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Director's Note to Alumni

April 7, 2020
April 2020 Director's Note to Alumni

 

Read the April 2020 Director's Note to alumni.

 

 

 

 

 

School of Environment and Natural Resources

 

Kottman Hall Earth Day Banner

Dear Alumni and Friends,

COVID-19 update and Earth Day 2020: In response to COVID-19, many of you may be aware that The Ohio State University has made an amazing transition over the last couple weeks to offering all courses online for the remainder of the semester. School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR) faculty have done an incredible job making this transition. We are fortunate to have a number of staff and faculty with previous online course instruction experience who were able to help others make the conversion. Our biggest disappointment is that we had to cancel all field-based instruction, which is extensive during spring semester. Field-based and experiential learning is a point of pride for SENR, so we are sad our students will not have the typical learning experience we desire to provide. But these are not typical times.

On April 22, we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. SENR has had to modify our original plans to commemorate this anniversary, but we are still going to celebrate the occasion. On April 15, you are invited to join us for a special webinar SENR is hosting via our Environmental Professionals Network in collaboration with the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State. The webinar will include presentations from two Ohio State faculty, as well as a SENR undergraduate student, reflecting on the past and future of the environment and sustainability, and future action on climate change.

We also had planned to temporarily reinstall the 20th Anniversary Earth Day banner in the Kottman Hall Lobby, where it hung from 1990 until the 2015 Kottman renovations. The banner was designed by Linda Hanlon (’86 BS, Environmental Communication) and you can read more about its history. The banner acknowledges organizations and individuals who sought to champion environmental awareness at the 20th anniversary and the banner was added to in 2000 by students to commemorate the 30th anniversary. And finally, for those of you interested in going way back, we were able to locate materials in the University Archives related to the 1970 Earth Day activities on campus. Not surprisingly, the Olentangy River was a focal point of activity that year (and has probably been so for every subsequent year) and School students and faculty were actively involved in leading the event.

In these challenging times, I hope you all are able to spend some time outdoors and do something special of your own to celebrate Earth Day.

Best wishes for good health,

Jeff Sharp
Director, School of Environment and Natural Resources



April 15, 2020: You’re Invited to an Earth Day Celebration Webinar!

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