SEEDS » Component Programs » Chapters » Chapter Directory » College of Menominee Nation
"CMN SEEDS" » Keshena, Wisconsin
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Coming from a land-based culture and having a very intimate knowledge of the forest and environmental fabric of life, students at the College of Menominee Nation are very knowledgeable and interested in environmental issues. The Chapter's purpose is to establish a student-controlled and run campus organization that allows students to address the environmental and social issues that are important to them and the local community. A second purpose is to provide students with experiential learning opportunities outside of the classroom to diverse geographical locations. |
Plans for 2010-2011
Some of the ideas that we are planning for next academic year are:
a) Set up a schedule for when students will be helping to maintain the campus permaculture gardens.
b) Continue to look for more ways to create a more “sustainable” campus coffee shop. This would include serving more organic foods, only using compostable and 100% post consumer products. Recruit students to volunteer in the coffee shop and develop educational materials.
c) Help support the emerging alternative energy club on campus that is coming out of the CMN Trades Program.
d) Continue to recruit new members for SEEDS and looks for ways for them to become actively involved.
e) Invite SEEDS officers to classes to introduce themselves and motivate others to join.
Activities of 2009-2010
- Our chapter was involved in a number of initiatives this past year. We will list them here and give a brief description of each activity.
- Our chapter had a handicap accessible garden built. After we built it we put it in a prominent place on the campus and planted a variety of vegetables in it. This is basically a garden on a table where wheel chairs can roll up to it and people can work in the garden.
- Our chapter joined forces with the American Indian Business Leaders student group on campus to establish a coffee shop on campus. The coffee shop has paid staff, composts all of its coffee grounds, serves only organic, fair trade coffee, and sponsors a trip to Chiapas, Mexico in the summer to meet our indigenous coffee growers.
- Our SEEDS chapter sponsored a BioBlitz event on campus on April 19. There were 21 students who participated in the event along with scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Over 100 species were identified.
- The SEEDS chapter helped pay for 1 of its members to attend the Clinton Global Initiative in Miami, Florida this past Spring.
- SEEDS members participated in planting an “edible garden” around the campus this spring. Numerous vegetable and orchid trees were planted around campus with funding from the Clinton Global Initiative
Faculty Advisors
- Dr. William Van Lopik
"Faculty/Student Trip to Attend the Greening of the Campus Conference" |
This project supported four persons to attend the "Greening of the Campus VI" conference in Muncie, Indiana in September 2005. It is a unique conference that allows college and universities the chance to serve as exemplars of best practices in the management of their own use of resources in the communities of which they are a part. We attended and learned from the conference, and also presented a paper, "The Influence of Environmental Ethics on the Institutional Development of a Tribal College." |
"Faculty Development in GPS and GIS" |
Dr. Bill Van Lopik, Chapter Advisor, attended two trainings in 2004 to learn how to use new GPS/GIS software. The result of this training is that students will be taught to use the new software during their Introduction to Geographic Information Systems course that is taught each spring semester. |
