RUBENSTEIN SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
 
 
RSENR FALL 2020 NEWSLETTER
 
Bird and #isawabird
 
Taking Students Birding During a Pandemic? It Helps to Have Friends at Audubon
 
Remote instruction is challenging enough for college faculty when the format is a conventional lecture. But how do you take pandemic-dispersed students birding? Faculty Trish O'Kane and Brendan Fisher found the answer: virtual birding through cell phones with a mentor. Students in an introductory environmental studies class participated in the Audubon Society's #ISAWABIRD social media campaign by posting photos of birds they learned to identify during their virtual outings. Read more >>
 
 
Dean's Message
 
At the start of the semester, I wrote a welcome letter to our students acknowledging that our collective definition of normal will be forever changed by the events of 2020. Though we are living through uncertain times, I remind students that we have the power to actively shape the narrative of what comes next. We can and must be anti-racists. We can and must slow the spread of coronavirus. We can and must discover solutions to climate challenges. This set of promises is what guides our work in the Rubenstein School. Join us by committing to these goals and supporting the work of our community. Read more »
 
Dean Nancy Mathews
 
People with masks surrounding cell phone
 
 
Undergraduate campaign staffer Haley Sommer '21 helped lead alumna Kesha Ram '08 to a bid for election to the Vermont State Senate in November. Read More »
Student in raft on pond
 
 
In response to COVID-19 interruptions of graduate student research, the Rubenstein School directed funds from the Steven Rubenstein Scholarship Fund to help students get back on track. Read More »
Rosie Chapina on wharf
 
 
PhD student Rosaura Chapina was selected as the Co-Chair Elect for the graduate student association of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON). Read More »
 
Salmon pouring out of pipe
 
 
Director Josh “Bones” Murphy ’94 produced the film "Artifishal" about mankind’s intervention in natural processes and the degradation of salmon species and river food webs. Read More »
Brendan O'Brien holds an oyster mushroom
 
 
As of July 2020, Vermont banned food waste from the landfill. Former graduate student Brendan O'Brien and Dr. Eric Roy tested the use of anaerobically digested food scraps to cultivate oyster mushrooms. Read More »
Person in forest
 
 

The University of Vermont Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest the university’s endowment of fossil fuel investments, adding another milestone in UVM’s long history of environmental and sustainability leadership. Read More »

 

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