serving them and which are not in comparison to their values. Students can recognize internal and external values, beliefs, practices, and intentionally select from there how they would like to proceed. Outcomes of these practices, can include themes of consumerism as hugely a part of our western, American culture. Students can have a better understanding on how actions such as shopping, consuming, etc. has an impact both on themselves, their community, and world at large. Exploring topics of sustaining satisfaction versus instant gratification.

Meeting Space Requirements:

Space must provide students with a welcoming and comforting environment which is conducive for personal practices, such as silent sitting meditation. Academic spaces on-campus at the UW can be stress inducing because they are wholly competitive & busy environments.

A space off-campus is necessary for students to effectively shift away from an academic mindset in order to engage in vulnerable and therapeutic mindfulness practices. To quote a study published by the Springer Journal of Public Health, “Personal control, socially supportive relationships, and restoration from stress and fatigue are all affected by properties of the built environment” (Evans, Gary W. “The built environment and mental health”). Keeping this in mind, we fear that attempting to get students to engage in meditation practices in existing on-campus spaces (HUB, IMA, housing facilities) will be ineffective. Students will be unable to escape the mental busyness and happenings of student life (which often are culprits of stress), which will lead to a lack of club retention, community building and general sense of stillness.

The mindfulness class pass had meditation class series once (hosted in HUB), but decided to discontinue them due to a lack of retention. After speaking with the mindfulness program director, Danny Arguetty, we collectively identified the venue as a potential factor in explaining why students’ attendance rates trickled down.

Pros of off-campus space:

•     a (physical and mental) “vacation” from academic/campus life
•     accessible, walkable distance from on campus-housing
•     ”homey” feel, warm carpet, lighting, quiet space, built for purpose of yoga/meditation practices (not a mixed use space, conversely an established foundation built for mindfulness practices)

(2) Meditation App Subscription: Headspace

Shelby and I have both experienced great success using Headspace, a smartphone app which provides guided meditations, anxiety relief, and student specific “packages”: studying, balancing health & work, etc. Our goal is to provide Headspace to our members to prevent a lack of financial accessibility, which in our experience, is the largest barrier to the use of meditation apps. A student subscription costs $9.99 annually, and this relatively low cost would enable us to provide 25 members with this access. The use of this app would also help build community within the club itself, as you can add meditation “buddies” (other users of the app) to see and view each others’ meditations and activity. Members will provide us with a receipt for reimbursement.

Budget:

Presence Budget through Spring Quarter 2019 (1/28-3/15 and 4/1-6/7)

We are asking the Campus Sustainability Fund for $1000 to cover our expenses.

After evaluating several off-campus options, we settled on Hatha Yoga Center on the Ave & 47th. We have developed a great relationship with the owner, Ki, and her studio is able to provide all the necessary fixtures for a meditation practice (soft carpet, cushions, blankets, speakers).

Accountability and Feasibility

A close relationship with Danny Arguetty, the mindfulness director, will continuously provide us with guidance and support with regards to our club structure and with what’s been successful with students in the past.

We are excited to move forward and get our club rolling!

Thank you for taking the time to read this over and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Ethan & Shelby

Presence Co-Presidents

The University of Washington has been creating more and more snags out of fallen trees in the past year. Grounds Management has added ~15 snags since we hired a new arborist to handle the tree work on campus. Adding snags (standing dead trees) to the landscape adds a substantial amount of ecological benefits. Snags (dead wood) provides new life to habitat. They provide food for many wood boring insects and mammals such as ants, beetles, and woodpeckers. The cavities within this dead wood make great nesting habitat and living quarters for woodpeckers, red squirrels and many other species of birds, bats and insects. When a tree dies it has only partially fulfilled its potential ecological function.

However, snags can be unsightly to people who do not understand their benefits. We would like to continue this trend of adding snags to the landscape and to change people’s perception about them by adding signage to increase their knowledge of its benefit for society. The signage will all be made out of salvage wood from the salvage wood program and will say:

‘When a tree dies it begins its second life as a snag. Snags aka standing dead wood provide habitat for thousands of living organisms such as insects, birds, and small mammals. Snags are a natural part of a forest ecosystem that are rarely available in an urban forests. Grounds Management has implemented a new program to provide habitat snags throughout campus, *this sign was constructed using salvage wood from the salvage wood program and funded by the Campus Sustainability Fund.’

Each sign will cost $100. We will put ten signs in front of some of the most visited snags on campus.’

Thank you for your consideration!

Michael Bradshaw

Imagine you are a student, it’s a dark and damp rainy Seattle night... you are tired from studying all week and are hurrying to get home. You step out into an ordinary crosswalk at the corner of a sharp bend in the road. A car swerves to avoid you, as you are nearly invisible in the darkness. This story and many like it show the importance and necessity of safer crosswalks. Our project idea stems from this need and desire to make commuting by foot, bike, bus, or car as safe as possible.

OVERVIEW

This project draws on interdisciplinary expertise and creativity in developing luminaire crosswalk pavers powered by kinetic energy to sustainably and innovatively improve safety at the University of Washington (UW) Seattle Campus. Ultimately, we want to implement the highest performing prototype to the most dangerous crosswalks on campus to keep students safe. Addressing the UW’s Campus Landscape Framework objective of creating connections across the “mosaic” of the Central Campus, this prototype will improve circulation through an iconic landscape, create a unique experience, increase safety, and create opportunities for collaboration between students and industry partners. The primary project team includes masters and doctorate students from the College of Built Environments and College of Engineering (throughout the phasing process, more team members will be added, including undergraduates).

Optimization of infrastructure is a traditionally complicated endeavor. Collection, transmission, and distribution are common obstacles to utilization of revolutionary renewable energy. By directly integrating energy collection into the object it powers, these obstacles are overcome and the system is much more efficient and accessible to consumers. Microgenerators harnessing kinetic energy are in development and could be used to power paver luminaires, improving safety and visibility without depending on the power grid. Additionally, the implementation of this project would create an opportunity to improve stormwater management at intersections throughout campus. (Future phasing of prototypes might integrate stormwater detention mechanisms that can manage runoff and improve water quality in surrounding bodies of water).

SUSTAINABLE IMPACT

Environmental

Our prototypes promote renewable and alternative energy by creating an off-the-grid kinetic energy mechanism that runs the LED pressurized systems during the low-light to dark hours of the day.

Socio-economic

Thinking long-term, we are hoping to create a prototype that will be marketed to all of the UW campuses and the city of Seattle, particularly in marginalized communities.

Cultural

A culture of road safety for all modalities should be created. Pedestrians are as entitled to safety mechanisms as drivers or bicyclists.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP AND INVOLVEMENT

We are advocating for student involvement at every point and every level of the project. It is a student run team that is designing for students. We are inclusive, always willing to include other disciplines and expertise. We are proposing a phased strategy that will provide students the opportunity to engage in project development, business planning, and product fabrication.

