Sustainability contest announced

Sustainability contest announced – get some friends and get involved!

University of St. Thomas students, faculty and staff are invited to compete in a "Sustainability Contest" to win prizes of up to $300.

The contest is part of the "Great Conversations on Sustainability and Care of the Environment," which Father Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas, is sponsoring this semester.

There are two categories of contest participation: "Group" and "Individual" competition, with special emphasis on collaboration in groups to produce a 90-second video on sustainability that will be published on YouTube.

The video should address the following question: How can one overcome personal barriers or concerns regarding sustainability? What are the barriers or concerns? How have you – or might you – address them? What has been your experience?

Group Competition: UST students may compete as clubs, residence floors or groups of two or more, as well as faculty and staff, to produce an original video of 90 seconds in length and post it on YouTube by noon Monday, April 14. The URL must be e-mailed to the Office for Mission by noon on that day, as well. (We will judge the highest quality version available, so if you can submit a DVD to the office with your URL that is encouraged but not required.)

Individual Competition: Individuals may submit other creative responses to sustainability questions using a variety of artistic forms: poetry, essay (up to 1,500 words), song, visual art, etc. Up to three $50 prizes may be given by the judges if the submissions are deemed to have met creatively at least several of the above criteria. (See Contest Rules for complete instructions.)

This contest was announced at "Great Conversation No. 1," held Feb. 21: "What are the Barriers to Creating a More Sustainable World?" Conversation No. 2 was the "Youth Forum on Global Warming," led by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and polar explorer Will Steger (UST alumnus) on March 3.

Conversation No. 3, “Taking the Next Step,” will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center. At this session we will look at positive steps we can take as members of this community to create a more sustainable world. We will announce and show the contest-winning community videos and other artistic expressions of possible solutions, and there will be a poster session on various campus initiatives already underway regarding care of our environment.

Participants are encouraged to "team up" to produce videos that will have wide exposure and impact. They should rely on their own resources to produce the videos but can utilize campus labs in the process.

Resources are available in the GPS Multimedia Lab in Room 328, OSS. Those resources include microphones, webcams, Adobe Premiere (video editing software), Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, Audacity (sound), video compression software, scanners, firewire cards, 10 Dell PCs, four Macs and much more. During March and April, the OSS 328 Multimedia Lab will be open and staffed as follows:

MULTIMEDIA LAB DAY HOURS Fridays 5-11 p.m. Saturdays noon-10 p.m. Sundays 3-10 p.m.

There is limited access to the IRT Media Lab in lower level OEC. The lab does not have on-site technical support. Access and start up information can be arranged on a reservation basis by contacting John Faeth or Pam Guarnera in Web and Media Services.

In both labs, students doing academic projects will, of course, need to have priority.

Get some friends – get involved – change your world!