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MAKING A RHETORIC OF SUSTAINABILITY:
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MAKING A RHETORIC OF SUSTAINABILITY:
TRACING “LOCAL” DIMENSIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING

By

Donnie Johnson Sackey

A THESIS
Submitted to
, Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTERS OF ARTS
Critical Studies in Literacy & Pedagogy

2009

Abstract

MAKING A RHETORIC OF SUSTAINABILITY:
TRACING “LOCAL” DIMENSIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING

By

Donnie Johnson Sackey

In this thesis, I am concerned with environmental rhetoric and its peculiar methodological
predicament. Most scholarship on environmental rhetoric builds rhetoric via textual
interpretation of things produced by individuals and groups and scholars have been all
too comfortable to study texts in isolation as the foundations of environmental rhetoric.
While the method of rhetorical analysis is valid in producing a certain kind of knowledge,
it is limited in that it sees texts as the central locus of the rhetorical situation. This thesis
proposes a way of examining environmental rhetoric to where what we know as green
rhetoric or green knowledge becomes more complex by tracing textual production via
practices in a network. This is a work of rhetorical theory. It is a contribution that occurs
twofold: l) a method as a means of building a rhetoric and 2) an emergent rhetoric of
sustainability. With these two deliverables, I am primarily assembling a careful look of
how sustainability is practiced in a particular locale, thus this project can best be seen as a
working model derived from practice as it occurs at Michigan State University’s Office
of Campus Sustainability. This thesis differs from other work on environmental rhetoric
because it develops theory from practices leading to claims about a rhetoric rather than

claims arising from the arbitrary interpretation of texts.

Dedication
In Memoriam

Louis Augus..n Sackey, Sr.
(Grandfather)
2006

Pamela Jean Herring Cooper
(Ecologist, Teacher, Friend, Mother, & Savior)
2007

Clementina Rebecca Fahie Milliner-Sackey

(Grandmother)
2008

ad astra per aspera

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people for their guidance and help.

Collin Craig
Danielle Devoss
LaToya Faulk
Jeff Grabill
Bill Hart-Davidson
Stacey Pigg
Stefan Lanwerrneyer
Jim Ridolfo
Martine Courant Rife
Dena Rutledge
Diva Rutledge
Robyn Tasaka
Alma Villanueva
Douglas Walls

amicitiae nostrae memoriam spero sempiternamfore

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative

Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

iv

Table of Contents

List of Tables ............................................................................................. vi
List of Figures ...................................................................................... vii
Section One

Introduction ............................................................................................ 1

Towards a Sustainable Method: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric ........................... 8

Methods: Procedures and Vital Definitions ...................................................... 20
Section Two

Introduction to Cases and Summary of Findings ............................................... 29
How a Grant Made an Office Sustainable ........... . .............................................. 35

Case I—Definitions of Sustainability ............................................................. 42

Case II—“Vote Local First” ....................................................................... 59

Case 111— “Sustainability @ MSU” ............................................................. 68

Case IV—“Stories of Sustainability” ............................................................. 75
Section Three

“Drawing Things Together”—Claims & Conclusions .......................................... 85
Appendices

Appendix A: Recruitment Email ............. I ..................................................... 96
Appendix B: Interview Questions ................................................................. 97

Appendix C: Pre/post-interview Survey Questions ............................................. 99
Appendix D: Sample Messages Used in the Study ............................................ 105
Appendix E: Transcripts: Terry, Sara, Chris, Rich, Hanna, and Michael ................... 111
References .......................................................................................... 206

 

List of Tables

Table 1. Descriptive Summary of Coded Indicators Found in Cases II-IV. . . . .......31

vi

 

Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 6.

List of Figures

Rhetorical Triangle ................................................................... 5
Atkinson’s Rendering of Complex Interaction ................................ 12
Continuum ......................................................................... 23
Conceptual Map ................................................................... 24
Terry’s Sketch of Decision-Making ............................................. 46
Circulation of Ideas and Definitions ............................................ 57

vii

Introduction

Some experts have predicted that by the year 2050 we will encounter the reality of
a global population around 9 billion, which will likely not only test the carrying capacity
of ecosystems around the world, limiting who has access to food and water, but also
increase other environmental stressors linked to extinction, rising global temperatures,
and concerns pertaining to air/water quality (Smith, 2008). These seemingly complex
issues have come together in such a way under a single banner that the world has
ostensibly collapsed into constellated local communities organizing around a single
cause—“environmental sustainability.” We can best understand “environmental
sustainability” as the movement to maintain ecological processes and biodiversity on
behalf of human and biological systems. It is without a doubt that the past twenty years
has seen an exponential growth of the environmental movement; however, long before
the moral global panacea carried under the banner of “environmental sustainability,”
which characterizes the ephemeral zeitgeist of the present, there were individuals and
groups who characterized the burgeoning of green activities within the United States and
around the world. Local and global grassroots activists and NGOs like Greenpeace and
Earth First, who were largely seen as radical and out of touch with the mainstream,
carried out most of these activities. Yet, recent cultural transformations seem to suggest
that “the ever more cooperative, or 'constructive,‘ roles that many environmental
organizations and former activists have taken on can be said to represent a transition from
movement to institution, as ideas and activities that were previously considered radical or
alternative are now being translated into more acceptable forms” (Eder qtd. in Jamison,

2001: p 45). This turn from movement to institution presents an interesting research

avenue where can begin to provide accounts of how green knowledge circulates and
whether it sustains the same meanings to those engaged in green practices. Furthermore,
it highlights that activity that comes to define green knowledge is not only physical but
also exists as a rhetorical phenomenon that in some ways remain unexplained.

By saying this, I mean to say that there exist} ambiguities with what we have
come to understand as green knowledge or environmentalism in general. What seems to
be a single unified movement is actually a conglomeration of different ideas and agendas
that in many ways are divergent in scope. For instance, the concept of sustainability,
which is only a fragment of the environmental movement is riddled with conflicting
embedded definitions that are often contradictory. This is a result of the concept traveling
from its birthplace of environmental studies and ecology to disciplines such as
economics, computer science, architecture, and business management. Although, they are
influenced in part by the environmental movement their respective disciplinary lenses
impel them toward different orientations of the term. Owens (2001) highlighted that
problems with “sustainability” as a term stems from its root definition “sustain,” which
presents a multitude of divergent meanings and subsequently different implications for
how sustainability is practiced. A common example of this confusion occurs when
“sustainability” is often used to denote “sustainable development.” At these times notions
of environmental preservation and protection are at odds with business practices that call
for the “wise use” of natural resources. In this example, ecocentric and anthropocentric
ideals are literally in Opposition with their understanding and application of sustainability
as a concept. Peterson (1997) offered an account of how sustainability means by

providing a “rhetoric of sustainable development.” It was important for her to deal with

“sustainable development” as it holds unique rhetorical dimensions that get lost under the
overarching term of sustainability. Moreover, “sustainable development,” as a term,
harbors several divergent meanings, which cut across various political interests as it
“promises to promote a philosophical unity that could streamline implementation of
specific environmental policies” (Peterson, 1997: p 2). Still, due to my disciplinary
orientation, I find her approach problematic in that her cases are rhetorical analysis of
texts, which is completely divorced from people who produce or receive the texts
themselves. What Peterson offers is a textualized account of a rhetoric of sustainable
development. Furthermore, these cases present another shortcoming in that they fail to
address what I see as the intersubj ective and intercultural nature of rhetoric. Rhetorics are
situated among dynamic ecologies of influence where people and institutions exert
influence upon how they look. This is to say that a rhetoric might not always manifest in
texts; in fact, it may be embodied or both. Nevertheless, building a rhetoric of sustainable
development from texts only provides information for half of an account. People are still
needed to fill in the gaps. Though she says that she is interested in local occurrences of
sustainable development, her accounts do not deal with the complexity of how green
knowledge travels within and outside of local communities to make a rhetoric; instead,
her attention is focused more toward immediate generalizability rather than dwelling in a;
situated locale. While I do not want to recount everything that Owens and Peterson have
done in their scholarship, I do want to say that their work opens the doors for researchers
to investigate how local cultures interpret, employ, and circulate green knowledge that

travels within and beyond imaginary boundaries. It seems in this case that we cannot

truly understand the whole (environmental rhetoric) until we can account for its parts
(sustainability) and how they mean to local communities.

