CUNY and Columbia host 2nd Annual Environmental Justice Summit
On April 11th, City College of New York, CUNY Professional Staff Congress CCNY Environmental Justice Committee, and the Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities (EJCJC) Network at the Columbia Climate School were proud to host the 2nd annual Environmental Justice Summit.
The first panel, “Advocacy, Organizing, & Resistance: Conversations on Student Activism on Campus,” was held at City College. Grace Beatrice Fitzgerald, editor-in-chief of Consilience, an online journal of sustainable development, moderated the panel. It featured leaders from Sunrise Columbia, the Columbia Policy Institute, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the New York Public Interest Research Group, the Reducetarian Foundation, and CUNY professors Ashley Dawson and Nancy Romer.
Conversations in the first panel included divestment from Israel and fossil fuel companies. The panelists also discussed Columbia and CCNY’s responses to pro-Palestine speech and protests. The Columbia and CCNY students also compared the challenges facing student activists on their campuses. See the slide presentation from the first panel here.
After the first panel, participants split into two walking tours – one led by Charles Callaway of WE ACT and the other led by Ali Syed, an adjunct lecturer in sociology at CUNY. The first tour, titled “Toxics and Treasures,” highlighted significant current and former sources of pollution as well as green spaces. Charles showed participants the disproportionate number of polluting facilities in Harlem, including the North River Sewage Treatment Plant and the Harlem River Yards Power Station.
The second walking tour led by Ali Syed was titled “Activating Sites Of Resistance: A History Of Campus And Community Activism.” The tour focused on past student movements, including the “Five Demands” of the City College Black and Puerto Rican Student Caucus during the occupation of South Campus in 1969. The tour also visited the proposed site of a Columbia University gymnasium in Morningside Park, which ignited the 1968 protests and occupation of Hamilton Hall.
After the walking tour, participants engaged in the final panel at Columbia University, titled “Seeking Environmental Justice Through the Dialogue Between Academia and Frontline Communities.” The panel featured Carlos Piedad from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, CUNY student Alex Diaz-Casos, Columbia professor Paul Gallay, and Columbia student Amy Chen. Carlos Piedad presented the Office of Climate & Environmental Justice’s newly released environmental justice NYC mapping tool, an interactive map that tracks environmental inequity in neighborhoods. Alex Diaz-Casos, who is completing a master’s of science in urban sustainability and sustainable development at CCNY, presented his capstone project – Manhattanville's Retrofit Profile (MRP). Created in response to New York City's Local Law 97 (LL97) Carbon Emissions Cap, the MRP evaluates climate policy integration with housing rights amidst the transitioning housing market dynamics in Manhattanville.
Professor Paul Gallay spoke about his work leading the Resilient Coastal Communities Project and the sustainable development class he co-taught in the fall semester titled “Building Climate Justice: Co-Creative Coastal Resilience Planning.” Students in the class, including Amy Chen, worked with environmental justice organizations such as South Bronx Unite and Staten Island Urban Center to co-produce research materials, story maps, and presentations. Amy Chen spoke about the story map she and her classmates created with Staten Island Urban Center, which included using drones to conduct research. See the slide presentation from the second panel here.
If you want to learn more about any of the projects or initiatives mentioned or want to get involved in environmental justice research, email the EJCJC Network at [email protected].