Faces to Names...

Greetings everyone,

Just wanted to take a moment to post a photo of the DSUSO employees so that faces can be attached to our names! From left to right, Emily Rideout, Sarah Applebaum and Mark Johnston. Also, here's a description of our positions within the Sustainability Office:

PROMOTER/PLANNER – Sarah Applebaum,

The promoter/planner provides several functions for the sustainability office. The promoter is here to provide students and student societies with assistance and support when they are working together to organize activities on campus that promote sustainability. Support will also be provided support for campus-wide sustainability endeavours. A main emphasis this semester is surrounding the organization and promotion of Green Week in March 2008. Green week will be occurring March 10^th-14^th and all societies are encouraged to become actively involved in the events of the week. Please check back often for more detailed information concerning green week.

COORDINATOR – Emily Rideout,

As the DSU sustainability networker/coordinator, my role is to encourage and enhance the connections between individual students, class groups and societies who are interested in doing sustainability-related projects on campus, and to provide resources to anyone interested in doing so.

So what does this mean? It means that if you're looking to get involved, I can tell you what different societies are doing. If your group is doing a class project and you need information about what has already happened on campus or who to talk to about it, I can tell you. If your society is hosting an event to raise awareness or money around a campus environmental issue, I can put you in contact with others who could help you organize, advertise and carry out the event. If you or your group wants to lobby the administration about a campus sustainability issue, I can tell you how to do it. Want to know what's going on at other campuses across Canada, I can tell you. If you're looking for literature on an issue, I can suggest some good books. Basically, if you have any questions about campus sustainability, I can help!

I have been very involved with SustainDal over the past 2 years and this experience has provided me with an understanding of past and current initiatives at Dal, what various departments are working on
sustainability-wise, and the best people to talk to about a variety of issues. I am currently a 2nd year IDS and Environmental Studies student, but I've been an environmentalist since I was 10!

LIAISON – Mark Johnston,

The purpose of the Liaison role is to communicate with Dalhousie societies and students, campus wide, in an effort to act as a conduit through which ideas, expressions and interests can be represented to both the Dalhousie’s Administrative Sustainability Office and the Student Union. Through a series of regular meetings with both Rochelle Owen (Dalhousie Administrative Sustainability Office) and with the DSU Council, it will be possible to communicate, in a cohesive manner, the sincere sustainability concerns of the student body. While it is still possible for each society - or even each student – to represent and express themselves on the topic of sustainability, the Liaison position takes advantage of both student funding and its position as a ‘wing’ of the DSU, to escalate your concerns to the highest levels of Dalhousie administration and management.

It is the function of the Liaison to be in regular communication with student societies in regard to their activities and goals. However, outside of this, societies are also invited to initiate communication with the Liaison for any issue, no matter the size. Feel free to take advantage of your direct link to Dalhousie University’s administrative and management officials!