In this thesis, I am concerned with environmental rhetoric and its peculiar
methodological predicament. Most scholarship on environmental rhetoric builds rhetoric
via textual interpretation of things produced by individuals and groups. Scholars have
been all too comfortable to study texts in isolation as the foundations of environmental
rhetoric, which is comprised of a lengthy list of scholarly accounts (Oravec, 1984; Short,
1991; Killingsworth & Palmer, 1992; Lange, 1993; Waddell, 1994; Buell, 1995; Clark,
Halloran, & Woodford; Killingsworth, 1996; Killingsworth & Palmer, 1996a;
Killingsworth & Palmer, 1996b; Slovic, 1996; Ulman, 1996; Killingsworth, 1998;
Roorda, 1998; DeLuca, 1999; Frost, 2000; Glover, 2000; Schlenz, 2000; Waddell, 2000;
McMurry, 2003; Philippon, 2005). While the method of rhetorical analysis is valid in
producing a certain kind of knowledge, it is limited in that it sees texts as the central
locus of the rhetorical situation. This is not to say that texts do not have agency, but we
should be willing to recognize that centering our focus in one direction limits our
understanding of the complexity of writing situations—or how things get made. By
making this statement, I am trying to work outside of the phenomenon of building
rhetoric through literary hermeneutics. The movement toward seeing texts as guides to
building rhetoric limits our possibilities in that we fail to see texts as only minute
echoes—-traces within a larger network. My analysis proposes a way of examining
environmental rhetoric to where what we know as green rhetoric or green knowledge

becomes more complex.

Essentially, rhetorical inquiry of this nature is concerned with the production,
circulation and reception of texts. It is Connor’s (2008) presentation of intercultural
rhetoric methodology via applied linguistics, which has come to influence how I think
about rhetorical inquiry. We must look at texts, interrogate their producers and potential
readers about their practices and then make claims about environmental rhetoric or how
help people assemble a working model of sustainability via devices such as: definitions,
opinions, figures, institutions, organizations and texts. Ultimately, methods of this kind
impel us to develop situated accounts of practice whereby we inquire into how things get

made in locales and overtime move toward generalizability with enough accounts.

Flgure 1
Rhetorical Triangle

Aoyoq, information, argument,
reasons, evidence, data, structure

 

audience rhetor
rdGoq, beliefs, values, r5609 authority,
knowledge, experience correctness, appearance,
eloquence

In regards to how information is constructed and travels, the rhetorical triangle
(also know as the hermeneutic triangle) has served as a heuristic that aids in how we
think of appeals in rhetoric [see Figure l]. The rhetor, audience, and message are linked
within a triad, which binds a rhetor’s credibility (660g) with knowledge constructed and
supported within their text (léyog) and an audience’s sense of emotion and ability to use
that text (Irriflog). As neat as this form may seem, the division of the artistic proofs into
individual domains in pursuit of the art of persuasion presents a problem for how we may
perceive local knowledge construction. I am wondering whether it is possible to collapse
the roles of rhetor and audience or whether the distinction between these roles becomes
blurry. Therein when thinking about messages of environmental sustainability
constructed for a local community, the audience’s authority and appearance is equal in
comparison to the rhetor’s and the rhetor’s experience and values matters as much as her
counterparts. In saying this, I am not trying to invalidate the rhetorical triangle with my
statements; quite to the contrary, I am merely implying that we may need to alter how we
apply it to certain writing situations. This work is not dedicated to talking about the
rhetorical triangle or how we may refigure it; however, a possible implication could arise
concerning its role in rhetoric/composition theory. This is something for future study.

With these things having been said, this is a work of rhetorical theory. It is a
contribution that occurs twofold: 1) a method as a means of building a rhetoric and 2) an
emergent rhetoric of sustainability. With these two deliverables in mind, I am primarily
assembling a careful look of how sustainability is practiced in a particular locale, thus
this project can best be seen as a working model derived from practice as it occurs at the

Michigan State University Office of Campus Sustainability. I differentiate my work from

that of others on environmental rhetoric because it develops theory from practices leading
to claims about a rhetoric rather than claims arising from the arbitrary interpretation of

texts.

Towards a Sustainable Method: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric

The organism is no aggregate of parts but a system of functions that are mutually
dependent on each other. In the “blueprint” of every animal we are able to read
off immediately the nature of this interconnection. “The theory of the living
being,” according to Uexkilll, “is a pure natural science and has only one goal—
the research into the blueprint of living beings, their origin and their results.” No
organism can be thought of as existing for itself, isolated from its “environment.”
—Ernest Cassirer from The Logic of the Cultural Sciences
Several researchers have offered in their scholarship the idea that all discourse
and writing practices are socially situated within the very environments in which they are
produced (Scollon & Scollon, 1995; Gee, 1999; Barton, Hamiliton & Ivanié, 2000;
Hyland, 2000; Barton & Stygall, 2002; Bazerrnan, 2004). This raises the idea that
researchers inclined to conduct textual analyses should adopt culturally sensitive
methodologies and methods that move to consider the contextual settings in which
writers produce and circulate their texts. The problem with most close-textual analysis
methodologies and methods is that they have a tendency to ignore entirely the social
contexts wherein texts find themselves saturated (Berkenkotter, 2002; Blythe, 2007). I
make this comment primarily on the basis that these practices themselves are indicative
of larger discursive operations that direct our attention to the fact that individuals use
texts not only for communicative purposes but also rely upon social structures (artifacts,
institutions, positions-of-power, etc.) and various social processes when constructing
their texts (Cooper, 1986: p 366). I find that there exists a pressing need to focus upon
contexts when researching writing practices as such a focus may help us to understand
textual production and circulation as a cultural process that involves not only the writer

but also many of the same social apparatuses I mentioned above in a complex network.

The embracing context as an approach is distinguished among other methods in that it is

multidimensional as it focuses on multiple part of a textual ecology rather than just the
text. My adoption of this research stance derives primarily from an area of research that
lies at the intersection of Rhetoric/Composition studies and Applied Linguistics called
Intercultural Rhetoric (IR), formerly known as Contrastive Rhetorics (CR). As a
methodological approach to textual analysis, Intercultural Rhetoric pays close attention to
the contextual surroundings that influence textual production, while still focusing upon
the writer and the text as part of the analysis. Yet, before I can talk more at length about
the benefits of the intercultural scholarly project to researching writing practices, I want
to provide a brief history of CR. Telling this story will provide an idea of what CR tried
to accomplish with certain questions involving writing and culture and also illuminate

what led to the emergence of IR.

