Welcome to the Chancellor’s Point Project blog.

As this rather grassroots program continues to grow in both interest and momentum we hope that this web site will be a beneficial tool. Here members of Historic St. Mary’s City, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and the local community can learn more about and contribute to the process of bringing Chancellor’s Point Natural History Area back to life.

I hope that this will help connect us all to the ongoing discussions of this exciting project.

Please always feel free to contact me by any means.

Mike Benjamin

jmbenjamin@smcm.edu

j.michael.benjamin@gmail.com


Discussion Board

Feel free to input discussion here or read up on developing ideas.

3 comments:

  1. Assembled by Kate Chandler, Coordinator of Environmental Studies...

    EARLY IDEAS FOR CHANCELLOR’S POINT (MAY 2009)

    1. ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING CENTER in GREEN BUILDING
    5/18/09
    I wish our chancellor's point project could turn into something like this....

    http://www2.stetson.edu/wordpress/?p=10130

    I also like how they got donations for their construction cost.

    Randy Larsen
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry


    2. LNT/WILDERNESS AWARENESS SCHOOL

    Mike’s idea with a suggestion from Joe Lucchesi for a similar program to investigate

    http://www.wildernessawareness.org/index.html??



    3. AN ECOVILLAGE
    An idea from Kate:

    Check out the Sustainability & Environmental studies program at ?Berea College.

    Just imagine SMCM having an ecovillage that provides ?childcare, affordable housing for new or visiting faculty, as well as ?sustainable living and learning opportunities for students.

    ??http://www.berea.edu/sens/ecovillage/default.asp



    4. CAMPUS FARM


    Creating an organic farm on or near campus for the use and benefit of students, staff, faculty, the College as a whole, Historic St. Mary’s City, and the surrounding community. In these times of economic upheaval, environmental emergency, and global food crises, it is becoming increasingly important to develop more sustainable, community-based food systems.

    FROM RACHEL CLEMENT AND MER EPSTEIN, SUSTAINABILITY FELLOWS


    5. CHESAPEAKE BAY WATERSHED PROGRAM

    [from SMCM grad with doctorate in Anthropology and Sustainability Studies]

    I would love to establish a relationship with St. Mary's as part of my ?work at Washington and Lee. They've initiated a whole Chesapeake Bay? Watershed program with a Mellon Foundation grant (which is also funding? my post-doc), so I think it would be really cool to partner in some way? with St. Mary's as part of that program, perhaps by doing some? comparative case study work with students. I have a lot of leeway in? what I could focus on.?? There? will be some teaching, but also lots of opportunity to help develop a? sustainability focus in their env studies program and focus on my own work. ??

    Laura??

    Laura Henry-Stone,
    Ph.D. Term Assistant Professor
    UAF School of Education
    PO Box 756480 (701C Gruening)
    Fairbanks, AK 99775-6480
    P: (907)474-5934
    F: (907)474-5451
    ftlrh@uaf.edu


    6. NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAM

    from Kate (thinking this could also be incorporated into something larger)

    When Mike Benjamin mentioned this to Henry Miller, Henry thought it could be conceived of as a “Natural Philosophy” program since that was what the science of the 17th century was called.


    7. MUSEUM AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION PROGRAM

    Idea from Kate; while the focus wouldn’t have to be specifically “conservation of species” since we do not have access to the Smithsonian’s zoos and other facilities, this collaboration between a museum and a university offers a model for a collaboration between HSMC and SMCM. --perhaps in “Sustainability Studies” (which could draw on knowledge from Native Americans and Colonists to bring in an historical dimension)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. continued...

    8. CERTIFICATE IN SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES
    The Certificate in Sustainability Studies provides students with a vigorous, multi-disciplinary introduction to the growing discourse surrounding “sustainability” and sustainable issues. The certificate helps to establish sustainable thinking as a critical methodology which students can apply to their professional and personal lives. With businesses increasingly looking to establish more sustainable practices, a certificate of education in Sustainability Studies could prove a viable employable asset.

    Students who complete the Certificate program will emerge with a greater awareness of sustainable issues and the capacity to apply sustainable thinking elsewhere in their lives. They will come to understand the world as a series of dynamic and interrelated and interdependent processes – physical and social – and begin to identify and articulate some of the challenges as well as promises of moving toward a more sustainable world.

    http://www.umassonline.net/degrees/Online-Certificate-Sustainability-Studies.cfm

    9. B.S. IN SUSTAINABLE LIVING

    The first Sustainable Living degree program in America
    Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Illinois
    http://www.mum.edu/sustainable_living/welcome.html

    The B.S. in Sustainable Living covers seven key areas:
    Self Sustainability—?develops your inner potential through Consciousness-Based education
    Bio-Geophysiology—?provides the foundations of ecology and geology as the model for sustainability
    Renewable Energy—?includes solar energy, wind energy, and biofuels
    Sustainable Agriculture—?emphasizes organic agriculture and permaculture design practices on our organic farm
    Eco-Architectural Design— ?focuses on creating buildings and communities in harmony with the laws of nature
    Green Business and Entrepreneurship—?provides the basics of business, entrepreneurship, and eco-economics that drive sustainable communities
    Social-Ecological Interface—?includes bio-cultural ethics, environmental law, and an overview of mega-sustainability issue

    ReplyDelete
  3. To add to this list, St. Lawrence University has what they call an Adirondack semester, an 'environmental immersion' program.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/education/07adironack.html?_r=1
    http://www.stlawu.edu/adksemester/

    Also, Bill Gilbert of University of Mexico has a land art program along a similar line. See the video below!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeNd7mvbsuI

    ReplyDelete