Indiana State University
EN-12: Continuing Education

Exploring The Human Condition Through Fiction: Ishmael by Daniel Quinn With Nick McCreary, Coordinator for ISU Office of Sustainability Date: Tuesdays, May 15, 22 & 29, 2018 In three guided sessions, we will work through the many topics raised by Daniel Quinn’s award winning novel, Ishmael. The overarching question of this piece of fiction is, why are things the way they are? With this question in mind, we will have the opportunity to explore topics including: environmental inquiry, ethics, realism, economics, anthropocentrism, religion, sociology, ecology, and more! It would take a semester to unpack this book completely, so the objective of this course is to use Ishmael as a guide to thinking differently – once we are thinking differently the class can explore any number of topics that are of interest.

Water Stress With Nick McCreary, Coordinator for ISU Office of Sustainability; Mike Chamber, ISU Professor of Political Science; and Jeffery Stone, ISU Associate Professor of Environmental Geosciences Date: Mondays, June 11, 18 & 25, 2018 Join us as we look at the issue of water stress from a conservation, political, and environmental view. Learn what is being done and can be done to conserve water, as well as the political issues being faced around the world because of water stress. Lastly we will look at how this has become a problem from a scientific prospective.

Water Conservation with Nick McCreary Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand. Population, household size, growth and affluence all affect how much water is used. Factors such as climate change have increased pressures on natural water resources especially in manufacturing and agricultural irrigation. Many US cities have already implemented policies aimed at water conservation, with much success. Learn what is being done and what you can do to help conserve water for the next generation. The (International) Politics of Water with Mike Chambers While many Americans are familiar with the political squabbles over water in the western U.S., there are similar dynamics at work in other countries where water is a scarce resource. This session will examine conflicts over water in other countries as well as between other countries, and will draw particularly on examples from Asia. Water Crisis in U.S. West with Jeffery Stone Much of the U.S. West’s water supply is under threat as rapidly-warming temperatures melt more snow-pack annually than is created by precipitation. Each spring, melted snow and ice from the Rocky Mountains recharges up to 80 percent of the Columbia, Missouri, and Colorado River Basins. Together, these basins form the primary water source for nearly 70 million people in an area plagued by droughts—including Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City. The new study, by the U.S. Geological Survey, appears to confirm a key source of the droughts: Snow-pack has been disappearing over the past several decades. This session will explore why snow-pack plays such a key role and why it has been changing over the last decade.

Beyond Recycling -Sustainability With Nick McCreary, Coordinator for ISU Office of Sustainability & Jennifer Latimer, ISU Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Systems Date: Thursdays, June 14, 21 & 28, 2018 Sustainability is one of the hottest words being used nowadays, but what does it really mean? This course will unpack sustainability as an interdisciplinary field that goes beyond recycling. Sustainability is a field of study that considers social-equity, economic growth, and environmental protection equally. If you are missing one of these three pillars, then you need to find a new buzzword. We will focus mainly on the social-equity portion of sustainability in this course because it is the least recognized and understood part of sustainability.

BACCHUS Network Certified Peer Educator Training
Certified Peer Educator (CPE) training helps students develop the leadership skills necessary to develop and implement campus programs. CPE training covers skills needed by peer educators on health, wellness and safety topics such as: becoming a caring health helper, awareness on health and safety risks and prevention programs, how to make referrals for students at risk, conduct educational programs and events, increase leadership abilities, increase awareness of personal wellness, and teach team building.

The BACCHUS Network Certified Peer Educator Training addresses two of the pillars of sustainability, so we are recording this certificate program as a sustainability-themed certificate.