EDUCATION, OUTREACH, AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Behavior change: Providing luminous circulation and connection throughout the UW campus, regardless of weather conditions or damage to the grid, will likely help pedestrians feel more secure and independent, while cyclists and drivers will be alerted to movement around them.

Outreach: This project will provide the student team first-hand experience in product development, fabrication, and implementation. It will support the efforts of the university to improve the campus’ experiential qualities; update, control, and maintain campus lighting; and ensuring that campus users feel safe. As these concerns are currently addressed separately by the Campus Architect, Operations, and Police Department, a consolidated and self-sustaining response would aid in honing their work.

Education: Students will be exposed to unprecedented sustainable technology applications and the learning opportunities that come with its operation. Additionally, the larger UW community will act as a testing ground for revolutionary infrastructure. The system will need to be inspected and maintained, this too will provide data collection and technology optimization opportunities. This project also builds on the Campus Illumination Roadmap previously supported by Campus Sustainability Fund, and could be included in their research.

FEASIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

The project team would engage with the Office of the University Architect, the Campus Engineering and Operations Office, and UW Faculty from the College of Built Environments. There is also potential for engagement with Seattle City Light.

Funding would be invested in developing prototypes of our product. The project team would fabricate as many components as possible, but may need to reach out to local manufacturers of structural glazing systems.

ESTIMATED BUDGET

The implementation of this project includes building and testing multiple physical prototypes which we estimate to be $100,000. The budget components are detailed below:

• Electrical/Computer/Controlling backbone components: $10,000
• Mechanical/Chemical hardware infrastructure: $50,000
• Lab/test instruments: $10,000
• Structural glazing and frame system: $30,000

PROJECT TIMELINE

Our phase one of the project is planned to be carried out and completed in one year.
Within this year there are three phases:

1. Technical studies: Currently underway. We will continue this phase until final project approval and if need be, into the prototyping phase to ensure the highest levels of performance in the prototyping.
2. Prototyping/Testing/Troubleshooting: This phase is planned to be initiated upon the approval of the proposal and the fulfillment of necessary financial supply. This phase is expected to be completed within six months from the start, with all the prototypes tested and evaluated under real operation conditions, and the highest performing one selected for campus implementation
3. Implementation: This phase will likely pursue a later funding cycle due to the complexities of construction and implementation. During this phase, we hope to work with UW Facilities and Seattle Offices.

TEAM

Janie Bube (Master of Landscape Architecture)

Emilia Cabeza de Baca (Master of Architecture)

Martha Hart (Masters of Urban Planning)

Arman Rahimzamani (PhD in Electrical Engineering)

Originally developed for the mercer court site, Native Green roof Sculpture has since expanded beyond its original site, with an intention to find a more site-specific location to maximize its overall effectiveness and impact. With this in mind, I am applying for a feasibility study in order develop important information on site location, and ecological /design consultation.

Summary of Project Proposal

The UW Applied Physics Laboratory is asking the Campus Sustainability Fund for $28,350 to purchase an electric propulsion system from PureWaterCraft with hydraulic steering controls.  Funds from this grant will be used to bring a new technology into the UW APL which we could not do without being awarded a grant or contract specifically requiring it.  Optionally, a system supporting smaller hulls could be purchased for $19,850 if the committee prefers.

An Applied Physics Laboratory student team, working with Engineers from UW APL and PureWaterCraft, will design a mounting and control system which will allow the motor and battery pack to move easily between a multitude of hulls.  A RHIB install will be set up for transport to remote locations for rapid deployment in fragile environments.  The control systems will enable remote or autonomous control of the vessel for future research and development of autonomous systems which will be used for future student projects.

Both hulls will be clearly marked UW APL and Electric Drive Research or some other indication of alternative energy to encourage outreach.  Photos of these boats will be included in project write ups and publications which will get broad distribution.  These boats will be seen often while operating around the Seattle waterfront and Lake Washington.  

CSF funds will be used to purchase the propulsion system from PureWaterCraft.  UW APL will supply a hull for the project.  UW APL will also fund the student time for the project and individual engineers will donate the mentoring time for the installation and system test.

The UW APL is a leader in AUV development and use which requires many launch and recovery operations from small boats.  APL Field Engineers and student helpers operate vehicles that navigate underwater using acoustics that are sensitive to noise in the water.  The virtually silent propulsion system from PureWaterCraft will be ideal for tracking and recovering AUVs while the absence of exhaust makes life better for the students and Field Engineers in the boat at slow idle or station keeping waiting for a vehicle to surface.

The UW APL averages 65 Field Projects around the world every year and employs 45 students.    

Brief Explanation of how we meet Requirements & Preferences:

Sustainable Impact - Environmental Sustainability

As a leader in Arctic research UW APL operates small boats in the most fragile environments in the world, locally we have small craft operating in Lake Washington frequently and moored in the lake every day.  The gas powered motors on our boats are properly maintained, however they still emit exhaust which is run underwater before rising to the surface leaving pollutants in the water and in the air.  Sensors we design or purchase can be contaminated by oil and exhaust residue rendering them inoperable.  Long before the UW Climate Action Plan was created UW APL lived in a word of “leave no trace”.

Leadership & Student Involvement

Students will lead the design and installation with oversight and mentoring.

These boats will be used primarily by students and Field Engineers to deploy and recover AUVs and various other marine equipment or to support a larger vessel.

Education, Outreach & Behavior Change

UW APL is a unique position to be a technology evaluator and innovator in the regional commercial fishing industries as well as the international Oceanographic and Marine Science communities.  UW APL has a long history of being actively involved in community outreach, this is the 14th year that the UW APL has worked with the Pacific Science Center to put on the Polar Science Fair at the Science Center.  Through the Collaboratory, UW APL hosts Marine Technology startups which allows us to support them and at the same time share best practices which then spread through the industry.

Feasibility, Accountability & Sustainability

UW APL, and the mentors on this team, has demonstrated the ability to conceive, design and build systems deployed in the harshest marine environments.  We routinely manage large contracts to completion and have an excellent reputation with the U.S. Navy and other organizations.

Eric Boget, a U.S.C.G. licensed vessel operator and engineer, manages and maintains the UW APL vessels and docks.

Key Stakeholders

Eric Boget – As the head of UW APL Vessel Operations, Eric will be responsible for the vessels when released into the fleet.  Maintenance, operations and training will fall under his budget.  Eric has control over who can operate vessels and in what conditions.

Andrew Stewart – Associate Director of PMEC, the Pacific Marine Energy Center, Andy Stewart helps marine startups transition technology and has recently commissioned a UW APL vessel for renewable energy research.  As an experienced Marine Architect and M.E. Andy is an advocate for our technology innovations in Washington State and Washington D.C.

