Integrating health and sustainability: the higher education sector as a timely catalyst
Lawmakers are continuing to push for a more sustainable environment. Ironically I haven't read many articles about the health hazards that could be prevented or about the health benefits if the environment were more sustainable. Higher education plays a very influential role in being a catalyst for pushing agendas. Integrating health and sustainability is what J.Orme and M.Dooris research in "Integrating heath and sustainability: the higher education sector as a timely catalyst". In the article they explore sustainability and it's role for promoting health. According to J.Orme and M.Dooris "higher education represents one large-scale sector with a unique combination of roles that can be harnessed to focus and mobilize its education, knowledge, exchange, research, corporate responsibility and future shaping agendas".
The Green Coalition really has a platform to push its initiatives if done accurately and effectively. The article also discusses how influential higher education can be. This is the highlight that I am trying to emphasize about this article. In order to make FAMU a more sustainable campus, we must figure out what makes our campus and it's surrounding community "tick". The foundation about sustainability has already been laid due to the media coverage it has gotten, so now campuses must build on that foundation. When a college student is asked whether he or she recycles or even cares about the environment 9 times out of 10 the answer will be "No". What we have to do as a class is figure out how to make people more knowledgeable about the detriment that pollution is having on our environment, but we have to relate it to our audience so that it becomes "real" to them. Since we can't see directly what pollution is doing to our community its "out of sight out of mind" and must reverse it to "in sight in mind"
J. Orme1* and M. Dooris2
1Institute for Sustainability, Health and Environment, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of England, Glenside Campus, Bristol BS16 1DD, UK and 2Healthy Settings Development Unit, School of Public Health and Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Harrington Building, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK
*Correspondence to: J. Orme. E-mail: judy.orme@uwe.ac.uk
Received on November 9, 2009; accepted on January 28, 2010
I agree with you Courtney! We do need to understand what makes our campus tick. Most of the discussion surrounding the green energy fund has been very vague and when we discuss it within our focus groups and in our surveys we have to be sure that our messages are explicit. The last thing students want is another 'differential fee' that is just another reason to take their money.
ReplyDeleteMs. Bledsoe, you made a very touchy point. I agree because getting students to care and finding out what makes them tick is definitely the issue we need to tackle. I know a lot of students will feel very negative when they find out that the school once again has gotten them for another fee. Therefore, understanding all aspects of this issue will help with shaping our message.
ReplyDelete