Patrick TrautfieldCal Poly clubs and Associated Students Inc. hosted CP Next: Generation Sustain Wednesday and Thursday to promote awareness for cultural diversity and environmental sustainability.
The two-day forum started on Wednesday with the SoulSpeak Poetry Collective, and included guest speaker Andrew Revkin, a New York Times science reporter. A club fair and scientific panel were included in Thursday’s activities, ending with informational booths at Farmers’ Market that night.
ASI Chief of Staff and business senior Melissa Robbins was impressed with the forum’s events and the turnout they received.
“It was awesome,” Robbins said about the SoulSpeak Poetry Collective. “We had about 40 people there and four or five speakers.”
The Cal Poly club Another Type of Groove performed poetry readings that they had written before but now were focusing on sustainability, race and diversity.
Robbins also mentioned the popularity of Revkin, who has done extensive research in the North Pole and has received numerous awards for his reporting and photojournalism. “He pulled in about 150 people,” Robbins said, which included students as well as various community members.
Sarah Vernizzi, ASI student outreach coordinator and business junior, and Robbins both said that the students seemed pleased with the events during CP Next: Generation Sustain. “It’s bringing students together by bringing in experts,” Vernizzi said. “It’s just a matter of getting the word out and building the name of CP Next.”
The six-person planning team sent information through e-mails to the deans of all the colleges, and asked them to pass along the news to different departments. After learning what publicity tactics worked last quarter with the CP Next: Generation Vote campaign, this quarter the group worked with the University Union to reach students around campus to get the word out.
“We picked out the issues that are most pressing today, like cultural awareness and environmental issues,” Vernizzi said, which is why the team decided to reach out to environmental and culture-based clubs that were passionate about sustainability concerns.
The rest of the events showcased a strategic energy panel that focused on renewable energy solutions. Panelists included John Shoals, Grover Beach mayor pro tempore; Ken Smokoska, vice chair for the Sierra Club California; and David Garth, president and CEO for the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce.
CP Next: Generation Sustain ended its activities with booths downtown on Garden Street during Farmers’ Market to share information with the community.
Although the forum only lasted two days, Vernizzi and Robbins hope to see the CP Next campaign continue next quarter with CP Next: Generation Tech. The tech forum will deal with engineering concepts and the importance of technology today.
“It was a program started last year by (former ASI President) Tylor Middlestadt and was solely based on sustainability and cultural issues,” Robbins said. “CP Next: Generation Vote happened last quarter to educate students on political issues and then next quarter we’ll have Generation Tech, focusing on engineering and the tech age.”
Robbins said that Generation Tech will be the same type of event, being held on a Wednesday and Thursday in April and will hopefully include speakers on campus from different companies. “Really it’s just a way for students to interact with each other in their areas of interest,” she said.
With the positive feedback that ASI has received from the events during CP Next: Generation Sustain, the group hopes to see the forum return not only in the spring, but also in years to come.
“I guess it depends on how the spring events go,” Vernizzi said. “We’ll probably focus on different themes all the time, whatever is current, but we definitely want to continue.”