Sustainability at Boston University

From April 16 through April 26, Boston University held “Earth Week +,” an experience consisting of events on the BU campus. 

“Earth Week +” is supposed to teach “about different environmental issues,” said Sabrina Pashtan, sustainability coordinator for BU’s Dining Services.

For Dining Services, many events are about food, like “Composting Comes Out,” an event that, Pashtan explained, allowed students eating in any of BU’s five dining halls to put their compostable waste into a garbage bucket themselves. 

“When you put your dish on the dish belt, there’s someone in the back putting it into the compost barrel,” Pashtan said.  “So on that day, we bring it out to the front so all the students can scrape their food waste and napkins into the compost barrel themselves, and the point is to raise awareness and hopefully create some mindfulness around food waste, so only taking what you need.”

View Boston University-Recycling and Composting in the Dining Halls in a larger map

Another “Earth Week+” event conducted by the university’s Dining Services was a class that taught participants how to do vegetarian cooking.  The purpose of the session was “to promote vegetarianism, which…can be considered more environmentally friendly than meat-eating,” Pashtan said.  

 But “Earth Week +” isn’t the only time Dining Services is environmentally friendly.  April 16 was “Make a Difference Monday” in the campus cafeterias, an event that’s held once each month and advocates, as Pashtan said, "eating a low-carbon diet."

Environmental friendliness for the university’s Dining Services also includes initiatives that are aimed at actively helping the environment as opposed to just teaching about it.  A new eating establishment is scheduled to open in the fall at 100 Bay State Road, and Pashtan said it will be certified as a green restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association.

“We have very energy efficient fans and hoods for the exhaust system, an infrared system that measures the amount of smoke coming up and adjusts fans accordingly, so we’ll save a lot of energy there,” Pashtan said of the new eatery.  “And…we have a special pulper system that will…basically dehydrate all the food waste so that Save That Stuff, our recycling provider, needs to come once or twice a week as opposed to six times a week, so that’ll cut down on the carbon footprint quite a bit.” 

To be sure, “Earth Week+” involves multiple organizations hosting events.  Listed on a Sustainability at BU page for instance are events hosted by the likes of the Environmental Student Organization and the School of Hospitality Administration.

Though I personally got to enjoy only a very small snippet of “Earth Week +,” I’m hoping I’ll get to some events in the future.

 Hearing about them got me interested in attending just for fun.

ESPN's Scoop Jackson Intervenes

Yesterday I read a sad five-part series on ESPN.com.  It detailed the end of the life of a young man and basketball player identified by the pseudonym LaTravis Hawkins.


But it's not the story itself I want to write about.  It's the behavior of the author Scoop Jackson.


In the five-part series, Jackson writes about how he helped the ill-fated Hawkins in a variety of ways, help that ranged from getting Hawkins a new jacket to trying to enroll him in a new school because he didn't want to attend his old one any longer. 

This is a screen shot of a very small part of the final story in Scoop Jackson's series, including the picture that went with the article.

Jackson even says in the final installment that he and his wife talked about adopting LaTravis, and from the way the article was written, it seems opposition from Hawkins' mother derailed their idea before it got too far along (From reading the article, I would even guess the adoption would have been carried out otherwise, but I obviously don't know the details). 


While Jackson's actions are certainly noble, they're not exactly encouraged in the world of journalism. 


Standard journalism ethics require a reporter to maintain a certain disconnect from his or her sources, and from reading his series this afternoon, it certainly doesn't seem that Jackson was disconnected from LaTravis Hawkins at all.  


These lines come from the fourth story in the series:


"I put in calls, called in favors, everything," Jackson wrote of his attempts to get Hawkins enrolled in a new school.  "With the help of God and every other spiritual being of a higher power, a last-minute opening came up at a school where a friend of mine is the principal."


In the second part of the series when Jackson tries to take Hawkins to a big high school basketball game:


"We set a time for me to pick him up. And this time I knew I had the address right, because it was the address he'd given his school for their records. I had a coat in the car for him. But when I arrived at his place and rang the doorbell, there was no answer. I went to one of the courts, to see if he was there balling. Nope. Went to the address where he said his grandmother lives: no answer."


So was he really an impartial observer of Hawkins' demise if he was constantly trying to keep the young man off the streets, constantly and consciously trying to become involved in his life?


I don't believe that was the case.


Again, I think Scoop Jackson certainly had good intentions in mind when he tried to help this young man.  Jackson also says at the beginning of the first story (dated December 5, 2007) that he had been acquainted with Hawkins prior to beginning the project. 


Jackson writes in his first story:


"I've known LaTravis Hawkins for more than three years now.  He plays in the same biddy program as my kids. I've had the pleasure of coaching him in a few games, and I've let him be my assistant coach when I've filled in because another team's coach couldn't make it. Whenever I walk into the gym, he runs my way. Wraps his arms around my waist, ducks his head into my chest -- hugs from heaven."


But trying so much and going so far out of your way to help those you're writing about...I'm not so sure that really means you're doing journalism anymore. 


Again, I don't think Jackson engaged in wrongdoing by helping Hawkins so much, but maybe the articles serve as more of a memoir than as journalism.


I'm really interested to know what other people think.




The following are links to the five parts of the series by Scoop Jackson:

First article

Second article

Third article

Fourth article

Fifth article

New York Giants and Yankees Fan

ESPN Insider, I am

I recently became an Insider on ESPN.com.  So far I think my favorite thing to do with it is comment on stories on the website.


A few weeks ago I posted a question about Peyton Manning in "response" to an online article, then got excited because two people actually answered.


Other things I've done so far as an ESPN Insider include setting up my favorite sports, teams, and players.  My favorite sports are NFL Football, MLB Baseball, and NCAA Football, and now that I've named them on ESPN.com, they're listed underneath the score banner near the top of the web page when I sign in to my account.


I named the New York Giants and Yankees as my favorite teams, and of course it follows that among my favorite players are Eli Manning, Justin Tuck, CC Sabathia, Derek Jeter, and Curtis Granderson.


The thing I'm not sure about though is exactly how useful all of this can be.  If I have the chance, I'll pay around with Insider a little more and do another post on it and the usefulness of its features.