Fairfield University community plans array of Earth Day/Earth Week events | Press Releases

Although the environment is on the minds of the Fairfield University community all year through, eco-minded events intensify around Earth Day, April 22. This year, an array of student, faculty, and staff-organized activities are planned. Unless specified, they are free, and sponsored by Leaders for Environmental Action at Fairfield (LEAF) and the Environmental Studies Program.

Saturday, April 13
8:30 a.m. An extracurricular trip to the Bronx Zoo for Fairfield University students to consider the current increasing loss of biodiversity (aka biological diversity), and what zoos and others are doing to conserve biological diversity. The event is a curriculum enhancement trip for the Ecology and Society core, other core science courses, Residential College students, and Biology majors. Limited availability. Zoo tickets must be purchased. Contact Joanne Choly, of the Biology Department, for details. JHCholy@fairfield.edu .

Wednesday, April 17
4:30 p.m. "The Island President" - A thrilling documentary The New York Times called, ‘buoyant and spirited." After bringing democracy to the Maldives after thirty years of despotic rule, President Mohamed Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable. DiMenna-Nyselius Library Multimedia Room. Refreshments served.

Friday, April 19
Image: Students in Brazil 12:30 p.m. The Brazil Research Symposium . Topics to be explored include

Biodiversity of the Atlantic Rainforest; Loggerhead Hatchling Orientation and the Effect of Artificial Light on Sea-Finding; Automatons No More: The Individuality of Brazilian Leafcutter Ant Nests; Vocalizations of the whistling frog and documentation of a possible new call; Factors affecting Loggerhead sea turtle nest success; Changes in dominance of hybrid marmosets; and Morphometric Analysis of Symmetry Within Brazilian Loggerhead Sea Turtles. Library Multimedia Room.

Saturday, April 20
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.: This LEAF-organized Earth Day Festival on the Main Quad will feature live music, tie-dying (bring your own shirts), eco-friendly vendors, raffles, food from the campus garden; information tables about environmental causes, bike tune-ups, recyclable canvas bag decorating, and face painting.

Monday, April 22: Earth Day
LEAF asks you to wear green today to show support for the environment.

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Campus Clean-Up : Stop by the Barone Campus Center (BCC) Information Desk for supplies.

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Petitioning and Cookies for Comments - Offer your thoughts on an environmental concern in return for a cookie. This activity is also an opportunity to sign petitions about pressing issues.

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Environmental movies shown in the BCC.

8 p.m. Open VISIONS Forum Lecture will feature PBS NOVA host and astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson , the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, delivering a talk, "This Just In: Latest Discoveries in the Universe." Quick Center for the Arts. For information about tickets, visit http://www.fairfield.edu/arts/qc_forum_tyson.html .

Tuesday, April 23
5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m. Dr. Michael J. Werle , a member of the Connecticut Innovations' Technical Advisory Board, will give a free talk, " Technical and Business Aspects of Green Technology: A Start Up's Story." Please confirm your attendance via ASME.Fairfield.University@gmail.com . In addition to the School of Engineering and Dolan School of Business, sponsors include the American Society of Mechanical Engineers-Fairfield University chapter, in collaboration with ASME chapters in Connecticut; Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Inventors Association of Connecticut, the Engineering Student Society, LEAF and Environmental Studies. Networking opportunity. Kelley Center.

Thursday, April 25
10 a.m. - 2 p.m . Research and Creative Accomplishments Symposium - This event will showcase the impressive work of faculty and students. Posters include Use of Playbacks for the Luring and Catching of Bird Species in Brazil for Morphometric Studies; and Are Conservation Efforts Causing Detrimental Effects On Loggerhead Gender Ratios. Sigma Xi. BCC Atrium.

For more information about the green movement at Fairfield, visit http://www.fairfield.edu/green/ .

Image: Dr. S. Ashley Byun, assistant professor of biology at Fairfield (center), with her BI 319 Field Experience Course students in the Brazilian Rainforest. Their research will be discussed at a symposium on April 19, part of the campus-wide Earth Week activities