Many of the conversations around sustainability center on transformation, but transition - a process of change that does not necessarily lead to a fundamental shift in state - also matters because it forces us to consider both how we change and how we stay the same. ESE, the 2022-2023 academic year is a key transitional time. On July 1st, by Dr. Mel Lenczewski completed two terms - a full decade of service - as Director of ESE and returned fully to her role as a Presidential Engagement and Partnerships Professor. Under Mel’s humane and collaborative leadership, ESE grew and matured into an organization that fulfilled its dual academic and research mandates. It is now the academic home for the interdisciplinary study of sustainability at NIU through its Environmental Studies major and minor and a Sustainable Food Systems certificate, engaging more than 100 current students and a rich network of alumni. And it is the home to 35 scholars across departments, centers, and colleges, marking it as the home for interdisciplinary work at the university. While sustainability often lives as a nomad at universities among evolving clusters of faculty and students, Mel ensured it had a home.
As I step into the Director role, I am mindful of how fortunate I am to be welcomed into the ESE home and that my task is guiding a positive transition by amplifying and strengthening what is already working. Building on our portfolio of research opportunities for undergrads, we welcomed 5 Graduate and 10 Undergraduate Fellows funded by an $850,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. We will be using traditional and crowdfunding campaigns to support student scholarships, with a target of raising $8,000 this year. We’re also continuing to have a full menu of events that can bring current and potential students together, from our Fall Open House—which happened earlier this month—to the events noted later in the newsletter. We’re starting both a writing group to nurture the development of scholarship among our faculty and graduate students and will be providing up to $10,000 to support faculty working groups that cut across disciplinary boundaries. The goal is to solidify our identity—within NIU and among similar hubs at other universities—as a home for transdisciplinary research and to increase our impact through articles, grant proposals, and other scholarly products.
These efforts, and others you will learn about over the coming year, create processes through which ESE can transition in the coming months and years into an institute that has even more capacity to deal with the many significant transitions happening in sustainability, from major federal and state policy changes to the climate change-related crises that continue to increase in frequency and urgency. I look forward to working with you all in the coming months and years as we navigate these challenges and opportunities together.
Your Director,
Tom
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