SUSTAINABILITY FOR UH:

THE ROLE OF RETIREES

By Fred W. Riggs

November 2005, Rev. April & July 2006

The Hawaiian concept of malama'aina, literally caring for or living in harmony with the land, demands conservation, sustainable use and enhancement of the local, regional and global environment.

Motives, Scenario, Mentoring, Dream Context, Annex, UH Sites, Links, Sust.List

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Key Points

GOALS Mobilize and motivate retirees as mentors to improve understanding and action on problems of sustainability at UH -- tap the wealth of courses associated with the Environmental Center and the related certificates available at UH.

MEANS. Use IER to find and prepare new retirees to want to support the project and understand local sustainability in a global context, working through courses, research projects, and social action in all UH colleges and departments.

STRUCTURE. Create a core group of faculty and retirees willing to work together to design and implement the project, and find a director with adequate knowledge and resources to manage it.

AEGIS. Find a suitable framework to manage, fund, and guide the project, in concert with the Office of Sustainability, FRAUHM, UHF, CARE, OLLI, SCVP and other interested entities now working with able elders. If it's possible to create a Center for Retirees at UH (CRUH), that will provide the ideal framework.

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Sustainability Court as a focal point: Bruce Miller, director of the Office of Sustainability at UH, has offered the following proposal: I envision some kind of docent/educator cadre that would carry out a number of vitally-needed functions in support of our campus. Of course I am biased in favor of an attractive and interesting landscape, but I think it would be great to have campus tours conducted by retired faculty, and in particular specialized tours of trees, and historic features, and things like that. I also think it would be great to have a cadre of volunteers who might adopt certain parts of campus such as the Sustainability Courtyard. As the Courtyard becomes more beautiful and more intensively used, I have come to accept that there is nobody to care for it like it should be cared for. I would like to see a group of docents, one of whom might be in the Courtyard every day, watching over things, informing people about the sustainability features and the plantings, talking to students and visitors about sustainability, gently giving reminders about smoking and litter, and perhaps helping with weeding and tending to the posters and signs.

MOTIVES. Perhaps we can find some retired professors willing to take on this task for the love of UH, but it would surely be easier to find qualified mentors if we could offer them interesting rewards. I’m not thinking of cash, but rather of recognition and a few perquisites and motivators. Also, new retirees are more likely to be interested than old ones: they are already entrenched in well-established grooves. In fact, the best time to interest retirees is BEFORE they retire. That’s an opportune moment because we now have no fixed age-limit for retirement and faculty are free to choose when they want to make the break. That's also a good time to think about new interests and mind shifts. Moreover, earlier retirement saves money for the UH: the benefits double when retirees also serve the University.

UH has an awkwardly named Incentive Early Retirement program or IER which offers an attractive inducement: take retirement now but continue to teach part time and get paid for no more than 40% of a full-time load. How does this really work? At best it seems to be highly individualistic: each IER (i.e. person taking early retirement) thinks about things to do during the 60% of unpaid time, and calculates the cash benefits. However, the IER program could also be used more purposefully to motivate participants to join interesting and challenging programs like Sustainability. If 10% of each IER's full salary could be contributed by their department to a SUSTAINABILITY FUND, it would cover costs. Ideally, each retiree would also contribute matching funds, and a foundation grant might supplement the whole. The basic goal is to link lifelong learning with service to UH and the community in mutually beneficial partnership. After experimentation, a more viable formula might be designed, but to start with, here’s a tentative scenario.

SCENARIO. The Fund will be available for expenses that benefit IERs willing to join the SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM. In preparation, each IER will “visit” courses that focus on themes related to sustainability -- for examples, see names listed in the ANNEX below. The SCVP (Senior Citizen Visitor Program) makes this easy to do for any course offered regularly by UH. The “visitor” could be asked to prepare and give a paper in each SCVP class, using a discipline different from that of the instructor and thereby adding to its inter-disciplinary content.. After completing several such courses (perhaps 3?) the visitors will be certified as master mentors. In addition to mentoring on campus as at Sustainability Courtyard, these mentors could serve as Faculty Ambassadors to recruit high school students to come to UH to study and participate in the Dream Context outlined below. As they pursue their studies at UH, they can be continuously linked through the Honors Program.

