Sustaining progress at PSU

Heather Spalding first became involved with campus sustainability when she joined the Environmental Club as a Portland State undergraduate. Now, just months after her June graduation, she works as the sustainability leadership and outreach coordinator for the Sustainability Leadership Center, with five student employees on her team.

“I’m in an interesting position because I get to work with students and staff,” Spalding said.

The students who work in the Sustainability Leadership Center each have their own responsibilities and titles, and are working on three different aspects of sustainability: ecology, equity and economy.

Second-year graduate student and social sustainability liaison Marisa Ferro is working toward creating a forum for student groups to connect with.

“I hope to help bridge the gap between students who may face certain challenges in retention at PSU through this network and supportive web of social sustainability,” Ferro said.

Spalding’s work has not been limited only to sustainability. As a member of the ASPSU student senate last year, she worked on numerous campaigns. Among these were her efforts to relocate ASL studies from the speech and hearing sciences department to the foreign languages department. Spalding’s efforts helped in getting Portland State to recognize ASL as a foreign language.

She also worked with other senators to open two recently unveiled campus spots, the Green Space, next to Food for Thought Café, and the family-friendly children’s room in the Millar Library.

Another integral part of that position, Spalding says, was providing feedback to PSU administration about new plans and campaigns.

Among those, the senate encouraged moving the Disability Resource Center to a first-floor office. To demonstrate the need for this move, the senators, along with the fire department, held a mock fire drill to show the difficulties some have while evacuating in an emergency.

“It was a really successful year for the senate,” Spalding said.

The senators also met quorum at every assembly, and began holding office hours. Spalding estimates that senators were available approximately 85 percent of the times they had said they would be.

In fact, a common sentiment voiced by the students of the SLC is the desire to continue the work that Spalding and others started last year, such as the Montgomery Street Eco-Corridor and campus Learning Gardens.

“Having the opportunity to be a part of this new department has been wonderful,” said sophomore Fallon Roderick. “We are literally paving the way for others to continue to work toward making our school a living laboratory of sustainability.”

But according to Spalding, it is not only students who work to make the campus more sustainable.

“PSU is in a really unique position here, ready to become a leader in sustainability efforts, because our administration gets it better than some other schools,” Spalding said.