A Short History of Contrastive Rhetorics

As stated earlier, CR lies at the disciplinary crossroads of Rhetoric/ Composition
studies and Applied Linguistics, which is an area of research that encompasses English as
a Foreign Language (EFL) and English For Academic Purposes (EAP). CR researchers
focus mainly upon the writing situations that second language (L2) writers experience
while relying upon rhetorical strategies from their primary language (L1). Kaplan (1966),
who has served principal researcher within this area for over thirty years, initially
pioneered contrastive rhetorics (CR) as a valid area of research. His initial inquiry into
the complex interaction occurring during any given writing situation not only affirmed
the rhetorical dimensions unique to each language, but also verified that the rhetorical

dimensions of L1 hinder L2 writing. Kaplan’s work was primarily established by the

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis—or Whorfian hypothesis—that languages structure
consciousness and actions in differing ways. This hypothesis positions L1 as a powerful
heuristic that virtually makes it impossible for fluent acquisition of L2 (Whorf, 1956;
Saphir, 1983). Since the publication of Kaplan’s work, many researchers have discredited
this stance with evidence that clearly demonstrates that a large number of multilingual
speakers experience very little difficulty when switching languages. Kaplan, however,
remained unmoved by these criticisms. He believed that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was
indeed valid since these critiques followed from analysis of spoken language rather than
focusing on the entrenched rhetorics and logics contained within languages and how the
differences between L1 and L2 affect L2 writing situations. In testing his neo-Whorfian
hypothesis, Kaplan noted:
Logic (in the popular rather than the logician’s sense of the word) which is the
basis of rhetoric, is evolved out of culture; it is not universal. Rhetoric, then, is not
universal either, but varies from culture to culture and even from time to time
within a given culture. It is affected by canons of taste within a given culture at a
given time (1966: p 2).
These logic/rhetorical dimensions create exigencies where L2 readers/writers need to
recognize that comprehensive acquisition can occur only through understanding the
rhetoric and logic embedded within each language—elements that are culturally specific.
Kaplan’s work has been beneficial in that it help to establish CR and the important body
of research on situated intercultural writing practices. Accordingly, CR has been “the
first serious attempt by applied linguists in the United States to explain second language
writing” (Connor, 1996: p 5). This endeavor was an attempt to understand writing within

a complex cultural frame stemming primarily from issues of language. What followed

was a change within applied linguistics that called for interdisciplinary methodological

10

approaches by way of Rhetoric/ Composition, Education, and Anthropology. CR,
stemming from a mixture of varied approaches, has been beneficial to
rhetoric/composition studies since it has increased writing teachers knowledge and
recognition of individual language learners’ desires to develop effective writing and

reading ability in L2.

Understanding C ulture/Revising Methodologies: New Directions in CR

There has been a recent push in EFL/EAP/CR to develop methodological
considerations that focus less on writers and their texts by directing their attention to
environments and agents who sponsor textual production. This step would offer a deeper
understanding of texts via their writers and the small and larger cultures enveloping
textual production. This movement has arisen from disconnect within the contrastive
rhetoric research community over new definitions of culture and the need for more
generalizable methodologies that are responsive to these new definitions. For the past
twenty years, Connor (2004, 2008) has been transformational in her research as she
argues to position contrastive rhetorics under the new name of intercultural rhetoric.
Specifically she writes, “Changing definitions of written discourse analysis—from text-
based to context sensitive—and of culture—from static to dynamic—contribute to the
changing focus of intercultural rhetoric research, a new term that better reflects the
dynamic nature of the area of study. Text analyses, genre analyses, and corpus analyses
are necessary tools for the intercultural rhetoric researcher. Yet, we need to consider the
small cultures interacting with the overarching national culture as we collect, analyze,
and interpret the data” (Connor, 2004: p 302). This predicament of culture poses

particular interest to the intercultural rhetoric researcher who tries to make sense of data

11

acquired from textual artifacts. In her discussion of small cultures, Connor invokes
Holliday (1994, 1999) whose work positions culture as an often misunderstood and
conflated concept where large culture assumes representation and domination over small
cultures in the discussion of intercultural issues. Holliday provides a complication that
describes culture as that of a “Russian doll or onion-skin” where there is complexity

within as well as between small and large cultures.

Figure 2

Atkinson’s Rendering of
Complex Interaction

 

National Culture

 

Professlonal
Academlc Culture

 

 

 

 

 

Student

Culture Classroom

' Culture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Youth Culture

 

In a similar article that builds upon Holliday’s work, Atkinson (2004) depicts how
classroom, disciplinary, and student cultures interact with national culture [see Figure 2].
The purpose of such an approach is to demonstrate the intricacy that small cultures (i.e.

institutional culture) contain within themselves especially in relation to big cultures (i.e.

l2

national culture). What I find particularly interesting is the big culture versus small
culture dichotomy especially in relation to Atkinson’s diagram because it not only raises
the issue of appropriate methodology (since it takes into account the various overlapping
social institutions and forces that influence textual production) but also provides a clear
map that illustrates the interactions within as well as between cultures. In her most recent
publication, Connor (2008) makes a push toward mapping these multi-dimensional
aspects of research in favor of intercultural rhetoric (opposed to contrastive rhetoric) by
providing a series of research demands that arise from the adoption of an intercultural
rhetoric methodology—the need to understand speakers, writers, and readers; the need to
know what went into the process of writing and the historical contexts that affected the
writing process—as well as focusing on the multimodal aspects of texts (photographs,
videos, graphics, etc.) rather than just language.

If we, in Rhetoric/Composition, commit our thoughts and research practices
toward seeing writing as occurring within a complex system that involves the interaction
of individuals, groups, institutions, languages, cultures, etc. then we need to develop
enhanced methodological approaches that move beyond the writer as a subject and focus
more upon the writer as being a small node in a network (Dobrin, 2009). In short we need
to develop approaches that seek to answer the issues Connor raises. This networked view
of production is a bend toward seeing writing under an ecological framework, which is
something that rhetoric/composition scholars within the post-process movement of

ecocomposition have embraced wholeheartedly.

13

Ecocomposition and Its Preoccupation with Ecology

Ecocomposition continues to raise issues of social construction and interaction
that compel us to look at individual writers as being participants in larger systems. With
this having been said, we rhetoricians/compositionists should think about how discourses
map, shape, and construct our understanding of our identities, corporeal forms, and the
environments in which we dwell. This theoretical underpinning follows from Cooper’s
(1986) “The Ecology of Writing,” which has been monumental in sustaining the viability
of ecocomposition and the post-process movement by moving us toward thinking about
writing as being more than a cognitive process (“process, not products”), but in fact
situated within social environments. Dobrin and Weisser (2002) defined ecocomposition
as “the study between relationships and environments (and by that we mean natural
constructed and even imagined places) and discourse (speaking, writing, thinking).
Ecocomposition draws primarily from disciplines that study discourse (chiefly
composition, but also including literary studies, communication, cultural studies,
linguistics, and philosophy) and mergers the perspectives of them with work in
disciplines that examine environment (these include ecology, environmental studies,
sociobiology, and other ‘hard’ science). As a result, ecocomposition attempts to provide a
more holistic, encompassing framework for studies of the relationship between discourse
and environment” (Dobrin and Weisser, 2002: p 6). In this sense, ecocomposition itself
mirrors ecology (the scientific study of interactions between organisms and their natural
environment) since it propels us to inquire into of the spaces in which discourse
transpires, as most inquiries into these relationships do not explore how discourse and

writing are influenced by place.

14

Despite their understanding of the complexity of writing, however,
ecocompositionists still fall prey to the aforementioned critique of composition studies in
that they still look at the individual and his/her text in relation to the system rather than
the system itself (Weisser, 2009). In moving this preoccupation with the individual
toward the center of our field, it is entirely plausible that our focus on the “situated
literacies" of groups as collections of individuals has reduced our ability to understand
the composite nature of writing. Unfortunately since Weisser and Dobrin collaborated
almost seven years ago, no one has moved to study the ecology of writing as a complex
system that features the individual as one of the many gears within an industrial unit
rather than the sole determining mechanism. In part, the disinclination to do so is a result
of our methodological approaches. Accordingly, Sanchez has noted (2005) that the
reluctance of composition to examine writing as networked stems from our resistance
against moving beyond herrneneutical approaches in textual interpretation, which is a
direct result of our location within English departments. Our faulty reading of cultural
theory through the literary/hermeneutic paradigm via cultural studies has produced a
cultural theory of reading and not writing. This approach to writing research fails to
account for complexity; instead, it traps us within a system where meaning is embedded
within texts rather than generating throughout the network that influenced the writing
situation. Currently, I am thinking of people, institutions, and social apparatuses as part
of this invoked system.