In addition,OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) offers relevant courses and they could also be used -- indeed, as IER's acquire expertise in sustainability questions, some will also volunteer to teach in OLLI. Perhaps an OLLI workshop on Sustainability could be used to bring together all the faculty, Senior Mentors, and the student aides working in the Dream Context.

Miller and his team will guide the process, select eligible courses, and certify the outcome. They will also be invited to participate and make presentations in a new "Gateways to Environmental Literacy" course planned for the inter-disciplinary Environmental Studies Program at UH. Moreover, all qualified mentors will be eligible for attractive benefits and assume some obligations. One benefit could be support for trips with an approved goal. An inter-island cruise, for example, will take mentors to all UH campuses and enable them to see what progress they are making in sustainability projects and what special resources they have that contribute to this goal. Other purely local benefits could include dinners and social events that focus on sustainability themes, books and disks for material related to sustaining Hawaii and UH. A Sustainability Club or focus group, composed of retirees, faculty, and community people will dine together, meet for discussions and talks, and exchange experiences by e-mail. Student aides will be subsidized to facilitate these activities and also benefit academically. The goal is symbiotic -- a wonderful expression of malama'aina.

Tours outside Hawaii will also be planned. A national program for Bioneers suggests a wide range of opportunities. We could organize a Hawaii chapter and work with community groups as well as nationally and internationally to involve our mentors in relevant projects. They will write papers and participate in seminars and workshops on relevant themes. Through such experiences, our retiree/mentors will become highly qualified and motivated to serve others, and the Student Aides will become experts on susainability through their continuing studies in a wide range of academic degree programs.

MENTORING. In exchange for the benefits they receive, participants will agree to mentor in Sustainability Court and elsewhere on the Manoa campus. They will also be invited to volunteer to conduct courses for OLLI on sustainability themes, thereby multiplying the number of retirees and others qualified to serve as mentors or play an active role in sustainability programs. They could give visiting lectures in courses related to sustainability themes. A list of these courses should be compiled and made available to everyone. Faculty teaching these courses plus interested retirees and, indeed, anyone interested in problems of sustainability at UH, will be invited to become a Faculty Affiliate, participate in congenial and stimulating activities, and join the Club mentioned above.

Some links for programs and events related to sustainability at UH and elsewhere are provided in the ANNEX. They offer a foundation from which to develop the discourse proposed above for retirees interested in active involvement and mentoring. Bruce Miller has suggested: readily available perks such as free or reduced-rate tickets to events ( i.e. movies, lectures, concerts), complimentary meals from the vendors, periodic hosted dinners, an occasional story in the papers, personalized T-shirts with a special logo, and things such as that. These perks cost the university very little if anything, and they contribute to building a sense of worth and a common bond among docents.

Although the sustainability theme is especially suitable for the kind of Manoa-based project described above, it could be viewed as a pilot leading to similar programs for a wide range of related themes. For example, the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Task Force is sponsoring state-wide long-term thinking about problems of sustainability starting with a big Kick-off Conference on Aug. 27, 2006. The UHM Chancellor's Advisory Council on Sustainability, chaired by Mary Tiles, has issued an excellent report. The UH Public Policy Center led by Susan Chandler has sponsored work on this theme as evidence in their list of projects and papers. Implications for the University of Hawaii can also be studied in the context of its Strategic Plan. The chancellor's site for Sustainability contains links to other relevant groups that could surely be invited to participate.