Craig McNeil – Craig, a UW APL Principal Oceanographer and Affiliate Professor of Oceanography, spends an inordinate amount of time getting equipment and vehicles in and out of the water.  As one of our most active users of AUVs Craig works with students and Field Engineers with a vehicle called a REMUS 100.

Core Project Team

• Students Leads - Ian Good UW ME, Amelia Marie Barr UW ME
• UW APL Vessel Operations - Eric Boget
• Electronics Mentor - Steve Kahle
• Mechanical Mentor - Dave Dyer

Itemized Budget

Project Timeline

Contact Information

• Primary Contact: Ian Good – Student Lead IanGood@uw.edu
• Secondary Contacts: Steve Kahle – Student Mentor skahle@apl.washington.edu
• Secondary Contacts: Eric Boget – UW APL Vessel Operations boget@apl.washington.edu

Summary of project proposal:

The Supplier Diversity Program at UW is a registered student organization that promotes the use of local, minority, women, and LGBTQ owned companies around the greater seattle area. Eat Local Seattle Food Fair is just one of the many outreach projects that we are working on, in order to encourage the UW community to utilize these companies. We will be inviting vendors from across the community to come on to campus (HUB Walkway) on September 28th, in conjunction with Dawg Daze to sell their goods, and be further exposed to the UW community. Our hope is to provide a fun interactive experience for the UW community during the first week of fall quarter, but we also strive to generate exposure for the companies that will in turn help their business in the long run. Whether it be through UW departments utilizing them as suppliers in the future, or students simply visiting them during the school year. The long term impact is of utmost importance to us.

Environmental Impact

While our project does not directly reduce the University’s environmental and/or create more sustainable campus, it will instead help expand diversity, inclusivity, and equity in sustainability. Many times, theses historically underutilized business have suffered due to lack of access to money, markets, and management. We understand that as a student organization, it can be hard to provide monetary help. Therefore, by providing a space where these businesses can be exposed to a larger consumer base and generate revenue, we believe it will help expand the diversity of businesses being affiliated by the UW community.

Student Leadership & Involvement

Student Leadership and Involvement are the driving force behind the Eat Local Seattle Food Fair. UW supplier diversity is a student led organization that works with connecting students and local minority, women, and LGBTQ owned small businesses. Our Eat Local event will be powered not only by our vendors, but also by student volunteers that will be interacting and engaging with vendors and other UW students. Our student volunteers will be both educating and engaging students on the importance of diverse suppliers and asking them to sign the pledge to support theses locally small owned businesses. We also have other academics that are a part of UWSPD that will be creating posters about the history and background of each vendor and their road to become a business owner.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

The Eat Local Seattle Food Fair, not only will this be an event where the UW community can purchase goods from vendors. We will also be including an educational component that will be in the form of tri-folds. There will be a tri-fold for each vendor that will include a biography and information on the business itself, in order to educate the community about their goods, background stories, and much more. Additionally, we will be including an outreach component through the form of supplier diversity pledge. The Supplier Diversity Pledge can be found on our website (uwsupplierdiversity.com), and was created by program participants with the purpose of gaining feasible metrics that will allows us to measure the support for our programs mission. We will have student volunteers staffing the event, and they will be asking the UW community to sign the pledge to show their support for the use of these historically underutilized businesses.

Dear CSF Committee,

On behalf of the Indonesian Student Association at the University of Washington (ISAUW),  I am submitting this letter to notify the CSF of our intent to submit a funding request for our annual campus event, Keraton, on May 4th, 2019, at Rainier Vista at the University of Washington.

Keraton is one of the largest Indonesian cultural events in the West Coast. Over the past few years, Keraton has been ISAUW’s biggest and fastest growing annual event that attracted over 8,000 people in 2017. This year, we are expecting 10,000 individuals.

Through the years, we have dedicated our resources to reduce our environmental impact. Last year, through implementing “Keraton Going Green,” we made it our mission to require all vendors to use compostable food packaging. In addition, we informed all of our visitors of the locations of recycling and compost bins within the event location. This year, aside from implementing our previous methods, we plan to promote environmental awareness through a performance during the event. Our creative management department has been working towards this and we have also sent out an application for performers who would be interested in educating guests on environmental issues. We are optimistic that these performances, guests will be better informed on the current situation of our environment while also being entertained.

With the event being fully organized and managed by students, ISAUW develops students’ leadership and organizational skills by trusting each department with tasks that are critical to the event’s success. In addition, we accept volunteers and further create opportunities for students all-over the campus. Overall, students will be able to utilize and develop their communication skills by engaging with guests, learning about Indonesian culture, environmental issues, and gain meaningful connections.

Based on the financial figures from our previous Keraton events, ISAUW estimates a budget of $35,960. The amount has been partially covered by our fundraising events throughout the year. We have also been seeking support from various companies and businesses by offering sponsorship packages, and applying for other campus funds — such as the diversity fund and ASUW.

I will be our main point of contact throughout this application process, and can be reached at:

• E-mail address: kevinnh4@uw.edu

• Phone number: (206) 954-9795

Thank you for giving ISAUW the opportunity to participate in the campus sustainability funding. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Kevin Hamonangan

President of ISAUW

Within the School of Music, students of the Vocal Performance department are studying and performing Phillip Glass’ modern opera Hydrogen Jukebox in April 2019. This music theatre piece features a setting of Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, and presents issues of social and environmental justice and sustainability that America has grappled with in recent decades. Hydrogen Jukebox treats themes of environmental degradation, social injustice, and war. We in the Vocal Theatre Works program are excited to engage with and present a work that promotes social and cultural awareness through diverse and interdisciplinary collaboration.  

Like other forms of music theatre, vocal theatre is an interdisciplinary medium that draws on a variety of fields to create a cohesive piece of art. These include music, literature, dance, traditional theatre, and increasingly, science and technology. We believe that this uniquely inclusive medium is an ideal modality for students to apply their various academic and creative pursuits within the University. Our artform best uses resources when it engages a diverse segment of our academic peers at the University of Washington and the community at large.

During the 2017-2018 academic year, the vocal performance students produced Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges. In performing this work, our primary production goal was to build compassion and empathy within our community through performance. Colette’s libretto for L’enfant deals with the devastation left by the first World War and serves as a guide for the reparation of inter-community relationships shattered by carnage and hostility. Similarly, we believe we can bring greater awareness to issues of cultural and environmental sustainability by performing Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox. Our performance of Hydrogen Jukebox, the work’s Seattle premiere, will highlight and promote discussion of the social struggles surrounding war, sexual liberation, and environmental degradation. Our performance will also enhance awareness of the works of Allen Ginsberg, an American poet who faced discrimination based on his sexual orientation. We believe that it is our responsibility to take a leadership role within the University by using the arts as a vehicle to engage our community in examining these important issues. American society has become increasingly divided over the past decades, and by highlighting messages of social responsibility and compassion, we engage our community with a model of cultural sustainability.