We have to move beyond hermeneutics as a means of unpacking concepts and
understanding writing, especially as “globalization and the proliferation of technology

make it imperative that compositionists develop a new kind of [rhetoric and] composition

15

theory, one that understands its object of study very broadly and is conscious of its
methodologies” (Sanchez, 2005: p 72).1 A methodology based upon intercultural rhetoric
could be insightful toward approaching texts outside of the contrastive rhetoric research
community, as it would allow for another layer of inquiry toward understanding the
functioning of writing within networked systems of small and large cultures. This would
position our research toward examining and answering how individuals within
institutions make decisions in response to overlapping social forces within and beyond
institutional boundaries when constructing their texts. The goal of this project is to
demonstrate how such a method can account for the degrees of perceived pressures from

various audiences placed upon authors within any given rhetorical situation.

Intercultural Rhetoric as Heuristic for Research Writing

My initial interest with intercultural rhetoric as a methodology stems from my
preoccupation with “environmental sustainability” and the ideas that define and sustain
its progress. These ideas, which I have come to understand as conceptual tools, work in
such a way that they structure progress on the basis of location; however, there has been
very little movement to theorize or quantify how these “things” mean to those who
employ them as they try to communicate messages and build communities with
environmental change as a modus operandi. Without this vital information, producers
cannot understand the effectiveness of their messages upon local audiences and theorists
dwell in habitus dubitationis concerning the rhetorical nature of sustainability. In raising

the notion of location, meaning, and value, I’m curious about how terms like “global,”

 

I I purposefully tender the “rhetoric” addendum to Sanchez’s work because I see the “camps” of
rhetoric and composition as linked and inseparable as all forms of writing are cultural in
dimension. Rather than seeing them separate, this work moves to proffer a theory of cultural
composition that traverses these seemingly detached disciplinary fortifications.

16

“local,” and “national” function as they permeate between large and small cultures in
writing situations. This itself is a fundamental speculation into the question of how
people use and value these conceptual tools in relation to themselves, others and extra
cultural influences in order to communicate meaning. Consider this: The logic of
sustainability establishes the need for a balance between human and ecological systems
whereby the ability of a given environment to support biodiversity and ecological
processes remains relatively unadulterated. Local has been a buzzword for sustainability
wherein more recent pushes toward sustainability call for the development of local
conservation practices that are deemed less invasive to local and global environments.
For example, if we look at food cooperatives working to build sustainable agriculture via
changes in food initiatives and consumption lifestyles, we see pushes toward favoring the
purchasing of locally/regionally grown produce as opposed to items shipped from around
the world. Buying locally has direct economic benefits for local community farmers, but
also global environmental benefits in that it cuts down on the amount of energy (and
preservatives) used to ship food around the world. The motivation is overtly local, but
there is still an underlying global focus. So with local, you can see more direct benefits
rather than with global. You see farmers making money from their crops. What you may
not see is the immediate benefits in fuel economy or reduction of environmental stressors.

Therefore, institutions (offices, organizations, etc.) that embrace the ideology of
environmental sustainability are positioned within a framework wherein they must define
themselves and their efforts as local while still competing with the directives of external
larger cultures. This tension would seemingly manifest in the texts produced and

circulated by the institutions. It should be possible to see instances of the local and global

17

compete. In itself, this is a return to Atkinson’s conception of culture, where we see the
same complex interaction that occurs within the classroom encompassing the
environmental movement. We could easily substitute terms like local, national, and
global for labels like Professional-A cademic Culture, Classroom Culture, and Student
Culture. This could be used as a guiding mechanism for researching situated episodes of
advocates writing about sustainability and how structures within and between large and
small cultures influence the writing process.
The following research questions arise from the view of complex cultural interaction
concerning environmental sustainability and how messages are relayed:
' How does an organization define the message of sustainability in relation to
competing directives within culture?
I Do audiences within institutional community settings readily distinguish between
local and global indicators that call for various actions?
' Furthermore, if they do recognize local messages, then how do we know that
these messages are as effective as their producers intend?
I And finally, what can a localized representation of sustainability tell us about
sustainability in general in a broader cultural context?
While I recognize that sustainability advocates may have scattered local and global
indicators throughout their texts, I am more concerned with how local messages function
(especially in portion to others), since the mantra of sustainability emphasizes local
actions above all others. The guiding assumption, which might follow, is that it is very
likely we can equate more local as encouraging more action whereas more global means
more knowledge acquisition or greater ideological paradigm shift. This could be the
underlying logic emanating from the messages of sustainability advocates. Previously, I
raised the idea that we need to move toward understanding writing as networked through

my concentration upon the term “ecology” via ecomposition. What follows in the ensuing

sections is an attempt toward investigating how place, institutions, organization and

18

people through a series of complex interlocking relationships come to impinge on the
writing process. In short, this is an attempt to produce a situated account of writing that is

conscious of context and culture.

19

Methods: Procedures and Vital Definitions

The design of study was based upon intercultural rhetoric as a heuristic for
investigating the complexity of concepts like global, local and national manifesting in
texts. Since sustainability remains a guiding principle of this study, the Office of Campus
Sustainability (OCS) at Michigan State University (MSU) served at the location of the
current study. The office, which has existed since 1999, is responsible for coordinating
most of MSU’s efforts toward creating a greener campus. My choice for selecting this as
the site of research was based upon proximity and the fact that the office advocates on
behalf of sustainability. MSU is one of a few colleges or universities in the country to
have an environmental stewardship office. This alone made OCS a compelling site-of-
study. In light of these two aspects, I posited that it would be interesting to focus on OCS
since it addresses university audiences, but also audiences of the East/greater-Lansing,
MI area and others within the state, country and (possibly) world. This provided an ideal
setting wherein I could locate a text and concentrate on the aforementioned conceptual
tools as OCS related to and writes about sustainability.

In regards to texts produced by OCS, I found the office’s website to be a
particularly interesting artifact for several reasons. First, it is a digital text that has existed
since the creation of the office. As the office has grown and expanded throughout the
years, so too have the features and content on the site. Second, the website is a unique
digital tool purposed used as a form of communication and organization with multiple
audiences within the MSU community. The site serves as a central hub where
information about sustainability and events pertaining to the subject are maintained and

stored for potential audiences. Site visitors encounter an assortment of videos, blogs,

20

links to external organizations, and institutional documents for consumption. Finally,
both the office and the website best fit Atkinson’s model of the complex interaction in the
classroom with overlapping disciplinary, student and national culture spheres of
influence. The office works within the institutional framework of MSU and the local
community while catering to national and global cultures; thus the tensions Atkinson
discusses may arise in the texts it produces.

The study’s procedure occured in three phases: data collection, two data-passes
(an interpretive pass and an analytical pass), and a series of production and reception
interviews. It was necessary to establish specific parameters in order to determine what
might constitute data types for this project. I developed a coding scheme that binds units
of analysis in the form of rhetorical units that I call messages. A rhetorical unit can be
understood as a segment of information that consists of a combination of author choice,
intended audience, and purpose (Blythe, 2007). These units of measurement can vary in
length wherein they could consist of entire websites or segments of those sites
(documents, blogs, links etc.). For the purposes of this study, I defined a message as a
rhetorical unit geographically positioned within digital documents for particular
audiences [see Appendix for examples of messages]. In terms of messages, I had
planned to select textual and visual elements on the site that may include but are not
limited to documents, blog posts, banners, colors, videos, etc. Screen capture software
was the primary tool used to collect material from the site that appropriately fit the
criteria of a message. This was a systematic process in which I moved from the top-to-
bottom and left to right as I methodically captured, labeled, and stored each message in a

folder. One aspect concerning messages on the website is that they may lead visitors

21

through a series of messages via hyperlinks until they arrive at the intended content. In
order to account for this likelihood, I developed a classification system that labeled the
first message collected as message 11 and a secondary message relating to the primary as
message 11 b. All of the data collected during this phase of the project was stored on a
password-protected computer where only I had access. Though I did not anticipate there
being any problems with storage, I also saved the data as a .zip file and sent a copy of this
file to my email as a means of precaution.

