Fall 2012 Results

An additional place to fill up a water bottle, iPads for students with special needs and a local currency are among the latest projects to be funded through the Innovation Grants program begun by President William L. Fox in 2010. The grants are awarded to encourage initiatives that will improve the quality of life at St. Lawrence through curricular, co-curricular or campus life projects and "provide a foundation for St. Lawrence's future."

Grants announced on December 4, 2012 were:

- Accommodative Services iPad Pilot Project, John Meagher, Grant Currie, Drew Twichell '14

This project will purchase a set of Apple iPad tablet devices that students requiring accommodative services can use during class to capture lecture content as an alternative to the use of volunteer classmate "note-takers." This is a pilot project to understand the utility of the technology as well as the viability of various apps. The approach proposed would allow these students greater autonomy and the ability to better capture lecture content through capturing their own text and drawings as well as images, audio, and video to complement their note-taking. If students who work with the iPads, distributed by the Students With Special Needs Office, find the devices beneficial, they could purchase one of their own.

- Building HOUR Community, Thomas Matt '15, John Collins, Eve Stoddard, Karen O'Neil

This project will pilot a local paper currency for Canton that is based on one hour of labor. The project includes designing, printing, promoting, distributing and loaning the local currency that will be called North Country Hours. This idea was first implemented during the Great Depression when hundreds of communities around the country set up local currencies to help cope with economic hardships. In 1992, a local currency was started in Ithaca, N.Y., that was so successful that 40 other local currencies have been modeled after it. They hope to be the next community to achieve this, so we can help St. Lawrence University and the North Country grow economically, culturally and even politically.

- Face-Off with Hunger, Jordan Dewey '13, Patrick Raley '14, Liz Regosin

Face-off with Hunger is a project of the men's hockey team with a Community-Based Learning Independent Study component on "Living with Wisdom." Its goal is to raise awareness on campus and in the local community about issues of food insecurity in the North Country. They have picked four games throughout the season where they will host a food drive, raise awareness and raise money for the Canton Church and Community Programs. They also will invite the Canton Church and Community Programs to give a talk to the campus and local community on issues of poverty and food insecurity in St. Lawrence County.

- Global Dialogue Center, John Collins, Danielle Egan, Jayantha Jayman, Jon Rosales, Zeynepcan Akar '15, Chelsea Alexander '14, Amelia Kunz '15, Allison Paludi '14

The goal of this project is to create a space that will enable students of different disciplines, life experiences and perspectives to engage with one another and the world in a creative and proactive manner through collaborative projects, interviews and dialogue about pressing global issues. Using the vacant space on the first floor of 84 Park Street, and in keeping with the emphasis on engaged and experiential learning in the University's Strategic Map, we propose to create a Global Dialogue Center (GDC) that will serve the educational mission of the University by providing space for interdisciplinary, cross-cultural collaboration and discussion.

- Hydration Station in ODY, Kelly Brennan '13, Louise Gava

The Environmental Action Organization will install another Haws Hydration Stations on campus in ODY Library. The Brita Hydration Station filters tap water and allows one to easily fill a reusable water bottle. Hydration stations filter out 99.99% of contaminants to provide safe, sustainable and better-tasting water. Students will benefit from the great taste of purified water, while reducing petroleum consumption and the demand for bottled water.

- Mapping Human Spaces, Tom Greene

Several recent campus facilities projects, including Johnson Hall of Science, will benefit from a Post-Occupancy Evaluation and opportunities for small evolutionary modifications. The Environmental Psychology and Creativity in Design courses will act as consulting agents for projects, which provide students with occasional enriching access to design professionals and opportunities to apply the principles of behavior mapping, a technique for documenting reactions to and the use of new spaces.