Visiting artist Deanne Meek and Professor Cyndia Sieden will serve as faculty mentors for this project. Our department has expressed robust support and enthusiasm for this project but is unable to allocate additional funds for this academic year. In addition to faculty support, we have procured the project management services of Jonathan Luk, who has served in roles as Director of Product and program management to assist in project management for this effort.

The students of Vocal Theatre Works request a Campus Sustainability Fund grant for our 2019 Hydrogen Jukebox production. We have already secured approximately $22,000 of our $30,000 budget and request your assistance in achieving our funding goal for this production. We will use the grant to bring respected leaders from the University and larger Seattle community to engage both the audience and students in discussion sessions. We will also invite these leaders into the Vocal Theatre Works production process to facilitate an analysis of Ginsberg’s poetry in the context of its musical setting in order to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and its performance presentation. In addition, funds would be allocated towards general production costs, such as sets, costumes and projection equipment. A tentative budget is included with this letter of intent.

Points of Contact

Trevor Ainge, student development coordinator
aingetj@outlook.com | 206-698-4396

Deanne Meek, visiting artist
deannemeek@gmail.com

Budget

Vocal Theatre Works: Principal Production, 2019
Hydrogen Jukebox
Music by Philip Glass, Libretto by Allen Ginsberg
April 26 and 27, 2019 7:30 p.m. Meany Studio

To date, approximately $22,000 has been raised to be designated for this project, with funding initiatives still in progress.

Budget created by Deanne Meek, updated November, 2018

Black Student Union’s 7th Annual Legacy Soiree

Estimated Amount to be requested from the CSF: Max $1,000

Project Summary:

The primary purpose of The Legacy Soiree is to fundraise for our endowment fund, providing scholarships for underrepresented student at UW. This year's soiree, held in the Intellectual House, will involve a night of live music, musical performances from a prominent Seattle artist as well as dance performances including a stroll/step show from Black Greek organizations on campus. We will also honor/recognize exemplary Undergraduate,graduate, faculty and community member for their activism and contributions to the black community. Our program will also feature a keynote speaker that embodies our theme of "Envisioning Black History; Black and the Future". BSU will also be continuing their tradition of recognizing ten exemplary high school students with our Talented Ten Awards, in the hopes of inspiring them to attend the University of Washington. We will include a a catered dinner for our attendees. We hope to attract undergraduate, graduate, faculty and community members from the greater Seattle area to join us in recognizing and promoting black excellence both inside and outside of the classroom.

Estimated Project Budget: $9957.54 (See next page for budget breakdown)

Environmental/Sustainable Impact:

Our event primarily seeks to improve social sustainability of the UW campus as well as the greater Seattle area. We aim to do this through recognition of the achievements and contribution of underrepresented student and minority Community members in an effort to promote activism and community engagement. To improve environmental sustainability this event support environmental education and awareness of environmental racism and justice as minority communities are disproportionately affected by pollution, toxic waste, carbon emissions and other adverse environmental conditions. By building up communities most affected this we can work to inspire young leaders and intellectuals to study and work to improving living systems in those communities.

Student Leadership & Involvement:

This event is a student initiated and student led project. Our advisers, Tiana Brawly of the ECC and Brian Tracy, provide guidance and support throughout this process. We, the executive board of the Black Student Union, consisting of ten undergraduate students, are in the process of planning and executing this event.

Our roles and duties include:

• President/Program Coordinator - Salem Abraha

• Treasurer/Budget Specialist/Fiscal Advisor - Safiya Bansfield

• VP of Campus Affairs - Terrence Jones

• VP of Community Affairs - Abigail Yemane

• VP of Communications - Trisha Beavers

• Secretary/Special Consultant - Sara Bekele

• Chair of Outreach and Recruitment - Ebsitu Hassen

• Senator - Sahra Ibrahim

• SAB Representative - Tyler Valentine

• Webmaster/Historian - Hassan Abdi

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change:

As mentioned above, a key part of our event is dedicated to recognizing the academic achievements of ten young minority high school students in the greater Seattle area in our Talented Ten ceremony. We spend months reaching out to high school to counselors and principals to recommend to us their stand out students. Once we have chosen these ten students, on the day of our soiree we give the students a tour the UW Seattle campus and share with them what it is like attending this university. These efforts are all in hopes of inspiring these young talented student to attend UW.

Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability:

The Black Student Union has successfully hosted this event in the past. This year will be our 7th annual Legacy Soiree. Our advisers, Tiana Brawly, staff member of the ECC and Brian Tracy, a UW Alumni, provide guidance, support, and mentorship throughout this process. Jon Solomon is our SAO adviser. We will also be consulting previous BSU executive board members. This executive board has successfully planned and hosted an Art Showcase last October and we plan to use the skills we have learned in the process to this project.

Contact information:

• Primary Contact: Safiya Bansfield safiyabansfield@gmail.com 734-239-0973

  • Campus Affiliation: RSO

• Secondary Contact: Salem Abraha salemabraha15@gmail.com 206-412-1501

  • Campus Affiliation: RSO

Summary:

Inspired by Dave Hakken's project, Precious Plastic, we plan to build a plastic recycling workspace on University of Washington’s campus, using the free machine blueprints and online resources from preciousplastic.com. The workspace will consist of four machines which shred, melt, compress, and mold used plastic, so it can be transformed into something new. This workspace is designed to be cross-disciplinary, providing raw material to arts and science students for 3D printing, construction projects, and as a sculptural medium. Sale of recycled plastic filament and finished products can reduce costs for University departments and create a revenue stream to self-fund Precious Plastics operations. This project would generate opportunities for research on campus waste and sustainability measures, or it could be utilized as a lab space for faculty and their classes or as culminating projects for students’ theses.

Environmental Impact:

According to Earthday.org/2018, nine billion tons of plastic have been made since the 1950s, and every piece of plastic ever made still exists in one form or another. Less than five percent of the world’s plastic is recycled, and over 90 percent of the garbage floating in the ocean is plastic. This plastic ends up in one of the five garbage gyres in the middle of the ocean, pollutes beaches around the world, or gets consumed by animals, which either kills them or eventually introduces these chemical toxins and bacteria into our food chain.

On January 1st of 2018, China—which, in 2016, processed 7.3 million tons of waste[1]—banned importing recyclables from outside countries. With no strong market for scrap plastics, municipalities all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe are now forced to divert these reusable materials to landfills, and governments are scrambling to find a sustainable solution as landfills become overfilled. Putting pressure on America’s recycling system, this new development creates an opportunity for organizations to create innovative solutions and build domestic markets for these materials.

