Campus Ecology
Jim Farrell and Campus Ecology
Professor Jim Farrell taught the famous Campus Ecology course. In his memory, the course materials are listed below as he organized them. Even though he cannot teach the course anymore, you can still read, thinking, play, and explore like we used to. Jim’s eulogy can be found here.
Books used:
Paul Gruchow, Grass Roots: The Universe of Home
Scott Russell Sanders, Hunting for Hope
Jim Farrell, The Nature of College
David Orr, Earth in Mind
Campus Ecology 2013
Intro
Mary Oliver, Some Questions You May Ask
February 8th Introductions: Wild and Precious Life
Introduction: Skills for a Living World
Poetry, Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day”
National Wildlife Federation – Campus Ecology
Journal: Why are we here?
February 11th: This Place on Earth
Reading: Gruchow, “Home Is a Place in Time” and “Rosewood Township”
Scott Russell Sanders, Hunting for Hope, pp. 1-27
Mary Pipher, “In Praise of Hometowns”
Skill: Ecological Intelligence
February 13 Plotting Our Place on Earth
Paul Gruchow, “Naming What We Love” and “Snails Have Faces”
Reading: Annie Dillard, “Seeing”
Christopher Uhl, “Fifty Questions”
February 14th Valentine’s Day
Feburary 15 St. Olaf and the Real World
Reading: David Orr, Earth in Mind, pp. 1-34
Bill McKibben, “Introducation” to Sustainable Planet
Poetry: Laurence Overmire, “Real World”
Web Assignment: Calculate Your Ecological Footprint
February 18 Rethinking Education
Reading: David Orr, Earth in Mind, pp. 43-53, 60-69
St. Olaf 2000: Identity and Mission
Farrell, The Nature of College, ix-34
Elise Braaten (’04), “Questioning Education”
Journal: What’s your mission statement, and how does it fit (or not) with the college mission statement?
February 18 The Politics of Nature and Vice Versa (with David Bly)
7:00-8:30, Trollhaugen Room in Buntrock Commons
February 20 Educating for a Future Worth Living In/Living For
Reading: David Orr, Earth in Mind, 75-116
LivKarin Sulerud, “Sustainable St. Olaf”
Skill: Institutional Transformation
Poetry: William Stafford, “Allegiances”
Journal: What’s your dream for the Earth (and the Earth’s people, including yourself)?
February 22 The Nature of Stuff
Reading: Annotations of our dorm rooms
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 35-50
Scott Russell Sanders, “Simplicity” in Hunting for Hope
Poetry: William Stafford, “You, Reading This, Be Ready”
February 25 The Nature of Clothes
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 51-66
Juliet Schor, “A New Fashion Ethic” (optional but excellent)
Skill: Finding Meaning Without Consuming
Poetry: Robert Pinsky, “The Shirt”
Journal: If we are what we wear, what are we today?
February 27 Eating as an Agricultural Act
Reading: Barbara Kingsolver “Lily’s Chickens”
Wendell Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating”
Poetry: Mary Oliver, “Rice” and “Oranges”
Pablo Neruda, “United Fruit Company”
Eating as a Traditional Act: Bread-Baking Lab
Wendell Berry, “At a Country Funeral”
Recipes for Social Change Cookbook
March 1 Campus Ecology, Cafeteria Style
Cafeteria Tour with Peter Abrahamson: Meet at 10:15 in Crossroads lower level by the ATMs
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 67-92
Mark Bittman, “My Dream Food Label”
Bon Appetit, A Low-Carbon Diet
Howard Nemerov, “Grace Be Said at the Supermarket”
NASA time-lapse video of global warming
March 4 Food for Thought
Sandra Steingraber, “The Ecology of Pizza”
Paul Gruchow, “The Transfiguration of Bread” and “Guerilla Warfare to Revive the Countryside”
Michael Pollan, “Unhappy Meals”
Mark Bittman, “Fixing Our Food Problem”
David Orr, Earth in Mind, pp. 117-121, 172-184
March 6 Changing the Climate (and the Climate of Opinion)
The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See
Jon Foley TED talk, “The Other Inconvenient Truth”
Tom Williamson, “Global Warming, Global Warning”
Climate Change in the Obama Inaugural Address
Excerpt from “Chasing Ice”–largest glacier calving ever filmed
NASA interactive chart of global warming
March 8 The World(s) of Campus Ecology
Megan Gregory, “Another World of Water”
Poetry: Adrienne Rich, “Natural Resources”
March 11 The Nature of TV
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 119-38
The Simpsons on Climate Change
March 13 The Nature of Me(dia)
“What Is It about 20-Somethings?”