The first pass of the data, which can be described as interpretive, was framed by
the question of whether these collected messages served as indicators on the site that
suggest some of these messages are intended to fit the definition of specific topoi
associated with environmental sustainability—local and global. I chose global as a term
because of its roots within political economics as promoting the idea of all humanity
belonging to a single moral community. Moreover, my use of the term protracted a long-
standing practice within the environmental movement to invoke such terms in advocating
on behalf of sustainability practices (e.g. “think globally, act locally”). These terms
served as a means for nominally coding the data, which I collected during the first
analytical phase.

In order to illustrate the relationship among these terms, I have decided to
construct an area conceptual map, which would account for the complexity of the
messages found on the site. Originally, I drafted a rather simplistic continuum that placed
both local and global as categories on opposite extremes whereas national resided
equidistant between the other two [see Figure 2]. I did not necessarily have national in

mind when I selected the terms, but I thought that it would be good to have an indicator

22

that would account for messages that could easily occur between the two extremes. Yet,
the continuum presented a problem because it required double-coding certain messages.
For example, messages existed on the website that ask for local solutions to global
problems, but reside outside of the influence of a national culture. A conceptual map was
able to account for this complexity in a way that a continuum cannot [see Figure 3]. In

short, while both tools are useful, one allowed for easier classification and ordering of

 

data than the other.
Figure 3
Continuum
Local National Global
Topoi
Actions

Participation, Commitment, Identification, etc.

23

Flgure 4
Conceptual Map

 

Actions

Participation, Commitment, Identification, etc.

This phase of the analysis required the development of criteria that strictly defined
the difference between messages considered local, national, or global. I understood the
defining feature of a message as the action/s that it would invoke among its intended
audiences. These actions are restricted to the locales defined by the three topoi. I defined
each as follows:

Local: All forms of sustainability are by definition local in the same way that all
politics is local politics (Whitehead, 2007). There has been much debate as to
what we can consider as local when locating geographies of sustainability. When
thinking of environmental issues, local can delineate your body, home,
neighborhood, community or city. What we essentially have are localities, which
make it hard to determine what exactly might constitute a local public. Within the
scope of this project, I regard local as messages that are not broad in scope and
are not intended to venture beyond the small culture of the community (MSU) in
which they are produced, because they are designed to have a direct impact upon
local conditions.

National: Jamison’s (2001) research into the production of green knowledge

within cultural spheres offers a way of understanding green initiatives that assume
a national character. National messages are those that may pertain to

24

local/regional issues, but reach outside community boundaries and have an impact
upon the larger culture of the US. Texts may be deemed national if they invoke
strong allegiances along the lines of national character or identity. Jamison raises
images of twentieth century European totalitarian regimes (e.g. Hitler and Stalin)
as he discusses national consciousness, but I don’t go that far in my push to
develop a stable definition. To a certain extent, these texts may contain messages
that align with certain political ideologies within US cultural politics (e.g. Greens)
or they may connect to national organizations whose influence and action reside
mainly within the US.

Global: In contrast to the other categories, global messages are those that
permeate outside of local and national boundaries and attempt to connect with a
larger culture comprised of several large and small cultures around the world.
Killingsworth and Palmer (1992) provide an insightful heuristic toward
understanding global as a categorical distinction by locating a definition within
the circles of economists and social ecologists. Accordingly, globally effective
discourse promotes “universally acceptable values” has “strong inducements to
constructive action” and always targets what would benefit the “global
ecosystem” (Killingsworth & Palmer: 1992: p 240). Therefore, text may be
considered global if it’s tailored to connect to projects and efforts around the
world (e.g. Think globally, act locally).
One thing to note about these definitions is that they put a heavy emphasis upon action
within a specific place. While this may be true, in some instances the topoi acted less as
locations and more like ideas wherein readers are compelled to construct their identities
in relation to the message. Identification works as possible rhetorical action, since visitors
to the site relate to the messages on emotional or intellectual levels that do not call for
them to venture away from the site and enact change on local, national, and/or global
levels. Instead, producers of certain messages possibly attempt to engage in acts of
character building or paradigm shifts that seek to alter how readers view themselves and
their physical spaces. Of course there was the possibility that identification could lead
readers to act physically; however, I felt that there should be a separation and a need to

account for both material and non-material rhetorical action. Having appropriately

established the criteria, I sorted messages onto the map according to their classification.

25

Messages appeared that feature a combination of more-than-one topoi. When this
happened I classified a message based upon all of its features, thus it did not matter that
the national indicators in message 11b are stronger than the global indicators; I still
classified the message as national-global. In regards to the coding scheme, it was

determined that there was no need for inter-rater reliability.

Data Collection fiom Participants

The second pass was analytical where I conducted production and reception
interviews. These are a series of individual interviews where I questioned producers and
potential receivers of each message. Since it was not immediately clear sometimes who
was responsible for writing certain messages on the site, it was necessary that I conduct
and interview with the Terry Link, who had served as director of the office, in order to
find producers of some of the site’s messages After the interview, I contacted three
producers, two of whom were named during the interview and another whose name was
clearly visible on the site, in order to schedule face-to-face production interviews.
Although the intended visitors to the site that reside within East/Lansing and Michigan, in
terms of this study, a local audience would be the population of students, faculty and staff
on the MSU campus that would have direct access to the site and would come in contact
with material around campus that would direct their attention to the site itself. Therefore,
I sent out an email notification to various departments on campus and asked if they would
relay a recruitment email regarding this study to their students, faculty and staff [see
Appendix]. In terms of howl selected participants for this study, I chose the first and the
last email that I received within 72 hours of my posting. It is important to note that I gave

preference to respondents who were unfamiliar to me and had no knowledge of my study.

26

An Internet random number generator with a range of 1 to 10 determined the selection of
two readers. I initially selected three messages that I deemed to be exclusively local for
individual case studies, in which I tested them to see whether they were rhetorically
effective enough to insight individuals toward action. The selected messages ranged from
text-only, textual/visual, visual-only, and multimodal in form. It is also important to note
that all of the chosen messages with the exception of one were single-authored. This was
a limitation of the study that I hope to further elaborate on in the implications section. I
tightly defined each case as containing a single message with one producer and two
readers. The process for selecting the number of messages for each case was based upon
the same criteria I used for selecting the participants. I transcribed the interview with the
office’s director in addition to each production and reception interview in order to ensure
that I could accurately interpret the data in the final stages of the study [see Appendix].
After selecting each message, I conducted the production interviews wherein I
first asked each producer to review the messages and offer opinions as to the desired
response from the intended audience as well as to answer to other elements that possibly
influenced the writing decisions they made regarding sustainability. Thereafter, I
conducted individual reception interviews with members of the MSU community, who
provided answers as to how they would respond to the messages. In addition, I conducted
pre/post-surveys that inquired into their knowledge of environmental sustainability [see
Appendix]. My purpose for administering these surveys was to measure whether
exposure to these messages would effect change in participants’ knowledge of
environmental sustainability or potential inclination toward action. The data gathered

form the producers and the receivers of the messages were then compared with my initial

27

coding of the data to gauge whether the messages were rhetorically effective to insight
people to act people to act or identify on a local level. These interviews were audio

recorded and lasted approximately a half-an-hour.

28

Introduction to Cases and Summary of Findings

What I first would like to introduce at this time is several features that
characterize this study, restate the broader research questions that frame each of the
ensuing cases and explain their significance. Doing so helps to better connect constituents
from my methodology with data presented by each of the cases. Some preliminary
findings initially surfaced from a quick glance of the items coded by readers. First (and
probably the most obvious), the use of the word local had an enormous impact upon
whether portions of a message were coded as local or not [see Table l]. Phrases like
“locally grown food” and “vote local first” appeared to place heavy emphasis upon
locally-oriented actions. Readers felt that this was a strategy on the part of the producers
to increase chances that audience members would act. Another element closely related to
this was that direct references to physical spaces where sustainability occurred influenced
what readers deemed as local. They considered references to local places within texts
provided audiences with information on how they could participate in sustainable
activities on campus, thus increasing the likelihood for action. For example, Hanna and

,9 ‘6

Michael coded the “student organic farm, office of campus sustainability,” and the
“EcoFoot website” as local. On the other side of the coin, this suggests that if specificity
augments the chance for action then general information is less action-oriented and more
directed toward encouraging changes in how one thinks about environmental issues. The

9’ 66

latter of the corollary is evidenced by their coding terms such as “racism, recycling,”
and “the world of purchasing” as global rather than local. When asked as to why they
made their choices, each stated that these words were not used in ways in which they felt

exactly related to the MSU community.

