The Forum

At the Forest Park campus, an Earth Day event organized by both students and faculty invited students interested in gardening to learn about it through demonstrations and hands-on practice. The Student Garden Club and the Faculty and Staff Garden Committee of the campus set out several raised garden beds on a centrally-located paved courtyard, where faculty advisor Angela Newmyer walked students through the steps of fertilizing soil, transplanting small garden crops, and sowing seeds.

Two marigold sprouts were placed in opposite corners of each garden bed. Newmyer explained that these young plants, only delicate green leaves hanging on a thin green stem at the time, will naturally repel pests, protecting the other plants. The flowers will eventually bloom into sunny, yellow blossoms in the coming months. Alongside the marigolds, a number of herbs, bell peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes, and strawberries were planted. One staff member worked for nearly an hour on a planter holding a densely-packed, diverse set of common herbs, while students planted fruits and vegetables. Produce yielded from the garden beds will be stocked in Forest Park’s Archers Market for students to take as needed.

Meanwhile, at the Meramec campus, a variety of student clubs took part in a large outdoor Earth Day celebration on the grassy quad between the Lecture Hall building and Communications North. Hosted by Meramec’s Chem Club, the gathering looked like a small festival, with each participating club managing a table along the lawn’s paved pedestrian paths. There was a tote bag decorating station, a table where students could tie-dye shirts; one table gave away seeds and plant sprouts while another gave away candy.

Feet away, inside the Lecture Hall building, Dr. Sahar Joakim Resch, a professor of philosophy, and Dr. Kathleen Hatch, a professor of biology, were discussing the science and ethics of climate change in an Earth Day lecture open to passersby. Hatch explained slide after slide of graphs and research findings showing a changing atmosphere post-industrialization, while Joakim Resch, who advises the Socratic Society, Meramec’s philosophy club, offered discussion questions to the audience and thought through ethical problems aloud from a variety of perspectives for students to absorb and consider.

Twenty minutes north on I-270, Florissant Valley didn’t host a formal Earth Day event, but a sense of respect for the natural environment is certainly present on the verdant campus. STLCC describes Flo Valley on its website as “nestled in 108 acres of rolling, wooded hills,” and even in paved areas, decorative gardens, large trees, and our lovely campus geese are never far away.

The newly-open Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC), too, seems to have been built with the environment in mind. On a tour of the building, the guide explained that the large windows and skylights that define the AMC’s design help reduce energy usage by illuminating the interior naturally. Vertical metal fins run alongside long windows on the center’s south side to help regulate temperature without using electricity. Additionally, the Advanced Manufacturing Center features a green roof, a rooftop area that will soon sustain lush vegetation.