EARTH MONTH 2022
Join us for a month-long of events honoring Earth Month and Earth Day on April 22nd! Individual events can also be found on our Sustainability Calendar.
Participate in our month-long litter pick-up challenge with Litterati.
Every piece that is documented with a photo on the app between April 1st and April 30th will be included in our challenge! Going into the grocery store? Pick up litter! At the bus stop? Pick up litter! Out for a walk? Pick up litter!
1) Download the Litterati app
2) Enter this code: UWOEARTH22
3) No need to make an account! Just snap a picture of each piece of litter you pick up as part of our challenge. Our goal is 500 pieces between our 3 campuses!
More details about the app: https://www.litterati.org/how-it-works
This is our tentative schedule. Some events may change. Check back to confirm.
Week 1: March 27-April 2: Climate Justice and More
Monday March 28: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism and Meditation
- 7:00-8:00 PM, Reeve 227
- Come join Soto Zen priest, Tai Alford for a brief overview of Zen Buddhism and a couple of short meditation experiences that might help you find your own center. Tai started meditating in the yogic tradition in 1983 in Texas and has been teaching user friendly yoga since 1998 in Appleton Wisconsin. An illness in 2012 led him to Zen meditation. He was ordained in the Soto Zen tradition by Sōsan Flynn in the Katagiri Roshi lineage in 2016 and is the only out trans priest in his tradition that he knows of. He hopes to help alleviate suffering for all beings, by applying and sharing the joy of zazen (seated meditation). Co-sponsored by LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Rainbow Alliance for HOPE, Active Minds, Women’s Center, Club Nippon.
Tuesday March 29 & Wednesday March 30th: E-Waste Recycling
- 7:30 AM – 2:30 PM, Campus Services Center, 650 Witzel Ave., Lot 39
- Recycle your e-waste on the Oshkosh campus! Accepted Items Include: Cell Phones, Electrical Cords & Cables – power cords (cut off appliances), VGA cords, CAT-5 cables, Desktop Computer Towers (CPUs), Keyboards, Mice, Laptops, Chromebooks, Hard drives/Memory or RAM/Boards, Modems, Servers, Network switches, DVRs/Cable boxes, game consoles.
- Contact spanbauerb@uwosh.edu for more information.
Wednesday March 30: Climate Justice Teach In
- All day: 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM, Reeve 227, Virtual
- Meeting ID: 996 3396 6157 Passcode: 53225
- Please join us for a full day of events focused on the climate crisis. Presentations and interactive events are coordinated with class time slots, so instructors, please bring your class! Topics covered will include the basics of climate change and its impacts, solving the climate crisis, a Climate Café lunch hour with informal discussion with student and campus leaders, climate action at UWO and in the UW System, climate justice, a mock climate summit, Indigenous resistance to fossil fuel pipelines in the Upper Midwest and more. Presenters will include UWO students, faculty, staff and special guest Senior Chief Meteorologist at WKOW, Bob Lindmeier.
- See Teach In website or contact spehars@uwosh.edu for more information.
Thursday, March 31: Think Oshkosh: UWO & Community Networking and Happy Hour
- 5:00-7:00 PM, Becket’s Restaurant, 2 Jackson St, Oshkosh, WI
- Join us for a casual evening of networking, idea sharing and partnership building. Meet collaborators and learn about what is happening at our university and in our community. All who are interested in building connections and exploring ways to work together- on research, community projects, classes, internships and more- are welcome! Ready-made projects not required. Co-sponsored by the Center for Civic and Community Engagement and SIRT.
Saturday, April 2: Free School
- All day: 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Sage Hall, 3rd Floor
- Free School was created to recognize that education should be affordable to everyone. It is open to the public, admission is free, and free snacks and childcare will be provided. Volunteer teachers will teach classes on pysanky (Ukrainian egg decorating), writing, wildlife rehabilitation, nature activities for kids of all ages, tai chi and more!
- Free School Schedule will be posted here.
Week 2: April 3-9: Growing Sustainability
Wednesday, April 6: Go Green for Menstrual Hygiene
- 3:30-4:30 PM, Virtual
- Do you menstruate? Would you like to learn more about environmental and financially sustainable solutions to menstrual hygiene management? Join us for a Go Green for Menstrual Hygiene workshop! Participants learn about different sustainable menstrual hygiene products and their environmental impacts. Thanks to initial funding from the Green Fund and ongoing funding from the Women’s Advocacy Council, student participants who menstruate will leave with a sustainable menstrual hygiene kit, while supplies last, to promote the adoption of sustainable menstrual management.
