Cardinal “Green”

Cardinal “Green”

Several departments have done significant work introducing students to global environmental concerns. Some of this comes through instruction, such as the Department of Geography’s focus on the security of global water resources through its unit on World Water Day. Other opportunities for students come via their professors’ research projects. One example of such projects emanates from a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. It funded a partnership among various departments in the College of Science, Engineering & Technology, the College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences and the Bay County Health Department, all engaged in a joint quest to seek solutions to Saginaw Bay water-quality challenges. Biology faculty David Stanton and Art Martin along with David Karpovich, H.H. Dow Endowed Chair of Chemistry, involved students as researchers. They learned how to devise cost-effective solutions to environmental problems. For instance, students explored ways to combat the zebra mussel infestation of Michigan waters, and during a September 2012 cleanup of Saginaw Bay beaches, Martin Arford, associate professor geography, had students explore the factors causing pollution along the shoreline.9

Faculty from various departments at SVSU involve students and engage in a joint quest to seek solutions to Saginaw Bay water-quality challenges, including (clockwise from top left): Martin Arford, David Stanton, David Karpovich and Art Martin.

In April 2013, the university dedicated the Arnold & Gertrude Boutell Greenhouse/Sustainability Center, a new 1,500-square-foot expanded facility that serves as a laboratory for botany classes, space for research and housing for the Green Cardinal Initiative. The facility was made possible by a $250,000 gift from the Arnold and Gertrude Boutell Memorial Fund. Students in the new agriculture studies minor, launched in the fall 2013 semester, also utilize the greenhouse for coursework and research.

The university initially built a greenhouse in 2005 just north of the intersection of Michigan and Pierce Roads as an interdisciplinary initiative to encourage sustainable agriculture in an industrial world.