STAND UP!

One of my favorite things about going to a large university is the numerous lectures and special events that come into town. Last week I attended a presentation called STAND which is a campaign to promote active participation in protecting the environment. The presentations hip theme was catchy, and most importantly there was freebies. Sadly, I didn’t get a t-shirt, but I came away with some stickers, key chain, mouse pad, and a load of knowledge about sustainable energy. You can visit the STAND website and check out the video clips for yourself, but this event got me thinking about West Virginia and it’s role in protecting the environment. While West Virginia University does an excellent job of making it easy to recycle, the PRT which provides pollution free transportation, and they have turned many of their older buildings into “green” buildings such as pictured Colson and Oglebay Halls (photos taken by me in the summer, and remember the name Ogebay for a previous blog?) My favorite is the grass roof on Brooks Hall. But, I fear that the rest of West Virginia lags behind dramatically in the effort to turn “green.”
While driving back to Morgantown this week for classes I was provided with an extra bonus, the leaves were turning, and just about the perfect shades of oranges, reds, browns, and greens were present in the hills. Actually I spend most of my commute in south western Pennsylvania on Interstate 79, so kudos to Pennsylvania too. I snapped the fall pictures at my house, maybe a tad early, it’s hard to judge exactly when the leaves will reach their peak. Anyway, the scenic views that West Virginia provides to it’s residents and travelers is amazing. What’s disturbing is the mountain top mining that occurs in southern West Virginia. This just as it sounds, a hill disappears so coal companies can extract the coal at a cheaper cost, and I have a sneaking suspicion it’s safer and the main argument that coal corporations use. Then we have those disgusting, overloaded coal trucks. Today I was behind one in traffic while puttering along Patterson Ave. in Morgantown. Every time it moved forward an enormous cloud of black smoke popped out of it’s stacks. Then theres the lawsuit against Dupont that has been dominating the W.V. headlines. It’s seems Dupont dumped lead, arsenic, and who knows what else in Harrison County, the one time location of their Zinc plant. Residents want money and medical care. This is also a prime example of the type of industry that W.V. has, those that know they can probably escape environmental laws. Harrison County won, but of course Dupont is appealing. Look at my hometown of Wheeling, acid rain at one time dominated the smokey skies and it was virtually a miniature Pittsburgh when it came to pollution during its industrial days. In 1979 Wheeling became site of the lowest rain pH ever measured (that’s a bad thing). In Weirton, W.V. high school football games where played in a mist of red smog during the 1950’s and 60’s. Gentlemen were expected to cover their dates with their jackets to prevent the red dust from soiling their dates clothes. This pollution from steel production is now most likely in China or South America.
Now it’s time for me to confess that I drive a… a… well, it’s sort of a gas hog. So this left me with the question, how will we ever get to a point where society is doing all that it can to protect the environment, and is this even possible? Of course I think it starts with education and some decent legislation which means money. The STAND campaign is visiting 50 college campuses throughout the year and awarding money to the groups on campus that research sustainable energy, a great start. West Virginia has been lagging behind in just about everything, and most of this has to do with its geography and isolation which makes education difficult. Many put up with West Virginia’s polluting enterprises because they need jobs, and still many have been lost to oversees country’s where environmental laws are non existent. When China has to close down it’s factories during the Olympics so they can hide their pollution problem, somethings wrong. It’s one thing to have interest in protecting your own state, or country, but lets not forget this should be a global cause. So whenever I finally get my classroom you’ll find trash cans for paper, plastic, aluminum, and discussions about the history of our environment and its future.

For the past six months I have been attending West Virginia University for graduate school. Located along the banks of the Monongahela River, the city of Morgantown has been home to WVU since 1868. West Virginia was a land grant university, and during its early years played an important role in providing a secondary education for students. Also, during its early years, some will argue that the University was a “bully” because school officials wanted to do away with smaller colleges. For example, I earned my undergraduate degree at West Liberty State College, which at one time was called the West Liberty Normal School. A normal school provided students with a secondary education, and was also meant to teach teachers. Most normal schools were located in rural areas; therefore community members saw the importance of such educational institutions and fought to keep many of them open. West Liberty State College, originally founded as an academy in 1837 survived the turbulent years of inadequate funding while WVU grew and prospered. I think this is interesting because most people do not understand what normal schools were, and how important there were to teacher training. The conflict that occurred between smaller schools and WVU is also interesting, what would have happened if WVU had succeeded in the abolishment of smaller colleges? While this is something for historians to examine (I wrote 25 pages on it if you’re interested), it is not entirely the goal of this writing assignment (or blog).

I’ve never visited another large university campus, so I’m not sure how everyone else gets around, but here at WVU we use the Personal Rapid Transportation system (PRT). It’s basically like a subway, except it’s above ground.

There are 5 stations located in Morgantown. You simply go to one of stations, swipe your mountaineer card (it’s “free” for students and faculty), wait for a PRT to pull up that’s going to your stop, hop on, hold on, do not make eye contact with anyone (it’s like a unwritten rule, that I hate), and ta da! … you’ve ridden the PRT! Each PRT car holds about 15 people, 8 people can sit. For the most part, the campus is divided into two campuses, the downtown campus, and the Evansdale campus. To ride from each campus it takes about 10-15 minutes. The PRT runs on electricity, so there is very little pollution. In my opinion, everything is really spread out, but the PRT makes everything seem a lot closer, and it also makes WVU unique.

Going to a large university has also made one of my dreams come true. I’ve always wanted to go to a school with a library where I could have my own personal lamp, and now I have it! This is a clear example of how easily amused I am. Pictured below is the downtown library and the Appalachia reading room.

Six floors, my own lamp, and a Starbucks. This is basically where I live.
Woodburn Hall is my second favorite building on campus. Why? Well, look below, it’s amazing! It was built in 1876 and is now home to the WVU history department.
Above is a view of University Avenue. It was impossible to get a good shot of this with buildings. To right is “Woodburn Circle.”

Because West Virginia is such a rural state, and many of its inhabitants are isolated from education, I’m glad that smaller schools have been able to remain open, while WVU has also been able to grow into one of the states most prized possessions. With all of this said, I still think that it’s important that the University and other schools do more to promote education throughout the state. When one looks at the culture of poverty, what promotes it? A lack of education. So aside from my constant rambling about history, most of this blog will be dedicated to education, lessons, and poverty. So stay tuned. And sorry, I lack photography skills. Plus people were staring at me.