Issues involving sustainability should be linked with the program being planned to celebrate the Centennial of UH. It could, for example, include campus tours led by retiree mentors who would point out historic landmarks and speak of their significance both for the development of UH and its sustainable future. To prepare for this activity, the volunteers should be briefed in orientation workshops where expert gidance can be provided. In addition to presentations on Sustainability that could be offered by Bruce Miller, Mary Tiles and others, we could include environmental groups. For example, the Campus Environment Committee, chaired by Campus Planner Jack Sidener, is doing notable work to enhance our campus setting and could help prepare the mentors. Perhaps the Library's rich Hawaiian collection could also provide relevant materials for use in the future development of our campus. In addition, there is a Manoa Landscape Advisory Committee chaired by Janet Gillmar which coordinates efforts to mobilize campus resources to enhance the attractiveness and scientific interest of our campus and its unusual and exotic plants and trees. A reverse twist on the problems involved in sustaining UHM is offered by the Ad Hoc Committee's report on Facilities Management which points to the fearsome difficulties facing our campus that need to be handled if sustainability is to be achieved. Mentors guiding visitors to the campus, after carefully studying these questions, can not only discuss them with visitors but write up suggestions for consideration by those responsible for maintaining and developing the Manoa campus. Their history and beauty can also be identified by mentors in our proposed project. Further documentation on these questions can be found in the UH Library's 2002 archives site documenting the early years of the Manoa campus and focussing upon the role the University played in the lives of students, faculty and staff.

Moreover, this project might also be open to a broader vision of the whole Manoa valley which includes UH's Lyon Arboretum and many opportunities for visitors, mentors, and serious research -- including, one might say, problems of flood control and drainage management that immediately threaten the UHM campus. With global warming and rising sea levels, tsunamis, and hurricanes as a growing threat, the sustainability of all Pacific islands, including Hawaii, is also a broader theme that will attract growing interest and concern. The Waikiki Aquarium is also part of the UH family and offers visitors and scholars an opportunity to study marine life and problems including the sustainability of endangered species like the monk seals. Retirees who become well informed about these issues can play an important role as mentors and volunteers in a wide range of activities.

Without prejudging costs and benefits, the goal proposed here is to build a community of interested faculty and retirees willing to dedicate themselves to helping others cultivate the understanding and will needed to make our community a more liveable and sustainable home. Further thoughts on this proposal can be found in the CLUH text on ideas for the Centennial, and modest funding to start our activities will be available from the Fund for Active Retirees.

DREAM CONTEXT. An even broader global context for understanding problems of sustainability at UH or in Hawaii should be highlighted to give these recommendations a more powerful impetus and generate support for them throughout the University community. At the state level, the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Task Force has articulated a vision of our state's future that every UH student should be interested in. This report resonates with the global context provided by the Earth Policy Institute under the leadership of Lester B. Brown. His magisterial work, PLAN B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress, could be used as a basic text for General Education to introduce all UH Freshmen to the broad multi-disciplinary concerns that will, increasingly, shape their lives during the coming years. To illustrate this point, consider his basic proposition: “Environmental scientists have been saying for some time that the global economy is being slowly undermined by environmental trends of human origin, including shrinking forests, expanding deserts, falling water tables, eroding soils, collapsing fisheries, rising temperatures, melting ice, rising seas, and increasingly destructive storms.” A recent version of Brown's thesis was published on July 3, 2006. A related fundamental threat involves global warming as a problem for our planet and, especially, the United States.

To deal with these problems, Brown argues that, Sustaining our early twenty-first century global civilization now depends on shifting to a renewable energy-based, reuse/recycle economy with a diversified transport system. Business as usual—Plan A—cannot take us where we want to go. It is time for Plan B, time to build a new economy and a new world. Plan B has three components—

(1) a restructuring of the global economy so that it can sustain civilization;

(2) an all-out effort to eradicate poverty, stabilize population, and restore hope in order to elicit participation of the developing countries; and

(3) a systematic effort to restore natural systems.

