“When these positions are filled, I think the campus environmental movement will really hit the ground running.” said Marisa Rodero, UWM senior and Sierra Club officer

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will soon be welcoming two new environmentally-minded people to its staff – someone to fill the existing vacant position of Conservational Environmental Sciences (CES) environmental coordinator, and someone to take an entirely new position as sustainability director.

Applications for both positions were due Friday, Oct. 19. Currently, neither of the positions have been filled, and whoever is hired is expected to begin work in the spring.

The much-needed environmental coordinator position has been vacant since former coordinator Christina Buffington relocated to Montana during the summer.

Since then, UWM has gone, and will continue to go without an environmental coordinator until the spring 2008 semester, says CES Director Glen Fredlund.

Fredlund is in charge of hiring the new coordinator. The vacant position is not due to a shortage of applicants; in fact, it’s the opposite.

“We’ve had a lot of applicants,” said Fredlund. “But hiring is a process. With a combination of a lot of applications, bureaucracy, and my never having run a hire before, we’re looking to have the position filled by spring.”

The environmental coordinator is a non-faculty position, in charge of advising conservation and environmental science majors. Their primary job is to be an interface for the students, teaching a class or two and supervising internships. Buffington fulfilled those duties and more, contributing much to the university.

She won the 2006 Be SMART Educator Excellence Award, which recognizes southeast Wisconsin educators who help the community reduce waste or pollution, and save on energy or conserve water. SMART stands for 'save money and reduce trash.'

She also involved hundreds of UWM students in local environmental issues by making service learning with an environmental organization or agency, a required part of one of her courses. In 2004, she played an important role in founding the UWM Environmental Council, with the goal of involving students, faculty, staff, and administrators in minimizing the campus's environmental impact.

“Christina was amazing. She went above and beyond, trying to connect people and resources. She was very helpful, and her departure left a huge void. I’m disappointed that her position hasn’t been filled yet,” said Marisa Rodero, a senior at UWM and officer in the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club has also been accomplishing major goals in making sustainability a reality at the university. After talking with the vice chancellor last semester, their dialogue gave rise to the addition of the sustainability director position.

“The gist of what this means is that this person will serve as a liaison between the students and the university. Students can give their ideas to the director, who knows the system and can put it all together and make it work. We’ve learned that there are a lot of loopholes and bridges to cross to make things happen, and the sustainability director will make things more efficient,” said Rodero.

With a new environmental coordinator and sustainability director, UWM will be poised to reach new environmental goals and tackle existing issues.

Rodero is confident in the future of environmental policy and literacy at UWM.

“When these positions are filled, I think the campus environmental movement will really hit the ground running.”

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