Apr May 09 Newsletter

April/May

NEW UNIVERSITY COOPERATIVE

IN THIS ISSUE .... The New University Cooperative presents at the International Conference on Ecology and Professional Helping | May 9th 2009, University of Calgary Wilma Van Der Veen and Laird Herbert, both Board of Directors of the New University Cooperative, will be presenting at the International Conference on Ecology and Professional Helping, on May 9th, in Calgary, Alberta. The Conference brings together a variety of professionals and practioners, to build a dialogue to engage the challenges and opportunities that we face by growing ecological decline. Wilma and Laird will be introducing conference attendees to the New University Cooperative, and gathering participants input into the project, and their vision for a sustainable and socially just higher education system. You can visit the conference website at www.ucalgary.ca/oikos/ecoconference. Riki Bowden, Board of Director of the new University Cooperative returns from India Riki Bowden, another Board of Director from the New University Cooperative, returns from India, after a two month visit to India this winter. For the first five weeks, she lived and did volunteer work at the Garden of Peace, a project of Buddha Smiles, that 5 years ago was transformed from barren land into a gathering space for peace workers and sustainability activists. Also, the Garden of Peace serves mainly as a safe and accessible school for a hundred children of Kanyambadi, a small rural village in Tamil Nadu, South India. In the village, Riki was part of a group of international volunteers that renovated an earthen sustainable school building, dug a swale for a food forest, designed rainwater capture solutions, and created a food mandala garden. Everyone working on the project was personally invited to attend a talk given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who recently donated 250 000 rupees to the Garden of Peace. It was good hard work so the karma payed off as she had an amazing journey around India by herself for the following 3 weeks, including a visit to Auroville (www.auroville.org), an international eco-town of 2000 people devoted to realizing human unity in diversity, alternative education, and practical research into sustainable living with respect to environmental, cultural, social, and spiritual needs. This experience enriched her with many possibilities and much inspiration for the New University Cooperative. Photos can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/monad.riki She is now moving to Peterborough, Ontario for a 20 week Fleming program run by Chris Magwood called Sustainable Building Design & Construction. Good Luck Riki. A List of Reading Materials

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In this issue, we have a list of interesting reading resources, something which we hope to continue in our future newsletters. Schmidt, Jeff, (2000), Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System that Shapes Their Lives, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers: Lanhan, Maryland Trout, Paul, (2000), Student Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of the University, http://mtprof.msun.edu/Spr1997/TROUT-ST.html Noble, David, (2005), Private Pretensions: The Battle for Canada’s Universities, September/October issue, Canadian Dimension, http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2005/08/30/53/ Sterling, S (2001). Sustainable Education: Re-Visioning, Learning and Change, Schumacher Schumacher Society/Green Books, Dartington.

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