Thursday, April 7: Ohe∙láku and Ukwakhwa: How the Oneida Community is Coming Together to Care for Our Seed Relatives
- 9:40 AM -11:10 AM, Sage Hall 1214
- In this presentation, Laura Manthe and Rebecca M. Webster talk about two community groups that strive to grow and share indigenous foods and seeds. Ohe∙láku (Among the Cornstalks) is a co-op dedicated to growing several acres of heirloom Tuscarora White Corn and involving the community with all aspects of caring for the corn. Ukwakhwa (Our Foods) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to sharing knowledge about growing, harvesting, cooking, and caring for Haudenosaunee varieties of seeds.
Friday, April 8: Heirloom Apple Tree Grafting Workshop and Scion Wood Exchange
- 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Sage Hall
- Come learn about the propagation of heirloom apple trees and make your own apple tree to take home! Grafting lessons provided by Dan Bussey, writer of several books and expert grafter. Scion wood for many rare apple varieties available to choose from (some pear and cherry scion wood is available for collectors, but we have no rootstock for these this year). We will have limited dwarf and semi dwarf apple tree rootstock available and there are only 15 free rootstocks (first come first serve). More are for sale by some participants at the event (cost ~ $4 per rootstock). Sponsored by the Sustainable Solutions For Tomorrow club.
Week 3: April 10-16: Social Justice Week
Cosponsored by the Social Justice Program, the Social Justice Club, and SIRT
Monday, April 11: Pub Crawl Cleanup
- Meet up on stairs of Polk Library at 1:30 and 3:00 PM
- Help keep our campus clean and beautiful.
- Bags, gloves, and grabbers provided, but it might be a good idea to bring your own work gloves.
Monday, April 11: Motivations for Social Justice: Spirituality, Faith and Human Goodness Panel Discussion
- 6:00 – 7:30 PM, Sage 1210
Tuesday, April 12: Go Green for Menstrual Hygiene
- 10:00-11:00 AM, Virtual
Tuesday, April 12: “Maps: Storytellers or Factfinders?” Lori Palmeri, Mayor of Oshkosh
- 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM, Sage Hall 1214
- Sponsored by the UWO Geography Department: Geiger Lecture 2022 Lori Palmeri, Mayor of Oshkosh “Maps: Storytellers or Factfinders?”
- Oshkosh Mayor Lori Palmeri will discuss how maps can be storytellers and/or factfinders that inform local decisions. In a time where misinformation and disinformation have made it difficult for people to know what to think, there is a need to critically examine how data are provided to local decision makers and to the public. This is particularly true in consideration of local budgets and in the equitable allocation of resources. Lori Palmeri has a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Urban Planning from UW Oshkosh and a Masters in Urban Planning from UW Milwaukee.
Tuesday, April 12: LGBTQIA+ Ally March
- 5:00 – 7:00 PM, Reeve Ballroom
- On this day, we celebrate all who are queerly diverse and all who are dedicated to making our schools, communities, nation, and world safer and more accepting of sexuality and gender diversity. Join us in celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and come march with us! Families welcome!
Wednesday, April 13: Reimagining Social Welfare: Past, Present, and Future
- 5:00 – 7:00 PM, Reeve Union 227 and virtually
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Increasing polarization, budget cuts, stigma and other challenges have made it increasingly difficult to meet the needs of the most socially vulnerable in our communities. This conversation will reimagine how to advance social welfare and wellbeing to advance racial and economic equity. The panel will provide a historical account of public assistance programs in the United States, which were historically extensive and run by local governments. Yet, such services were not regarded as controversial, unlike today. Further discussion will examine how programs of the past have evolved, now requiring more collaboration between the public and nonprofit sectors. This conversation will also tackle the question of how government and nonprofit leaders can more effectively work together, promising practices that can foster collective impact, and why such partnerships are critical to address present and future issues.
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UWO Social Justice Week programming and sponsored by the Whitburn Center for Governance and Policy Research, the UW Oshkosh Department of Public Administration and the Center for Civic and Community Engagement.