Sherry Turkle, “TED Talk on Alone Together” (16:24)
Eli Pariser, “TED Talk on Filter Bubbles”
David Freedman, “The Perfected Self”
John Blewitt, “New Media Literacy”
March 15 Parenting for Social Change
Sandra Steingraber, “Organic Mothering”
Rebecca Woolf, “Says the Hummer in the Land of the Hybrid”
Ruth Wilson, “My Child and the Environment”
Sandra Steingraber video, “Parenting and Chemicals and the Environment” (2:20)
Rebecca Woolf, “Sharing My Life Online”
Andi Gomoll, “Greening the Momosphere”
March 18 The Nature of Computing
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 138-55
Joe College’s Placebook Profile
Blank Placebook Profile (for me)
March 20 Making Ourselves at Home: Sustainable Residence Life
March 22 Garbage In, Garbage Out
William McDonough, “A Boat for Thoreau”
March 23-April 1 Spring Break
Reading: Wendell Berry, “The Mad Farmer Manifesto”
Paul Gruchow, “Corn is not Eternal”
April 3 American (Environmental) Values
Interview with Tim Kasser (The High Price of Materialism)
April 5 The Nature of Religion
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 199-222
Stephen Faris, “The Father, the Sun, and the Holy Spirit”
Stephen Dunn, “At the Smithville Methodist Church”
e.e. cummings, “i thank you god”
Mary Oliver, “Some Questions You Might Ask”
April 8 Changing Our (Environmental) Values
Rhode & Ross, “Changing Environmental Beliefs and Behavior”
“Fostering Sustainable Behavior”
Poetry: Carl Dennis, “Our Generation”
April 10 Cars, Colleges and Contentment: The Moral Ecology of Cars
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 93-118
Poetry: Stephen Dunn, “The Sacred”
April 12 A Sustainable Future of Power
“Riding the Wind: The St. Olaf Wind Turbine”
Janet Sawin, “The Coming Energy Revolution”
“Ikea’s Solar Array Will Be Biggest in the State”
April 15 The Body and the Earth
Wendell Berry, “The Body and the Earth”
April xx Brilliant Readings on Work/Vocation That We Won’t Get To In Class
Scott Russell Sanders, “Skill” in Hunting for Hope
Reading: Scott Russell Sanders, “Faith and Work”
Paul Gruchow, “Putting Tomatoes By”
Van Jones Powershift video, “The Green Collar Economy”
April 17 The Nature of Play
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 157-76
April 19 The Moral Ecology of Everyday Life: Love and Sex in College
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 177-97
Scott Russell Sanders, Hunting for Hope pp. 42-95
Wendell Berry, “The Body and the Earth”
John Ryan, “The Condom,” in Seven Wonders of the World
April 22 Designing Minds: Harmonizing with Nature
Scott Russell Sanders, “Beauty” in Hunting for Hope
Skill: Beauty as a Way of Knowing
John Tallmadge, “The Wild Within”
April 24 Designing Minds: Architecture as Pedagogy
McDonough & Braungart, “The Extravagant Gesture”
April 29 The Politics of College Students
Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 223-47
Derrick Jensen, “Forget Shorter Showers”
Paul Loeb “Against Apathy: Role Models for Engagement”
May 1 Getting Political, Getting Justice
Reading: David Orr, Earth in Mind, pp.70-73, 122-127
Michael Brower, “What you Can Ask Government to Do,” in Consumer’s Guide
Foundations of American Conservativism
Foundations of American Liberalism
Republican Environmentalism 2010
Paul Gruchow, “Steady Growth”
Poetry: Denise Levertov, “Beginners”
May 3 Environmental Politics and the Future
David Orr, “Loving Children: The Political Economy of Design,” in The Nature of Design
Gus Speth, “America the Possible”
Thomas Friedman, “The Market and Mother Nature”
How to Talk with People Who Disagree (Without Being Disagreeable)
Poetry: Gary Snyder, “For the Children”
May 6 Loving Children Loving Nature
Betsy Taylor, “How Do We Get from Here to There?”
May 8 St. Olaf (Natural) Lands
Reading: Gruchow, Grassroots, pp. 77-82, 133-38
Poetry: Mary Oliver, “The Wild Geese”
May 10 The Nature of Business
Paul Hawken, “Natural Capitalism”
Ray Anderson, TED talk on business sustainability
Fifty Ways to Green Your Business
May 13 St. Olaf and the New World
Reading: David Orr, “Refugees and Homecomers” and “A World That Takes Its Environment Seriously” in Earth in Mind
Cecile Andrews, “Structural Changes”
Betsy Taylor, “How Do We Get from Here to There?”
Poetry: Mary Oliver, “Going to Walden”
Scott Russell Sanders, “Wildness” in Hunting for Hope
David Orr, “Forests and Trees,” in Earth in Mind
May 15 Sustaining Sustainability: Grounds for Hope
Reading: Farrell, The Nature of College, pp. 249-61
Reading: Scott Russell Sanders, Hunting for Hope, pp. 170-91
Jim Farrell, “Beyond Hopelessness”
Terry Tempest Williams, “Winter Solstice at the Moab Slough”
Poetry: Peter Maurin, “College Graduated”
Journal: What do you hope for? And how do you hope to make your hope more than wishful thinking?