1. 6
Competing diversity proposals fail to gain approval Cont. From p.1
Master recycling program helps cities go green
Kelly Bell looks to make the world more sustainable
THE TORCH // Thursday, nov. 21, 2013
NEWS EDITOR
CLIFTON HANEY NEWS
Keoni Conlu
Reporter
In the 13 years since the Mas-ter
Recycler program has been
in Eugene, green has gone viral.
The program has turned 700
volunteers into knowledgable
recyclers since moving from
Portland to the Eugene-Spring-field
area. In 2012, volunteers
from the program helped the
annual Whiteaker Thanksgiv-ing
community dinner reduce
the utensils thrown away to
less than 1 cubic yard. Before
the Master Recycler program
became involved, volunteers
from the dinner were tossing an
equivalent of 4 cubic yards.
“We want to create knowl-edgeable
core groups of volun-teers,”
Master Recycler coordi-nator
Kelly Bell said. “They go
out to the community and share
the information they learned
with others.”
The Master Recycler program
was established in Portland in
1990, then moved to the Eugene-
Springfield area in 2000. They
are headquartered at the Lane
County Waste Management
Division on East 17th Street.
The classes aim to educate
residents and businesses on
how to reduce, reuse, recycle
and rethink waste habits.
”I learned what a big differ-ence
an individual can make
diverting waste from the land-fill,”
BJ Hurwich, a 2006 Master
Recycler alumnus, said.
Hurwich managed recycling
for the 2008 Olympics Track and
Field trials in Eugene. She insti-tuted
event recycling for Project
Homeless Connect and the
Whiteaker Community Dinner.
The program operates in a
different city each term, and
runs like a normal college-level
class with a three-hour lecture
in a Q&A format. The classes
are nine weeks long per term. In
2008, the first year the program
traveled to a new city, organiz-ers
found a classroom at Lane’s
Cottage Grove campus.
They have worked with other
rural cities, including Florence,
Creswell and Junction City. Cities
have to lobby to be chosen be-cause
organizers choose the city
where residents show the most
interest in their services. Organiz-ers
are considering holding the
spring class in either Oakridge,
the McKenzie River area or, for
the third time, Florence.
“It isn’t as straightforward
as it (seems). The training gave
me a different perspective of
what you can live without, us-ing
items that are going to last
a long time,” Carolyn Stein, a
2008 Master Recycler alumnus,
said.
Stein went on to become a
Program Manager of BRING’s
RE:think Business program,
which is a free onsite consult-ing
service for businesses in
Lane County.
“I learned a lot about how
to recycle different things and
where they can be recycled. A
lot of organizations go to Kelly
to make events more green,”
Hurwich said.
Lane has also enlisted the
services of the Master Recycler
program. When Lane was first
starting its cafeteria compost
collection, they needed Master
Recycler volunteers to come out
and stand around a kiosk and
educate folks as the process was
getting off the ground.
The way that the Master Re-cycle
program gets its name out
there is mainly by radio. They
don’t want to use TV or news-paper
ads for classes because it
would raise a unique problem.
“We haven’t advertised
for the fall class and for some
reason we were under enrolled
a month out,” Kelly said. “We
did one press release from The
Register-Guard, and I got 50 hits
from that, and it filled the fall
and winter classes. We couldn’t
accommodate as many people
as we get if we did any more
advertising.”
Lane students in energy
management programs could
get credit for participating in
this program.
“(Presenters) are experts in
their respective fields from gov-ernments
to private businesses
and nonprofit organizations,”
Kelly said.
… . But as I also say, ‘We are
all responsible for ensuring that
we can talk about it, and that
we do talk about it in appropri-ate
ways,’ and I’m confident
that we can and will.”
The debate is part of a
discussion that some, such as
ethnic studies instructor Mark
Harris, say has been going on
for more than two decades.
“I sent an email out once and
got about 23 responses: ‘Yes,
we should have mandatory
cultural competency training.’
So the head of the faculty union
is not representing us on this
matter,” Harris said.
“Please know that we’ve
hesitated to communicate in
depth about these develop-ments,
preferring to bring all
parties together and work out
our differences in private.” he
said in the email. “If you have
opportunities to communicate
with student leaders on this
matter, please assure them that
you, and the faculty as a whole,
are responsive to their concerns,
and want to work with them. “
Zito said he is concerned the
faculty union is pushing for
autonomy when conducting the
training.
“As wonderful as that
sounds ... it shouldn’t take this
many concerned students to
bring it up. (Instructors are) the
ones in those positions, they
see those things happening and
they have yet to deal with it
themselves,” he said. “They’re
not here to put anyone down
or to be bigots or whatever. But
with the lack of participation
in dealing with those issues in
the past, I don’t think it would
be right for them to develop it
when they’re coming into it this
late in the game.”
In the past, discussions
regarding the need for cul-tural
competency training
have ebbed and flowed, Lane
political science instructor Steve
Candee said.
“It’s been driven by particu-lar
incidents that will happen
and then, after a discussion,
a suggestion will be made to
(provide) sensitivity training,”
he said.
Candee, who played no role
in crafting the proposals, said
the last incident he could recall
happened “five or six years
ago,” and the social science
department attended “sensitiv-ity
training.”
“People attended because
they were told they had to,
but I doubt the level of com-mitment
they had … was very
strong,” he said. “I think it’ll
happen, and I think it should
happen, but I think in order
for it to happen, you definitely
have to appease those who
are the most resistant in ways
that allow them to buy into it.
You’re not gonna get every-body,
but you’re gonna get a
certain percentage.”
At the Nov. 14 College
Council meeting, several Lane
employees weighed in.
“When we talk about di-versity,
I always say we’re in a
globalized world. We need to
have diversity skills,” advanced
technology adviser Claudia
Riumallo said at the meeting.
“Sometimes we don’t realize
the micro-aggression we’re per-petuating
as an institution. … It
doesn’t provide a safe place to
talk, and it doesn’t provide an
environment for higher educa-tion.
“In a globalizing environ-ment
we should know how to
listen to different stories, be-cause
everybody this room has
a different story,” she added.
Information technology ana-lyst
Susan Iverson also spoke at
the meeting.
“I agree that being sensi-tive
to cultural differences and
avoiding discrimination are
important. That said, I am in-sulted
by the idea of mandatory
cultural competency training or
of requiring employees to plan
for or report on their profes-sional
development efforts in
this area,” she said.
Native American programs
coordinator James Florendo
likes the idea of an 18-hour
minimum.
“Eighteen hours a year is a
good place to start. Everybody
needs it,” Florendo wrote in an
email. “The fact that this is even
an issue points to the need.”
(Copy Editor Sean Hanson
contributed to this report.)
Policies Debated —
All Failed
ASLCC/diversity
council chair proposal ASLCC only 5/22 “Joint”
proposal 5/22 faculty proposal
Requires 18 hours? Yes Yes No No
Teachers help
design training? No No: college administrators
and “experts” Yes Yes
Teachers evaluated based
on attending training?
No: Supervisors must
ensure participation
Must plan for and report
on efforts
Must plan for and report
on efforts No
Requires teachers to
be paid for training? No No Yes No
Defines diversity? Yes: Many categories listed No No No
BRETT STANLEY // PHOTOGRAPHER
Lane County Department of Public Works Master Recycler Coordina-tor
Kelly Bell stands by the garbage pit at the Lane County Waste
Management Division on East 17th Street.