Thursday, April 14th: An Evening with Michelle Alexander
- 7:00 – 9:00 PM, Virtual
- Join us for an evening with The New York Times best-selling author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander. She will talk about her work on breaking the silence about racial injustice in the modern legal system to reveal how mass incarceration has come to replace segregation. The conversation will be a moderated Q&A by our own Dr. Damira Grady, Associate Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence and University Diversity Officer.
- Speaker Series and Reeve Union Inclusion Programs
Saturday April 16: Birding at Asylum Bay
- 9:00 AM, Asylum Bay, Oshkosh
- Join UW Oshkosh Biology and Environmental Studies instructor Dr. Shannon Davis-Foust to look for birds and spring ephemerals.
- Use the parking lot at the end of Snell Road. Dress for the weather and be prepared for muddy conditions. Bring binoculars if you have them!
Week 4: April 17-23: Earth Week
Monday, April 18: Go Green for Menstrual Hygiene
- 6:30-7:30 PM, Women’s Center Virtual
Wednesday, April 20: Earth Month Keynote by Venice R. Williams, Executive Director of Alice’s Garden Urban Farm in Milwaukee
- 5:30 – 7:00 PM, Sage Hall 1214, Virtual Recording
- Our Earth, Our Lives: Everything we do is connected to the gifts the Earth, the Elements, and Creation provide for us. How are we doing as stewards of the planet? The Earth cares for us; what are some of the things we need to be more aware of when it comes to caring for the Earth? As the health of the planet diminishes, so will human lives. There are many things that cannot be undone. However, we may embrace the Earth more lovingly, intentionally, and as gentle caretakers moving forward.
- Venice R. Williams is the Executive Director of Alice’s Garden Urban Farm in Milwaukee, which provides models of regenerative farming, community cultural development and economic agricultural enterprises for the global landscape. They recognize the cultivating, preparing and preserving of food and food traditions as cultural arts to be reclaimed and celebrated fully in urban agriculture.
- Co-sponsored by: SIRT, Speaker Series, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Wildlife Conservation Club, Environmental Studies Program, Sociology Department, Women’s Advocacy Council
Saturday, April 23: Hands on Oshkosh
- Once a semester UW Oshkosh hosts “Hands on Oshkosh” a program where students, faculty and staff come together to go out into the community to volunteer and make a difference. Volunteer projects during the day vary based on what agencies are partnered with. Painting, weeding, planting, digging, cleaning and moving are all likely projects to help with.
- Questions? Email handsonoshkosh@uwosh.edu
Saturday, April 23: The Buzz About Bugs: insect chemistry
- 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Oshkosh Public Library
- Join the Northeast Wisconsin Local Section of the American Chemical Society for Chemists Celebrate Earth Week 2022. We’ll have fun learning about the Chemistry of insects!
- Questions about the event, please contact: ACSNEWIOutreach@gmail.com
Week 5: April 24-30: Let’s Get Outside!
Tuesday, April 26: Arbor Day Observance and Tree Planting
- 10:00 AM, near Tennis courts.
- Join us and help plant trees across campus with the help of the Grounds Crew. Shovels and gloves provided.
- Wednesday, April 27: Go Green for Menstrual Hygiene
- 5:00-6:00 PM, Virtual
Thursday, April 28: Bike Safety and Repair Event
- 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM, Reeve Union Concourse – outdoors
- Spring means it’s time to ride! To get us ready for our spring cycling adventures, bike experts from Winnebago Bicycles and the Outdoor Adventure Center will be on hand to answer your questions and do minor tune-ups on your bike. You will also have the opportunity to chat with folks from the East Central Wisconsin Planning Commission about how to make our area safer for cyclists.
CANCELED: Saturday, April 30: Bike Tour of Oshkosh!
- 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM; groups leaving at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00 AM from meeting spot #1
- Meeting spot/ Stop #1: Ephemeral gardens by Halsey/Harrington Halls
- Stop #2: Co-Op (story of the Co-op from Food Justice Team and tour of the store)
- Stop #3: Chief Oshkosh
- Join us for an easy paced bike ride around Oshkosh! We will explore sustainability efforts, both traditional and contemporary, as we stop at the ephemeral gardens, Oshkosh Food Co-Op and Menominee Park. Pre-Registration is required via our google form, where more details can also be found. Limited bikes may be available for rental at the UARC, otherwise your own personal bike is required.
Sustainability Institute for Regional Transformations
UW Oshkosh
800 Algoma Blvd.
Oshkosh, WI 54901