29

I deal with each of these findings in varying capacity throughout each case. In
thinking about the local dimensions of sustainability, however, a single finding cuts
across the data from all the cases. What we have come to know as “local” operates at a
level of abstraction that may not be as immediately clear. This is evident from the coding
choices each reader made as they reviewed the messages; for instance, Hanna coded
“community engagement” as being local, national and global in scope. Her reason for
doing so stemmed from her belief that on some level all communities are linked under the
movement of environmental sustainability. What she sees as action stemming from
“community engagement” benefits not only the local community, but also people in the
US and around the world. While Michael coded “community engagement” as local
because he saw the reference as inspiring immediately local actions, he initially marked
the phrase as global but changed his mind saying it was difficult to separate the two when
everything seems interconnected. If anything this is the most important finding from the
results mostly because it connects to Atkinson and Connor through complex interaction
and the intercultural nature of rhetoric, respectively. The fact of the matter is, it is not
always immediately easy to separate spheres of 'influence. To some extent all indicators
seem to have influence upon how certain things mean. This is not to say that local,
national, and global share equal influence upon aspects of rhetoric as the readers were
able judged each texts as local. What this does suggest is that both national and global
have influence on shaping how local dimensions are understood to make a rhetoric of

sustainability. This is highlighted in throughout each case.

30

Table 1

Descriptive Summary of Coded indicators found in Cases 11-] V

 

 

Indicator Reader 1 Reader 2
Hanna Michael

Global “Community engagement” “land”

“pays not to think” “racism”

“prices ‘not possible’” “waste”

“connect people back to food” “pollution”

“who’s losing?” “sustainability”
“grower’s cooperative/fair trade” “social justice”
“travels less distance” “economic vitality”
“stay in local economy” “fair trade”
“producing art from other peoples “recycling”

waste, and offers an example of what “recycling programs”
surrounding ourselves with our “sustainability”
passions can look like” “environmental issues”
“how to get things done in a

bureaucracy”

“There will always be issues with the

system”

“the world of purchasing”

“A reminder and voice of reason in an

often unsustainable world”

National “enamored of hi gh-tech solutions” “improved efiiciencies”
“community engagement” “animal welfare”
“environmental engineering” “unlimited income”
“questions outside economics” “purchasing”

“limited income” “unsustainable world”
“travels less distance” “recycling”
“vote with your actions” “sustainability”
“everyone have access” “greener products”
“forced to throw away”
“quick to become a commodity
masking the real issues”
“e-newsletter, which has become a
fixture on MSU’s campus, and most
recently made it as far as California,
riding the waves of cyberspace”
“shape the future of purchasing”
Local “relationships to ecosystems” “community engagement”

“personal life decisions”

“worked on it” ([Rich’s] car)
“community engagement”

“link between problems and sources’
“hugging chickens” '

Ecofoot website (displayed at end)

9

31

“student organic farm”
“vote local first”
“locally grown food”
“local farmers”
“transportation”

Table 1 continued...

BeSpartanGreen (website) “farmer’s markets”
“student organic farm” “locally owned businesses”
“vote locally” “grassroot campaigns”
“vote local first” “on-campus recycling
“fun” facility”

“stay in local economy” “Office of Campus

image of plant life 2 Sustainability”

“grassroots campaigns, rooted in her “Office Of Campus
involvment with the student Sustainability”

environmental group ECO”

“a new on-carnpus recycling facility”
“own efforts at sustainability at home”
“reduce the inputs”

 

Note: I It is unclear whether Hanna is referring to either the image of a woman hugging
chickens in Sarah’s video or the verbalized statement of “hugging chickens.”
2 Represents the only image coded among all the cases.

Case I focuses on definitions and the role such ideas have upon local
manifestations of a rhetoric of sustainability. I would like to note that it was not my
original intention to focus on definitions, but I began to see the level of importance
definitions held as I interviewed each participant. In each interview, I asked participants
not only how they would define sustainability but also from where their definition
originated. Such inquiry is important because green knowledge is not always simply a
local occurrence, which means that people ultimately have to tap into external sources of
knowledge. In Case I, I pay close attention to the culture of writers and readers as
comprising a local culture and the local as an integral part of sustainability’s definition.
This section starts to answer questions about how communities define the message of
sustainability in relation to competing directives within a local culture. A rather alluring
claim arises in Case II, which proposes that there are aesthetic elements that constitute
the local and subsequently a local definition of sustainability. This case was interesting

because the producer and I spent a lot of time looking at other messages be constructed

32

and the design process behind them. It was important that Case II follow Case I in that
they both deal with infrastructural issues concerning the office. This was an attempt to
closely follow the model that Connor outlines with intercultural rhetoric as a
methodology by moving from the most integral and central parts within an organizational
structure to the periphery.

Case 111 expands the boundaries of what we consider as the local in regards to
sustainability as it raises three major claims: 1) The local is seen only in relation to global
as it radiates outward in a complex networked; 2) The local may not have a set location
even within a community as environmental issues cross divides that are personal, private
and public; and 3) Local appeals in texts most often appeal to a community’s sense of
pride or esteem. The final case drives home the idea that local manifestations of
sustainability can be embodied in community representatives and are built through
community deliberation. Cases II, III, and IV are principally concerned with answering
the latter three research questions guiding this study. Through my interviews of both
producers and readers, I have woven together a narrative that at its heart answers whether
audiences within communities differentiate between local and global indicators within
texts that call for various actions. Furthermore, producers’ discussions of their writing
process and their expectations from readers along with the corroborated opinions of
readers help to determine whether local messages are as effective as their producers
intend? What unites all of these cases is that together they answer the final research
question regarding what can a localized representation of sustainability tell us about
sustainability in general in a broader cultural context. I believe that above all this proves

to be the most important research question of all three because it is the driving force

33

behind this project. As you read through each case, you will notice a series of numbered
claims that trace throughout each case and often reoccur. These claims are what I use to
build what I describe as an emergent rhetoric of sustainability. They are useful in that
they help to trace the rhetorical dimensions of sustainability as defined by the local to
global paradigm. Furthermore, these claims help to promote rhetoric itself as an

intercultural and intersubjective communicative enterprise.

34

How a Grant Made an Office Sustainable

Before I list specifics for each case, I need to provide some background on my
relation to OCS and the story behind its creation. My connection to OCS stemmed from
an email that Dr. Jeff Grabill forwarded to my departmental listserve. The email
originally came from Terry Link, who served as the director of the office. Terry was
looking for undergraduate and graduate students to write articles for a university alumni
publication that focused on environmental sustainability here at MSU. At the time, I was
unaware of the office’s mission statement or any of its activities. I, however, did have
some level of familiarity with OCS and also I was interested in environmental writing.
My decision to contact Terry was prompted by the fact that just a couple months prior to
receiving the email, I completed a final project in my research methods course that
incorporated the office’s website as my object of inquiry. At that time, I had not had a
thesis idea set in my mind, but I felt that getting to know Terry and the office might allow
the possibility for this course project to materialize into an actual research project.

