A National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) official will tour Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to learn about its sustainable efforts, and to encourage the University on how to become advocates for environmental justice. Jacqueline Patterson, NAACP Climate Justice Initiative director, will visit campus April 22.
Patterson will tour and gather information while visiting the SIUE East St. Louis Center and the Edwardsville campus. The highlight of the day will be a Diversity & Sustainability presentation with SIUE Chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe at 3 p.m. on the Quad (or Goshen Lounge in the case of inclement weather). Giving the introduction for the presentation will be SIUE Assistant Chancellor for Institutional Compliance Paul Pitts, who also is vice president of the Edwardsville Chapter of the NAACP.
“SIUE has accomplished much in the area of sustainability and diversity in higher education,” said SIUE Sustainable Officer Kevin Adkins. “We are pleased to have Patterson visit and learn firsthand about SIUE’s sustainability initiatives, and to motivate our campus and students to do even more.”
The campus also will be able to discover what and how the NAACP is dealing with such issues as climate change. “Climate change has a disproportionate impact on communities of color in the United States and around the world,” according to the NAACP’s website. “The NAACP Climate Justice Initiative was created to educate and mobilize communities to address this human and civil rights issue.”
Climate change is about “the fact that race–over class–is the number one indicator for the placement of toxic facilities in this country. Climate change is about the fact that in our communities it is far easier to find a bag of Cheetos than a carton of strawberries.” For more information about global climate change, visit the NAACP Climate Justice Initiative at http://www.naacp.org/pages/climate-justice-initiative-about.
Patterson has a bachelor’s in special education from Boston University. She also has two master’s degrees, one in public health from Johns Hopkins University and the other in social work from the University of Maryland.
Patterson’s community activism includes working in the Boston shelter system and participating in the “Housing Now” movement. She was a volunteer for more than three years with the U.S. Peace Corps in Jamaica. The activist also worked with the Community Environmental Resource Center as a result of the contamination of the Harbour View community water supply by the neighboring Shell Oil Company plant.
Patterson’s schedule of events while on campus follows:
• 8-11a.m., touring the SIUE East St. Louis Center and its outreach centers
• 11:45a.m.-12:15 p.m., touring the NCERC at SIUE (National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center)
• 12:15-12:45 p.m., touring the Gardens at SIUE
• 1-2 p.m., lunch at the University Restaurant with faculty and staff
• 2-3 p.m., touring SIUE main campus
• 3 p.m., Diversity and Sustainability presentation
• 4-6 p.m., University Club Room, meet and greet with the community
• 7-10 p.m., dinner at the University Restaurant with 40 SIUE students, co-hosted by SIUE Black Studies Program and the Learning, Culture & Society Program.
For more informtion, visit http://www.siue.edu/sustainability/Earth_Day.shtml.