His book, based on concrete examples and feasible pilot programs, should be required reading for everyone who wants to understand and deal realistially with the core problems confronting the world today. Current relevance can be illustrated by an excerpt on The Coming Decline of Oil. The global context of Plan B would be given local relevance by examples and applications developed through the Sustainability Program at UH.

An example of utilization of this material can be found at California State University, Chico, where Plan B has been adoped as a campus wide "book in common." It will be required reading for all incoming freshmen. The university says that it is being used in many courses in History, English, Philosophy, Communications, Political and Social Science, Freshman Thematic, Multi Cultural & Gender Studies, Intro to University Life and Honors program A possible application of this idea at UH with the help of retired faculty is offered at MENTORING.

UH has a Foundations program where Plan B and related materials could be used as the basis of a Distance Learning course to be taught in small classes, with the help of graduate students and retirees serving as mentors. Faculty from different departments would be asked to prepare the course materials and exams. UH already offers BA and Certificate programs for Environmental Studies through the Interdisciplinary Studies program so the foundation has been laid. An extended roster of Affiliates identifies faculty members who might be tapped to help develop and teach the proposed Foundations course. A list of available courses with environmental content provides a basis for constucting programs relevant to student interests. To help link these resources a core multi-disciplinary introductory course for the study of sustainbility is being planned by Environmental Studies faculty member John Cusick.

Well qualified and motivated student helpers could be provided if the fund described above were to be used for grants to top students from UH high schools to attract them to our University and enroll them in the Foundations program with the stipulation that they whould assist the mentors while also studying for the degre or certificate programs. These students aides could also be linked during their academic careers by participation in the Honors Program. Having their help would also motivate selected retirees, recruited as 'Master Mentors" in the way described under 'SCENARIO' above. This idea seems reasonable and feasible, and would provide a broad context for making sustainability a vital norm and framework for all students and many participating faculty and retirees at UH, and it would deepen their malama'aina experience.

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````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` ANNEX: Programs and Events Related to Sustainability

A comprehensive overview of sustainability programs in Hawaii provides a good starting point for discovery of relevant activities. These include the Sustainability Retreat held on Sept. 16, 2005, which included presentations by Chancellor Konan, Peter Rappa, John Cusick, and others. Here one can find links to relevant courses and studies by Ira Rohter, PoliSci; Mary Tiles, Philosophy; Stephen Meder, Architecture; Ruth Horie, Library; Fred Mackenzie and Michael Gudry, Oceanography. General information about this program can be found at UH Sustainability . A dream scenario that seems to be feasible is outlined above -- it would place Hawaii's situation in a global context.

A presentation by John Cusick of the Environmental Center at UHM provides information about programs for sustainability at other universities. A notable example is Stanford University's Institute for the Environment . At UH, the Sustainable Hawaii program sponsored by the Public Policy Center has many local links for related programs. Leading this effort is Sharon Miyashiro, DURP, and Sun-ki Chai, Sociology.

Various events at UH have celebrated and promoted sustainability – e.g. Earth Day Apil 22, 2005. News of this and related events can be found at UH News , Oct. 24, 2005. For more information about sustainability plan implementation, contact Wendy Pearson, Program Officer in the UHM Chancellor’s office. A film series called EARTH MAGIC has been presented throughout the Fall 2005 semester by the Office of Sustainability. An on-line forum for continuing discourse on sustainability issues has been set up. So far, it’s more of a promise than a reality. Our proposed sustainability project might make it real.

The activities described above will be ideal for management by the new Center for Retirees at UH (CRUH) that has been proposed. They will dovetail with parallel activities to be developed by the re-constituted Center for Aging Research and Education (CARE) that is being planned by the UH School of Social Work as successor to the Center on Aging now managed by the School of Medicine. As other UH centers and programs relevant for able elders are identified, links for them will be added. Sustainability will serve as a launching pad for other similarly organized programs to follow. Readers are invited to contribute suggestions. Many thanks.