Terry responded to my query with a list of several different topics on which I
could write. I cannot remember all of the topics that were in the email, but I do remember
saying that I was most interested in writing on the Community Climate Change Forum.
Part of the article involved both watching a recording of the actual forum and
interviewing Terry about both the forum and the office. What I remember most about my
first meeting with Terry was how much it did not seem like an interview, but more of a
dialogue about his background and our mutual interest in the environment and green
politics. It was during this time that I share with him my project idea involving OCS. I

outlined the scope of what I was hoping to do along with the questions that were coursing

35

through my mind. Though at that time, my thought process was incredibly scattered,
Terry responded enthusiastically, saying that he would be willing to participate and help
out with such a project. I remember leaving his office feeling overwhelmed with the
amount of information hej‘ provided for the article; nevertheless, I was excited and eager
over the prospects of developing an actual research project that focused on the office as a
site. Unfortunately, the article was placed on the back burner by the university and I
never got the chance to finish it. I, however, was able to stay in contact with Terry over
the next couple of months either through email or while waiting in line for coffee at the
library. No matter how brief our conversations were, Terry would often remind me that
he was still interested in being a part of the study. This was something that I never forgot.
Moreover, he was the first person I decided to interview as a part of this study. I needed
to interview Terry before anyone, because there is no one who knows the story of the
office better than he does. In fact, one can say that Terry is a sort of fixture or an
institution when anyone references sustainability here on campus.

Terry is originally from Michigan; in fact, he grew up in Detroit where he went to
high school and college at Wayne State for his undergraduate degree. He lefl the area for
a couple of years, but ultimately return to work on a Master’s degree in Library Science.
A lot of Terry’s life has been defined by a passion for the environment. When he first
thought about environmental issues, it was when he was pursing a geography degree in
the early 703. During this period, he got involved with a public policy group/consumer-
based group that organized around a number of environmental issues. It was after this
experience that he “just became more and more engrossed in policy and [the

environment],” which led to his focus on environmental issues as a librarian. It was not

36

until 1992 that he came to work at the MSU library after working at Aquinas College in
Grand Rapids. After three years, he was elected to what was then at the time known as
the Academic Council. This allowed Terry the opportunity “to become more involved in
university-wide issues.” Around the same time that he held his position on the Academic
Council, he simultaneously worked with the American Library Association to start the
Task force on the Enviromnent, which was designed to promote awareness of
environmental issues. He described his activities with the MSU library as allowing him
the opportunity to create a bridge between his activist work and his professional life. Still,
I was curious as to how Terry made the transition fiom working in the library and serving
on Academic Council to being the director of OCS.

It was during the first year as a member on the council that the university “was
about to put to sleep a committee call the University Committee for an Academic
Environment because there wasn’t much business coming that was important.” Terry
proposed that rather than disbanding the committee, the university should repurpose it so
that it focused “more broadly on sustainability and the environment.” Ultimately, Terry
and other members of the Academic Council lost the debate with the university, but his
raising the idea led to a series of conversations, which in turn led to the creation of the
' University Committee in January of 1999. This committee subsequently led to the
creation of OCS:

We knew that the university wasn’t going to find money in their pockets to do this

because it wasn’t high on their priority. So, we found a grant opportunity that we

explored and were actually successful—l of 27 out of a thousand proposals to get
funded—and that created the office in September of 2000. And the rest as they
say is history. As the prime mover of this from the beginning and because I was

ready to leave my profession anyway—I made that decision a few years before,
but was not going to make a gross change because I had kids in school and I was

37

taking care of my mother-in-law—I took on this new job. Then I’ve been doing
that until this upcoming Friday.

I should first note that this interview is a little bittersweet, as it is the last interview that
Terry conducted as director of the office. The movement on his and the committee’s part
to seek a grant was driven entirely by the fact that the university did not see a need for an
environmental stewardship program. The grant was part of the US Environmental
Protection Agency’s Sustainable Development Challenge Grant Program, which
“strongly encourages community members, business and government entities to work
cooperatively to develop flexible, locally-oriented approaches that link place-based
environmental management and quality of life activities with sustainable development
and revitalization” (“Sustainable Development”, 1999). This was a three-year grant; as a
result, the University Committee had enough funds to do what it originally desired
without having to worry about the university controlling its mission. So, it created an
environmental stewardship office with Terry as the director. This did establish a
uncertain position about what would happen to the office after three years. Terry,
however, remarked that by that time “the university thought that there was enough value
coming forward on what [members of the University Committee] were doing” that they
took on the initiative to fund the office entirely since 2003. Part of turning the office into
something that the university would value was dependent upon several years of
networking with other campuses with similar environmental stewardship programs. This
network of support is something that Terry has come to value during his tenure in the
office.

Our conversation next turned toward the central artifact of this study—the

website. According to Terry, the site is actually as old as the office itself. He could not

38

remember an exact date, but he does know it originated sometime in 1999. The initial
purpose of the site was to 1) let people know there was a University Committee and 2)
serve as an avenue to share information and connect interested people on campus. This
original emphasis to “let people know, share, and connect” on campus has changed
slightly as the site has shifted toward more external audiences:
The office, especially over the last number of years again directed by the
University Committee, has done a lot more outreach both in terms of the local
community but even nationally by getting our stories out almost as a PR piece, if
you will, so that we get recognized for the things that we’re kinda doing. Which
in turn when we get recognized gives us more support when we go internal to the
institution saying, “Look we’re getting recognized here because were doing good
things. Keep supporting us, let move it further.” So we see it as a feedback loop
that was missing before and that we think has been useful and I imagine in my
mind it’s totally been very effective that we’ve been recognized nationally a few
times with awards.
National recognition has been exceptionally helpful in order to justify the office’s
existence to university administration. So, the change in the scope of the website has been
beneficial; however, it is important to note that Ecofoot still primarily maintains a local
focus. Much of the other changes to the site’s design and layout have been more driven
by changes in technology rather than research on the environment. Absent from the
original site was the blog feature and the newsletter formatted in .html, which moved
from an occasional to a bimonthly to a biweekly serial sent via hyperlinks. Furthermore,
there are a lot more multimedia items present on the page like videos and flash banners,
which “is a combination of media done here on campus...or videos done elsewhere.”
Terry indicated that all of the material found on the site was either by students directly

working for OCS or student course projects that he thinks the local and external

communities would benefit from.

39

My discussion with Terry led me to three individuals who had contributed to the
development of the site—Sarah, Chris, and Rich. Sarah is a former MSU graduate student
with an educational background in the sciences. As an undergraduate at Reed College,
she majored in biology with a focus on molecular biology. Her graduate work at the MSU
involved science and nature writing through the Knight Center for Environmental
Journalism. Currently, she lives in Washington, DC. where she does a combination of
science writing, web design, and podcasting for the American Society for Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology. Unlike the other producers, I had to interview Sarah via Skpe
since she was not immediately available for face-to-face communication. During the
course of the interview, she indicated that her primary contributions to Ecofoot were a
series of videos one of which focused exclusively upon sustainability at MSU. Chris is a
former undergraduate major in professional writing who matriculated into graduate
program in Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing. Before I interviewed Terry, Chris’
was actually referred to me by two of my committee members (Danielle Devoss and Bill
Hart-Davidson, respectively). He still contributes to the site on a regular basis through
his role as webmaster; however, Terry sometimes assigns tasks to Chris that involve
designing flyers for circulation around campus. So, Chris’ job often involves more than
just maintaining Ecofoot. The final name that Terry put forward was Rich, a doctoral
student in the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies.
A majority of Rich’s production involves articles that Terry commissions him to write.
Currently, he is working to complete a series titled “Stories of Sustainability,” which puts
forward anecdotes of individuals on campus who are practicing sustainability in their

everyday lives. It was these messages that Rich and I spent the entirety of our interview

40

discussing. Each of these writers (when fixed to a set of readers) are important because
their work helps to create and protract a culture of sustainability here at MSU. While they
are not the only writers who contribute content to the site (as Terry often contributes as
well), they do stand as representatives for other producers and the processes, networks
and knowledge they rely during textual production. Though this is a limited study, their
definitions, opinions of their texts and writing process provides a snapshot of what

sustainability looks like in a local culture.

41

Case l—Definitions of Sustainability

A statement expressing the essential nature of something.