With a campus of over 43,000 students (not including faculty or staff), the University of Washington creates a lot of waste—roughly 11.7 tons in 2016, of which only 63 percent was recycled or diverted from landfills[2]—and our mixed recycling often ends up being delivered to landfills, without being properly recycled. The Precious Plastics program would result in four impacts on the UW Seattle Campus:

1. Waste Diversion: By reducing the amount of plastic that leaves the campus for an unknown fate, UW can reduce the strain on our waste streams and landfills. This project could also help UW Recycling meet its quarterly waste diversion goals. We expect this process will help UW Recycling meet its goal of 70% waste diversion by 2020.[3] While output data from other Precious Plastic projects is limited, we estimate that, when fully operational, we will process approximately 1.5 tons of plastic a year.[4]
2. Waste Reduction: Education can lead to behavioral changes. Allowing students to take a tour of our workspace, they can learn about the recycling process and the amount of work it takes to breakdown plastics, which could encourage these students to develop more sustainable habits or to make smarter choices when purchasing goods.
3. Conserving Resources. UW can reduce its purchasing of and dependence on virgin materials and help protect our natural resources by creating a closed-loop recycling system on plastic waste.
4. Reducing Carbon Emissions and Pollution. Diverting waste reduces the amount of carbon emissions burned transporting this trash to recycling facilities and to landfills. It also reduces the need to refine and process raw materials, which creates substantial water and air pollution. Despite growing impact of UW Recycling programs, UW net greenhouse gas emissions show growth year over year. This project will contribute to reigning in emissions generated by the University.[5

Student Leadership/Involvement:

With student interest from a wide range of departments around campus, leadership for this project primarily stems from GreenEvans, a UW Registered Student Organization (RSO) from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Graduate students from this program include Emily Coleman, Katy Ricchiuto, Claire Baron Katherine Walton, and Micah Stanovsky. The undergraduate members are Isabella Castro, Sierra Schonberg, Oliver Kou, Emma Turner, David Frantz, Alishia Orloff, Alexis Neumann, and Mason Clugston.

Education, Outreach & Behavior Change:

Our leadership will conduct presentations in undergraduate and graduate classes to raise awareness about the project and increase student involvement. We will also reach out to FIGs, organization, and clubs around UW’s campus—such as Comotion and the Department of Biology’s WOOF Club—which would have an interest in this project. At Earth Day 2019, we hope to demonstrate the machines’ capabilities and produce items for the event made from recycled plastic.

The UW Recycling department supports this project and will assist in the collection of plastics. Collection bins, placed around campus, will feature education materials about the project and the environmental issues with plastic. Outreach efforts will engage faculty for class labs or field trips, and students for thesis projects or other research. We will evaluate our program by tracking the project’s costs, processes, outcomes, and impacts. This data will allow UW to act as a leader within our community and to exemplify innovation by sharing knowledge with other schools and organizations hoping to develop their own small-scale recycling facilities.

Feasibility, Accountability & Accessibility:

This project will take place in several stages, each with varying degrees of complexity and feasibility.

1. Site location: Before submitting our full proposal in the Fall 2018, we will vet and choose a location to house the machines and workspace. We will investigate four possible models for this space:
   1. Customize a shipping container workshop to locate on campus.
   2. Partner with an existing co-making or lab space on campus. This option would drive down project costs.
   3. Operate within an existing annex or similar space on campus. This option would drive down project costs.
   4. Customize a box truck as a mobile recycling workshop.
2. Build the Machines: The free blueprints for these machines make them very cost effective and feasible to produce. Whenever possible, we will outsource labor to students to reduce expenses and source scrap materials, keeping the costs and carbon footprint of this project low.
3. Write Safety Protocols: We will collaborate with EH&S to mitigate any safety concerns and create safety training for operators.
4. Develop Operating and Maintenance Protocols: Before starting production, our leadership will gain use and maintenance knowledge of the machines. We will also develop sorting and washing standards for the plastics. Once we have command over the machines and process, our team will create a written manual and standardized training to educate other users.
5. Create Product Prototypes: Our team will develop standard work for the production of 3D printer filament and a selection of compressed products.
6. Outreach and Education: Once we accomplish the previous steps, we will open our workspace to the UW community—allowing students to use our resources for projects, offering tours for facility and their students, and encouraging other members within the broader Seattle community to learn from our project.
7. Revenue-Generating Production: In the final stage of Precious Plastic, we envision sustaining the workspace, covering expenses through the sales of 3D printer filament at a reduced cost to other campus departments and products we create to sell to the public. We will work with clubs and organizations around campus to develop innovative ways to reuse the plastic we collect and divert from the UW’s waste stream.

Budget Estimate:

$50,000 - $75,000 for setup and a year of operation. Cost will vary depending on site location.

Leadership Team:

Blair Kaufer, UW Facilities Services, Blairk2@uw.edu

GreenEvans (Registered Student Organization)

Contacts:

Primary Contact First & Last Name: Blair Kaufer

Campus Affiliation: UW Facilities Services, Payroll Coordinator

Campus Address: 3900 7th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98195

Phone: 206.221.4350

E-mail: Blairk2@uw.edu

Secondary Contact First & Last Name: Emily Coleman

Campus Affiliation: Master of Public Administration Graduate Student

Address: 6367 NE Radford Ave #4022, Seattle WA 98115

Phone: 414.378.1356

E-mail: ercole3@uw.edu

Summary of project proposal:

The student team would like to use the UW Tower, in particular, the newly renovated UW-IT space to demonstrate how to create a healthy workplace. Students in Professor Kim's CESI 599 course will participate in a quarter long measurement and verification of indoor air quality, light, and other comfort criteria in addition to identifying and documenting relevant strategies that promote healthy workspace. The end product is to use the narratives as support documents to certify the newly renovated UW IT space as the possible Fitwel building. Fitwel is a nationally recognized certification system (similar to U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system). If UW Tower is granted the certification, it would be the first building on campus to be a Fitwel space.    

Environmental impact:

The proposed project is part of the series needed to pursue the first healthy building certification at UW campus. The assessment that students will conduct includes evaluating performance metrics of healthy building standards for UW-IT space at UW Tower, such as air quality, water quality, light and comfort. It is expected that the presentation of the findings will motivate pro-environmental behavior to the building occupants, students and UW campus in general. Furthermore, the project will also demonstrate the importance of the indoor environmental quality and thus promote health-conscious individual behavior based on the measurable parameters. The bigger impact of this project is expected beyond addressing sustainability when UW-IT space successfully obtains healthy building certification and become the example for other buildings across the campus

Student Leadership & Involvement:

CESI 599 requires that students are actively involved in the entire certification process. The class represents a wide diversity in terms of the students' demographics from many different countries, as well as promotes interdisciplinary collaboration where the students come from different majors and departments within UW. Student groups will be responsible for documenting the findings as well as doing a presentation in front of all the stakeholders. The funding is requested to hold a whole building occupant presentation in the UW Tower auditorium which will be a unique experience.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change:

Having the all occupant presentation will be a great opportunity to reach out the employees of this University. We will discuss (and have the opportunity to educate) the benefits of good air quality, lighting, and comfort in terms of occupant benefits and improved productivity. In addition, the students will obtain a hands-on experience with daysimeter to learn one of the cutting-edge tools to measure light and health of the occupant.

Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability:

The requested budget does not cover all the measurement and verification needed for truly demonstrating the performance of a healthy workspace. However, Professor Kim (through her class) will be supporting relevant equipment that may be already available through her lab. She will also provide the necessary oversight. We are asking to supplement by acquiring daysimeter (to measure healthy/circadian light) to enrich the experience and make the assessment more comprehensive.

Project's budget estimate and schedule:

We are asking for $998.50 in total. $338.50 will be spent on presenting at the UW Tower auditorium ($300 for auditorium rental fee and $38.50 for audiovisual) and $660 on daysimeter. We expect to acquire daysimeter before the scheduled CESI 599 class about lighting topic on October 30th, 2018. The presentation at the UW Tower auditorium will be on December 6th, 2018.

Life sciences building rooftop solar array (2)

Introduction

UW-Solar is working with the University of Washington (UW) and project architects, Perkins+Will, on the construction of UW’s Life Sciences Building (LSB). UW-Solar contributed to the installation of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) panels on the façade of the building. The student group is now advocating for the installation of a 100 kW on the rooftop of the LSB upon completion of the building, scheduled for Fall 2018. We have already secured $150,000 in previous funding from the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) for the project, received a generous $100,000 donation from a charitable organization, and are requesting an additional $50,000 from CSF for the project, through the new Student Technology Fee (STF) partnership with CSF.

Summary

UW-Solar Summary

UW-Solar is an interdisciplinary team within the University of Washington’s Urban Infrastructure Laboratory that focuses on the development of solar installations with accompanying Industrial Control Systems on buildings on the UW campus. UW-Solar students range from undergraduate to the Ph.D. level within the Colleges of Engineering, Business, Built Environments, and Environmental Sciences. UW-Solar’s primary objective is to provide clean, sustainable power production to reduce the University of Washington’s reliance on external energy resources, improve power systems’ resilience to outages, and reduce the overall carbon footprint of the university. The usage of clean and renewable energy sources are a primary objective of the University of Washington’s Climate Action plan for the future sustainability of the University.

2.2 Project summary

UW is working with Perkins+Will to construct the new Life Science Building. The implementation of a roof-top PV array will enhance the energy generation of the existing design, bringing the project closer to achieving LEED-NC Platinum certification. Power generation from solar energy has been achieved with the construction of BIPV fins on the southeast façade, but the addition of standard photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of the building would allow for far greater harvesting of the solar resource.

In Spring 2017, CSF approved $150,000 in funding for a combined pool that was meant to cover the $600,000 in costs for both the rooftop PV system and the BIPV panels. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure the remaining $450,000 because many of our historical funding sources became unavailable within the current political climate. As such we chose to abandon pursuing funding for the BIPV fins and have focused exclusively on the the rooftop PV system.

In July 2018, we were informed by Devin Kleiner of Perkins+Will that a generous donor was willing to contribute $100,000 to the construction of the rooftop PV system. The original CSF funding combined with the matching donation brings our current budget to $250,000. We are thus requesting an additional $50,000 in order to fully build out our designed 100 kW array on the LSB.

This project has been in development since Fall of 2016. As such, we have already completed the design for the project, estimated costs and power generation, and have begun a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) to be submitted to UW Capital Projects & Development.

We are hoping this project can be supported by the new STF partnership with CSF. The development of clean energy on campus aligns itself with the goals of the STF. This rooftop PV system would provide positive environmental and financial impacts for the University, provide opportunities for students of UW-Solar to work on an engineering and construction project, and promotes sustainability initiatives on campus with a visible and highly-publicized student project.

Environmental impact

The addition of photovoltaics to the Life Sciences Building will have a positive impact on the environment through the on-site production of renewable energy, which will both reduce the carbon-footprint of the building and increase its energy self-sufficiency.

As of March 2017, the was enough rooftop space reserved for a 100 kW solar array, or approximately 335 standard panels. Using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's PVWatts calculator (https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/), this array would generate approximately 105,000 kWh/year. According to the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculator, that is equivalent to upwards of 78 metric tons of CO2e. This is comparable to the carbon generated from:

• 9,000 gallons of gasoline
• 86,000 pounds of coal
• 185 barrels of oil

Student leadership & involvement

The inclusion of renewable technologies on the Life Sciences Building has been spearheaded by students of UW-Solar since the Fall of 2015. The students working on this project have had opportunities to interact and work with architects from Perkins+Will, contractors from Skanska, and professionals working at the UW.

Numerous updates are necessary before our RFP can be submitted. Luckily, new and returning members of UW-Solar will be available this fall quarter to address these tasks. Students involved in this project will learn:

• Reading and interpreting construction documents
• Revising our original design to match the As-Built documents for the rooftop
• Cost and energy performance estimating

Students will also get the opportunity to select a contracting firm to award the bid using an unbiased, multicriteria analysis. As one criteria, we are including a section within our RFP wherein the contracting firm must propose a “student education and inclusion” plan. This plan should give students the opportunity to tour a construction site, learn from professionals about solar installation, and participating in the commissioning process upon successful construction of the project.

Education and outreach

The rooftop array will be installed with a Supervisory Controls and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. This system would record performance data from each individual panel, which allows for design optimization and simplifies maintenance. In addition, this system stores the performance data, which can be analyzed and presented. A virtual dashboard displaying energy metrics of the LSB will be placed within the 1st floor lobby space. Our SCADA system would be incorporated into the presentation for this dashboard. Students and visitors would be able to interact with the dashboard and explore the building’s energy metrics and sustainable features, including the energy provided by the rooftop array.

The unique aspects of this project make the LSB a leading example of sustainability in higher education and demonstrates the University’s commitment to investing in alternative energy sources. The project has been highly publicized, and the addition of a large rooftop solar array would certainly garner attention from news sources and the student body. This could also serve as a flagship project to highlight the new partnership between the CSF and the STF.

Accountability

UW-Solar has investigated ongoing accountability for management and maintenance of the solar installations, as well as long-term leadership considerations for the project as it relates to executive stakeholders, logistical management, and staffing and budget impacts of relevant stakeholder organizations.

Estimated budget

The following table is a cost estimate for the rooftop array. The budget is meant to be an estimate and will be revised by our contractor bids. Please see the key below for explanation.

*Items intended to be funded by original CSF award
**Items intended to be funded by outside donation
***Items intended to be funded by this application

If we are not awarded the additional $50,000 requested in this application, we will proceed with the $250,000 to construct a reduced array of approximately 80 kW.

