PSU helps head national environmental group

Portland State is helping head Focus the Nation, a program dedicated to raising awareness of global warming and informing the public of ways to prevent major climate change. PSU is among the more than 1,000 colleges and universities participating in Focus the Nation.

Focus the Nation is currently campaigning to bring educational events to colleges, universities and grade schools across the country in preparation of a nationwide symposium on global climate change, scheduled for Jan. 31, 2008.

Eban Goodstein, project director and economics professor at Lewis and Clark College, and Communications Director Chungin Chung, who received a master’s degree in public administration from PSU, are leading the program. Chung currently serves on the President’s Board of Visitors at Oregon State University.

PSU held a kick-off meeting for Focus the Nation on January 31 of this year, discussing the program’s key focus of reducing emissions that cause global warming. Eleven PSU faculty members and students comprise a feedback group for Focus the Nation.

Jennifer Allen, associate director of the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices at PSU, said that she expects PSU to play a key part in the program during the next year.

“It’s all about determining what individual schools can do to play a part in preventing global climate change,” Allen said.

Lights Out Day, an event yesterday where most of the buildings on campus turned off their lights to save energy, was the first in a series of events that PSU is sponsoring to reduce emissions. Allen said that there will be several town hall meetings during the next year to brainstorm ways that PSU can contribute to Focus the Nation.

Allen also said it will be vital to involve as many students as possible, beyond just the science departments and others commonly associated with energy concerns.

“The physics department has played a major part so far, but we’d also love to involve other areas like the art department in this major event,” Allen said.

Allen said that other universities in Oregon are getting involved and that there is a possibility of a climate research center, which would receive support from all three major Oregon universities, on the horizon. She said ideas about the research center are still in the works and that she hopes that Focus the Nation will bring the research center to fruition.

Mark Wubbold, a staff member in the finance and administration department, developed a video currently hosted on YouTube promoting Focus the Nation’s goals at PSU. Marion Sharp, coordinator of PSU’s social sustainability group, said that she is excited for the Focus the Nation project and offered her praises to Wubbold for his video.

“It’s just great, what he put together,” Sharp said. “It’s something that PSU students should all take a look at to see what’ll be going on.”

PSU President Daniel Bernstine and Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s sustainability adviser spoke to a small crowd at Portland State Thursday as a part of the Lights Out PSU day. Bernstine applauded work the university has done to increase sustainability on campus.

Environmental studies Professor Dave Erwin mentioned the work Portland State has contributed to Focus the Nation. Erwin said the university is planning to create multiple capstones focusing on reducing emissions.