Why?
Earth and Sustainability Week ‘sculpture’ calls attention to waste, need to recycle. Activities scheduled throughout the week.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Southeastern is expanding its traditional Earth Day celebration to a week full of
activities for students and the general public running Monday, April 18, through Friday,
April 22.
Re-titled Earth/Sustainability Awareness Week, the event will feature tours of
the university’s high tech Sustainability Center and its Outreach Classroom, a business
expo for the public and professionals in the building trades, a Sustainability Science
Fair, and a variety of other displays and events.
All events are free, and the public is invited to participate. Tours of the Sustainability
Center on North Oaks Drive, an educational and research facility dedicated to conservation
of energy, recycling and reuse, are available anytime during the week from 7 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday
Among the events planned are:
Monday – display of two WHY sculptures located near Friendship Circle on Ned McGehee Drive
and in the Student Union quad to provoke thought about litter and recycling; and Reconnect
speaker Jamal Elhayek, founder of Supporting Urban Agriculture (SUANOLA), an urban
farm in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, at 3p.m. at Friendship Oak.
Tuesday – Business Expo for the public in the University Center, Room 125, which includes
vendor suppliers; the LSU Ag Center’s LaHouse demonstrating the latest in sustainable
home building; demonstrations from the Louisiana Children’s Discovery Center Bayou
Builders Lego team, a team of middle and high school students who will demonstrate
their artificial barrier reef constructed of recycled glass and other materials; 2016
Leadership Tangipahoa tour; the ultimate Frisbee game on the lawn of Pennington Center,
4 to 6 p.m.; and yoga class to follow the Frisbee game.
Wednesday – breakfast networking of professionals and vendors at the Sustainability Center,
sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), 7 a.m.; Earth Day events, 10
a.m. to 2 p.m. to include an information booth in the Student Union quad area and
featuring green hacks, or quick job fixes using environmentally-friendly items; distribution
of trees, seeds, registration for a free bicycle and tea samples by Coca-Cola; music
by KSLU; a farmer’s market sponsored by the student organization Reconnect; and Reconnect
speaker Emily Mickey-Doyle, cofounder of Sustainable Produce Reaching Our Urban Table
(SPROUT), a community garden teaching project located in New Orleans’ Treme-Mid-City
neighborhoods, 3 p.m., Friendship Oak
Thursday – Turtle Cove tour for professionals, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Sustainability Center tours,
7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Friday – Junior high and high school tours and events; high school Sustainability Science
Fair in the Sustainability Center Outreach Classroom. All projects must be set up
by 9 a.m. with judging beginning at 9:30 a.m.
For more information on the schedule, tours or other events, call 549-3333.