Blogging at UVM

This year the Sierra Club Magazine ranked UVM number THREE in it's annual "Cool Schools Report" Out of a total of 100 possible points, UVM scored a 91. The Sierra Club ranked schools in ten categories on topics such as: "...policies for building, energy, food, investment, procurement, and transportation; curriculum; environmental activism; waste management; and overall commitment to sustainability." The UVM campus has a new office of sustainability. The UVM campus recycles old office furniture to the campus and the community at their surplus location. Students on campus may serve as ECO-REPS in their residential halls. They help create awareness about sustainability and recycling among the student body. I think the techno trash recycling centers are great around campus! You can put batteries, old technology, and light blubs in them. These recycle centers are located in dorms, at the Bailey/Howe Library, in multiple areas of the Davis Student Center, and other campus locations. It's easy at UVM to do your part to be Green!

I took this photo with my cell phone yesterday at the activities fair on campus. I couldn't believe how BIG it was this year! It really showed all the fun choices on campus and in the community!
Check out these websites for more about what's going on here at UVM:
Student Clubs at UVM
UVM Bored calendar of campus activities - you can't be bored here!
UVM Campus Events Calendar

Get out there and enjoy this campus!

Welcome back to UVM for the Fall 2008 semester.
It's great to see the campus humming again with faculty and students.
Check out the events for the Welcome week. Today is the last day for free ice cream from 11:30am-1:30pm!

Whatever one can say about the weather in Vermont, the march of the seasons is constant. Come the first week of May, the crab apples begin to open, and by graduation day, they will be in full display. Full pinks, light pinks, white pinks. This is an 8 AM view of one on the Green.

Scott Costa, and a bunch of his students, masquerading as a gigantic caterpillar, have taken to parading around UVM this time of year to announce his Spring semester course PSS 028 - A Bugs Life:

"As insects go about their daily lives they touch on ours, from the food we eat to solving murder crimes. Unleash your inquisitive nature and open the doors of science as you explore the secrets of insect lives. Topics will include forensic investigation, insect invasions, biological warfare, biodiversity and how insects impact culture. Learn about the bugs you eat every day, and those that may be eating you. There will be a "town meeting" and each student will receive live insects for a take home research project. The semester culminates with a banquet featuring light fare for the avant-garde bug eater (ingestion is not required; veggie alternatives available). Join us on Wednesday evenings in Spring 2008 for: PSS 028, A Bug's Life."

For more information, contact Scott Costa, 656-2824 or Scott (dot) Costa (at) Uvm (dot) Edu

She was sitting in an oak tree by the Davis center observing the small cluster of people gathered there "oohing and ahhing" over her. Eventually, she went back to sleep. Katie Blis took this beautiful photo!

October's full moon was yesterday, the 25th, so this morning at 7:15 or so, we were treated to a nicely arranged sun rise moon set. In reality, of course, the setting moon was gigantic :).

A month from now
we will have had our snow,
winter will be here.

Fragile
Originally uploaded by [collin]

Blogging has changed the way many people share their opinions about current events, politics, and their inner most thoughts. The speed at which this information is disseminated is almost instantaneous from the moment it is posted on the internet. Within minutes the entry makes it to the RSS feed readers across the world, including the all knowing Google search engine. This is actually how I got the news about the Live Earth short film of the essay written by the late UVM student Michelle Gardner-Quinn.

Most of us in the UVM community will never forget Michelle, even if we never actually met her face to face. Her spirit lives on throughout our campus community and beyond in the hearts of the UVM graduates, especially those of 2007 class. It is incredible how her words now get the chance to touch and effect millions of people through the voices of celebrities and Michelle’s own mother. Don’t miss the chance to read her essay in the UVM alumni magazine, the Quarterly edition from Winter 2007 or on Michelle's Earth Foundation website.

I don’t know anyone yet who has watched the Short Film from Live Earth with a dry eye. It is certainly worth the minute it takes to view it on YouTube.

entry posted by Holly Buckland Parker, Center for Teaching and Learning, UVM
photo by Collin J. Parker, Essex Junction, Vermont

The so far cool and damp summer has given us dense greenery. Ira (or is it Ethan) is barely visible when you walk by him in the morning.

Interested in blogs and other forms of social media (e.g., Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, etc.)? If so, check out the International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM) and to consider presenting your research at their upcoming conference March 31-April 2 2008 in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. (http://www.icwsm.org/2008/)

From the call for papers:

The rapid creation and consumption of social media content continues to drive the evolution of the Internet and the Web. Social media content now accounts for the majority of content published daily on the web.

As the space evolves, researcher and industrial practitioners find themselves at a key point for collaborating on research, implementation and deployment of a wide range of analyses and applications. The International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media invites researchers in the broad field of social media analysis to submit papers for its second meeting. Following in the tradition of earlier workshops and the first meeting in Boulder, USA in 2007, we anticipate an exciting, high quality event which will bring together academic and industrial practitioners to present and to discuss new research, applications, thoughts and ideas that are shaping the future of social media analysis.