Project timeline

The following is a potential project timeline:

• CSF Full Proposal Due- TBD
• CSF Award Notification- Late October, 2018 (TBD)
• Request for Proposal Submitted- Early November 2018
• Contractor Selected: Early 2019
• Construction Begins: Late Spring 2019
• Construction Completed: Summer 2019

Contact information

Life Sciences Building Project Managers:

• Project Lead - Alex Ratcliff, alexr529@uw.edu
• Facility Manager - Jan Whittington, janwhit@uw.edu

Urban Infrastructure Lab Manager - Stefanie Young, sy10@uw.edu

14 May 2018 

My name is Izabella Dadula and I am a graduating senior in the University of Washington Industrial Design program on the Seattle campus. I am writing to apply for a small CSF grant ($952) for a student-led project (with faculty support).

Since Summer 2017, I have been working to redesign the physical containers that are part of the Smart Bins installation at the HUB. The Smart Bins installation (designed by Karen Cheng and Kristine Matthews, faculty members at the University of Washington) consists of a set of digital screens and videos that help educate users about proper recycling and composting. When someone throws trash into the bins, it triggers a weight sensor, and the screens tell the user how their choice impacts the environment. 

Unfortunately, the current bins are small surplus items provided by UW Recycling. They have very limited capacity (about 10 gallons). In the HUB location, these bins cannot handle the amount of foot traffic and waste at the HUB. By noon, the bins are completely overflowing with trash—and that deters people from seeing and using the installation (see photo next page).

To solve this problem, my design more than doubles the bins’ capacity. Throughout this year, I have consulted with the original research group and made multiple iterations of my design so that new bins accommodate both a larger liner and a larger digital scale. Besides increasing capacity, I have made the new bins with a side-door, which will also be easier (more ergonomic) for custodians to service. The current bins are top-loading, which means that custodians have to lift the waste bags up and out of the liners. 

I have been working with the UW School of Art Woodshop and 3D lab technicians, and we have secured free leftover wood from a salvage project that I can reuse for doors. The CSF grant will enable us to pay a fabricator to bend and powder-coat steel for the rest of the casing. We have sent the design out to local metal shops for quotes, and selected the lowest price. The new bins are extremely sturdy and should last more than 50 years. 

We have some funding from the UW HUB and UW HFS for this project. The artists/faculty are also willing to contribute/match these funds. With this CSF grant, we will have full funding and will be able to bring my design to life. This is an extremely exciting and important moment for me as a senior in industrial design—to finally see the production of a design that I personally worked on.

I believe this project addresses the CSF requirements because the installation has been proven to change behavior over time. In the bin’s previous location in UW’s PACCAR hall, trash sorts from the UW Garbology Project showed that the installation increases composting and reduces contamination in recycling. The installation is used not only by students and staff, but also by prospective students and families who visit the campus. The bins are currently located in a high traffic area and are a part of spreading proper waste management awareness in at the University of Washington and beyond.

Please help me see this project to its completion. Thank you very much for your consideration. 

Sincerely, 

Izabella Dadula

UW Industrial Design Senior

izdadula@uw.edu

BUDGET FOR EXPANDED CAPACITY HUB BINS
14 May 2018 

Wood Door Fabrication at School of Art + Art History + Design
Salvaged Wood Material $0

Woodworking Assistance from Flyn O’Brien, UW Design Technician $330

Hardware

Six Hinges from McMaster-Carr (Two per Door, $5.40 each) $32

Three Sets of Four Levellers from McMaster Carr ($7.05 per set) $28

WA State Sales Tax (10.4%) $6

Fabrication at Rainier
Metal Purchasing, Bending, Powder Coating and Assembly (Wood Door) $5,775

WA State Sales Tax (10.4%) $600

Interior Liners and Scales

Three Centurian 23 gallon bin liners ($21 each) $63

Three Adam Scales ($160 each) $480
WA State Sales Tax (10.4%) $56

Direct Printing for Bin Lids

Printing from Imagine Visual Services (includes WA State Sales Tax) $332

TOTAL COST $7,702

FUNDS RAISED

Budget from UW HUB $2,500

Budget from UW HFS $750

Matching Funds from UW Design Division $3,500

Requested funds from CSF Small Projects Grant $952

TIMELINE FOR EXPANDED CAPACITY HUB BINS
We can begin fabrication immediately after funds have been supplied by the CSF

Small Projects Grant. The fabrication process will occur during Summer Quarter 2018. 

The new bins can then be in place prior to the start of Fall Quarter 2018. 

Project description

UW WashPIRG

100% Renewable Energy Campaign

This project is meant to increase awareness of the 100% Renewable Energy Campaign through a fun event that will encourage students to engage in student activism. In this workshop, we will be providing small succulents, soil, and a pot that students can decorate. While students socialize and learn more about caring for their succulent, they will be creating something that they can share on social media or with their friends, increasing interest in renewable energy far beyond the night. The event will also include a workshop where we will talk about WashPIRG, the campaign, and the importance of renewable energy. In the workshop, leaders of the campaign will briefly talk about our goals and why renewable energy is important, and then ask prepared questions to open the topic for everyone to discuss. We may also show the "Buildings of the Future: Net Zero Energy" TEDxCSUSM video, to further educate students about why buildings with 100% renewable energy are the future.

Furthermore, studies have proven that having plants in the home can increase concentration and productivity, as well as reduce stress levels. Plants also reduce carbon dioxide and freshen up whatever space they are in. Having this event so close to finals week will be a great way to give back to the community while educating students about renewable energy, as well as providing students with a path towards making a difference and being more involved. This workshop is meant to start a dialogue about renewable energy on campus, as well as educate our peers about how we take action to create a more sustainable future.

1. Environmental Impact

The workshop will nurture a more sustainable campus by providing students with plants which help the environment and also create a path towards thinking about our impact on the planet in our daily lives. We are also being considerate to use compostable items where possible, as well as reuse any products we obtain, such as paint and soil. Educating our peers about renewable energy also begins a discussion about our own individual impact on the environment, as well as what we can do as students to urge others to make sustainable changes.

2. Student Leadership and Involvement

This project is entirely planned and executed by student volunteers, both within WashPIRG's 100% Renewable Energy campaign as well as other students who express interest in volunteering. Participating in the project will provide students with event planning skills, as well as the skills needed to communicate environmentalism clearly, confidently, and respectfully to others.

3. Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change

This project is aimed at encouraging students to become more aware of issues of sustainability and renewable energy in their daily lives. We hope that this interactive, environmentally friendly activity coupled with discussion as well as education about our cause will attract students who may not already be involved in environmental issues. After this event, we hope that these students will continue exploring sustainability through joining WashPIRG or another environmental RSO.

4. Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability

All products needed have already been thoroughly researched for the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly options. Students across the campus community have expressed interest in the event and WashPIRG has the skills and resources to make it successful. While I do not think that time will be our enemy for this project, WashPIRG has put together successful events in a time crunch in the past. The Renewable Energy Rally held this year was planned in a short span and had over 60 attendees, it was also covered on two local news outlets as well as The Daily. For a full list of events organized by WashPIRG, refer here: http://uwashpirg.weebly.com/events.html. We have a dedicated team of students working on this project and have obtained permission to pull it off. Furthermore, the campaign has received guidance by Sean Schmidt, Sustainability Specialist at UW Sustainability, as well as WashPIRG's full-time Campus Organizer, William Lehrer, whom our organization funds to support us.

Timeline

April 25

• Second meeting with volunteers finalizing event plan and details

• Research all supplies needed for the event

• Begin reaching out to other students about the event

April 26

• Reserve room in the HUB

April 27

• Turn in CSF Application

• Create Facebook page for event

• Begin inviting students to event

• Begin rough draft for conversation topics during workshop

May 1

• Purchase supplies for event

May 2

• Campaign Meeting

  • Sign up volunteers for event/workshop

  • Brainstorm and compile materials for workshop

  • Share facebook event

  • Sign up volunteers to make and post posters around campus

May 10

• Campaign Meeting

  • Begin making and putting up posters around campus

  • Finalize conversation topics during workshop

May 18

• "Plants and Pizza with WashPIRG 100% Sustainability Campaign" event in HUB 337 from 5:30-6:30 pm

Budget

• Room booking

  • $12.50 + $22.00 for a custom set

  • $23.00 required cleaning fee for food

  • Total: $57.50

• Materials for pots

  • Mini Terra Cotta Pots (4 dozen) - $30

  • Paint (10 pc.) - $25.00

  • Paint Palettes (2 dozen) - $10.00

  • Stickers (1 roll) - $3.00

  • Self-Adhesive Daisy Decorations (36 pieces) - $5.00

  • Total: $73.00

• Plant Materials

  • Succulent Cuttings (40 pieces) - $60

  • Soil Mix - $10.00

  • Total: $70

• Food (cannot be funded by CSF; funded through donations)

  • Pagliacci donation

• GRAND TOTAL: $200.50 rounded up to $210

ReThink has held an annual Resilience Summit for three years, and for those times, our organization was lucky enough to work with the CSF through partnerships and grants. This year the Summit focuses on regeneration: the development of systems that are capable of being restored and renewed through the integration of natural processes, human behavior, and community action. We hope to challenge the traditional definition of "sustainability" and discuss if this concept of a prolonged state of environmental impact is beneficial in the future. This year, the event will be held in Paccar Hall 392 to encourage maximum attendance from the Foster School of Business community, as well as other groups on campus interested in sustainable development. We are teaming up with several clubs from across campus to draw an eclectic crowd of around 30-50 students. These students will spend 2 hours listening to in-depth presentations from our business professionals, engaging in question and answer sessions, and ending with individualized plans of action that may simply consist of a changed mindset or even turn into future CSF proposals. With time for networking over a dinner of sustainable and local food, we hope our audience will come away with a diverse set of perspectives and go forth driving change in business-as-usual practices. Beyond the experience members of the planning committee will gain from organizing and marketing this event, all participants of the Resilience Summit will get exposure to a diverse array of students from other disciplines, and informative and inspiring presentations and discussions from professionals in their fields of work. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to broaden their perspectives from the more narrow views represented in their respective majors.

A large part of the challenge is bringing students together to find the root cause of UW's environmental issues in order to create a feasible solution including a plan of action. The 30-50 students attending the event are expected to be engaged and thoughtful members of the audience. Action post-event is not required but will be highly encouraged and enabled by our team. We have invited speakers from Wells Fargo, The Nature Conservancy, Sustainable Business Consulting, and 3Degrees to speak about how their experiences, company, and/or mission approaches the concept of regeneration in terms of climate action. For example: "How did you get to your current position? Did you always know you wanted to work in sustainability?", and "What does business environmental responsibility look like to you and your organization?" We are expecting to obtain funds from the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship and Wells Fargo to help us support this event as it directly affects many students within the Foster School of Business and across the greater UW campus community.

The monetary support of the CSF grant will enable us to perform the best possible outreach for the Resilience Summit in various relevant areas on campus in order to gain excitement and attendance that outweighs last year's event. Keeping our environment and UW's paper reduction goals in mind, while still maximizing the potential for outreach to many attendees, we are planning to partially utilize ReThink grant money to create large poster boards and flyers that will illustrate the importance and quality of this event. ReThink has identified the most influential locations on campus that identify with the goals of this event and ReThink. These include, but are not limited to, the Foster School of Business, the Art and Design School, College of the Environment, Gould Hall, and the Paul G. Allen Center of Computer Science. The posters will be displayed in high-traffic areas, such as cafes and main entrances in order to attract the most attention. These posters complement our mainly digital marketing plan through our well known Facebook page, event page and targeted outreach of our board members and faculty contacts. Our multi-faceted marketing approach will maximize our outreach, and ensure that our environmental message will be heard loud and clear throughout campus.

The environmental problem that we hope to combat with this event is the same we've been working to oust for years previously: the widespread lack of education on pressing global environmental issues and sustainable development that UW students are broadly receiving. These issues apply to every student on campus in almost every academic discipline, yet not all students are required--or have room in their schedules--to take courses that touch on these issues, and independently sought information can often be misleading. Furthermore, though the University of Washington has undertaken many steps to be a sustainable campus, there is so much more that can be done, and we believe this starts with student education, involvement, and most importantly interest. The Resilience Summit thoroughly aligns with UW's mission to sustainability. Even with such a broad term and definition, ReThink unites itself in all parts of all definitions in order to fully capture the meaning as it applies to business, industry, government, and individuals. We hope to be the catalyst to start developing a sustainable development certificate through the Foster School of Business that aligns conservation goals with quantifiable business skills. ReThink is widely known across campus for our work with the UW Sustainability Office, UW Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, and other environmental clubs around campus. We look forward to bringing this unique event to students from diverse educational backgrounds and hope to foster a learning environment where even our guest speakers can learn from others at this event.

II. Timeline

December 15- January 7 | Planning

• Brainstorming

  • Partnerships

  • Funding Opportunities

• Obtaining speaker confirmations

• Creating marketing campaign

• Reaching out to Foster Advancement for speaker introductions and potential funding

March 10-April 2 | Implementing

• Implementing Marketing - Outreach

  • Online first

  • Then to print and around campus

  • Start outreach to organizations, email newsletters

April 3 - April 13 | Outreach

• Sharing the Resilience Summit at other events, including the Global Leadership Summit

• Sharing event opportunity in classes

• Posting marketing poster boards in the Foster School of Business

April 13 - April 19 | Final Stage

• Final marketing push

• Extreme outreach

• Finalization of details with all speakers and partners

III. Budget