—Dictionary entry on “definition” from Merriam- Webster

I focus on definitions because they are heuristic and drive writing situations.
Writing does not begin on paper but within the mind and is linked to a series of cognitive
processes that involve the retrieval, encoding and decoding of knowledge. We cannot
begin to understand textual production until we move to unlocked the explicit and tacit
“calculating devices” that writers depend upon to transmit knowledge to their audiences.
Situated accounts of writing practice are driven by these definitions and only by
understanding them can we move towards building a rhetoric of sustainability. Within
this case, I am principally concerned with two things: 1) the culture of writers and readers
as comprising a local culture and 2) the local as an integral part of sustainability’s
definition. I wrote a series of questions in my methodology that drive this project. This
section especially helps me to begin to answer questions regarding how does an
organization define the message of sustainability in relation to competing directives
within a local culture; and a little concerning what can a localized representation of
sustainability tell us about sustainability in general in a broader cultural context. It is not
my intention to talk about each definitions in isolation. Instead, I wish to travel through
these definitions, dealing with them on their own accord and afterward weaving together
a story from the differences and commonalities amongst the producers and readers. It is
paramount that I treat each definition in relation to each other rather than in isolation
because the complex cultural model via intercultural rhetoric makes it virtually

impossible to treat these as such.

42

Director

If I can characterize Terry’s definition of sustainability, I will say that he holds a
very broad definition of what the term itself encompasses. Specifically, he had this to say
about sustainability:

Well I don’t talk about environmental sustainability. I talk about sustain-ability.

And sustainability is, in my mind, the nurturing of mutually reinforcing

relationships between social and economic justice and ecological integrity and the

process by which we balance those with is open, transparent and democratic.
Furthermore, he indicated that his definition is comprised of short-term and long-term
goals. He did note that this wasn’t always a definition that he held. In fact, the definition
was incredibly different from when the Office first proposed the idea to the university.
Originally, it was just environmental—solid waste, water and energy, because they were
writing to a specific audience within the university. When the university decided that they
would not move on the proposal, Terry and others found latitude to expand their
definition of sustainability because they were being funded by external dollars.
Furthermore, he noted that there has been a change in the Offices’ definition, which is
evidenced by the 2003 sustainability report that the office produces. To this he writes:

When you look at our 2003 sustainability report, which is an offshoot and

promised product from the grant proposal, you’ll see that we have indicators that

deal with diversity, wages, sickness and injuries, drug use, as well as the solid

waste, water, and energy management. And so we broadened that back out again.
I consider Terry’s definition as the guiding definition of how the Office views
sustainability from an institutional standpoint [see Claim No. 4]. Yet, nothing in
particular about this definition seems to suggest anything local. In fact, this definition is

actually more global in scope because it operates at a high level of abstraction. These

things that he’s talking about can be easily transposed from one locale to another, since

43

there is nothing that directly indicates any type of MSU branding. I do realize that this is
a personal definition that Terry offers. Yet since he is the sole arbiter of most of decision-
making that takes place in the office, his definition becomes the offices definition [see
Figure 5]. Another thing that I think that we cannot overlook is the change in dimension
that the definition took, based upon where the funds were coming from. External monies
allowed for a broader definition, while the initial desire for internal recognition forced
Terry and others to define sustainability more locally in environmental terms. In his own
words, the committee made this decision because they felt that these were things that
university administration would more readily understand. I should mention that part of
this change has occurred not only because of the grant but also because as university
administration becomes more interested in sustainability, “and put[s] emphasis on other
things, that [the Office] use to put more energy into [itself, that] frees [the Office] to
consider other things that are not being addressed within that big umbrella of
sustainability” at the university.

What’s interesting is that despite the broad description of sustainability that Terry
provides, he still describes all efforts of the Office to be immediately local. In fact, he
described a tension that has arisen between both the way that the office views
sustainability and the university’s future/immediate focus. Specifically, the office’s focus
on economic justice has been a point of contention since in it’s last report it “raised some
flags about was the growing gap between the lowest paid employee in the university and
the average.” This is something that Terry has indicated as a difference between how the
Office and university administration sees sustainability in broader terms as the Office

moves beyond the environment. There are, however, differences in vision when we

44

follow a more environmental approach to sustainability as evidenced by university
administration’s desire to be the world’s largest land grant university. Terry pointed out
that while the office is more focused on issues locally such as “purchasing” that directly
affect what happens here at the university, there has been more of an immediate emphasis
from the university on “sustainable development in the third world” via the Rwanda
coffee plantations. Furthermore, he noted that may not necessarily be motivated by
sustainability in the broad definition I mention above; in fact, while there is an
environmental sustainability component present, they’re more likely motivated by a push
to economic development.

Terry did see a connection between the two competing directives within his
overarching definition, since the Office sees sustainability within a “big picture” model
that visualizes everything as related [see Claim Nos. 1 & 2]. While the university directs
its attention to Rwanda, thus, insuring the livelihood of farmer’s, the Office locally
endorses and organizes around fair trade issues through educating the university
community about their coffee consumption practices. This results in a relationship
between the Rwanda cooperatives and MSU where coffee purchases on campus directly
benefit farmers in another community. Terry’s revisiting his definition highlights a
complex web, in which action on the local level radiates to the global. So, an issue such
as the coffee we buy here in East Lansing, has a direct impact upon sustainable progress
in the developing world. It is important to note, however, that the Office’s endorsement
of fair trade is not entirely dedicated to Rwanda. Terry merely offered this example as a

means of reconciling the difference in vision between the Office and the university.

45

Flgure 5

Terry’s Sketch of
Decrsion-Making

   
   
   
 

  

University

Committee for a
Sustainable Campus

     
   

Environmental

Stewardship
Program

Fred Poston
(Vice-President)

 

  

Terry Link
(Director)

 
     
  

Trans.
Tech Team

 

  
     

Kathy Lindell
(Asst. Vice-President)

- 'Unilateral

5 i K_€Y l
i l
i Terry’s Marks ‘9

My Marks ........>
L I

 

 

Note: I asked Terry if he could provide a sketchy how decisions are made in the office on a day-
to-day basis. What he provided confirmed my speculation that he occupied a fairly important
position within the network of the office. Without Terry (or the position of the director) the
network would essentially collapse. The office would not function as efficiently. This presents a
variety of problems relating to the office itself. Earlier, I noted that Teny’s definition of
sustainability becomes the office’s definition by default. Terry’s position serves a mediating
function in regards to definitions and ideas embedded within texts distributed by the office. His
absence creates a scenario where there is con congruity between definitions.

46

Producer 1

So, “environmental sustainability” I think succinctly means something along the

lines of making sure that you don’t do damage or use up things that future

generations need and you think about the consequences of your actions along a

network not just in your local area.

Sarah had never heard of the phrase “environmental sustainability” before coming
to MSU. Although she worked with Terry, she quickly indicated that she had always held
that definition prior to coming to MSU. What she lacked was a term under which she
could label and categorize her thoughts. Much of what facilitated her thinking occurred
during a four-year period organizing within activist communities in Oregon. Sarah
commented that her experience during this time was defined by “expos[sure] to a lot of
sustainability issues and progressive politics” as a result of living in cooperative housing:

I lived in big group housing and everyone there was recycling and working for

peace and justice and vegetarian at the same time. And so, it was kind of—just a

coalescing of circumstances in my house in most cases...l worked on more

political stuff than I did environmental stuff at that time; but it was all connected.

I worked for the “police accountability” campaign in Portland, Oregon, working

on like basically making the police accountable to the public. You know, there

had been a series of beatings, police brutality and that kind of stuff. And I think
that the people that I was connected with in that venue really were like you know
they were recycling; they were gardening; they were eating organic and doing all
this other stuff. And so that was were I first got exposed to it.
Sarah actively chooses not to demarcate a line between environmental and social justice
issues as “social justice goes hand-in-hand with environmental justice” in her view of
sustainability. F urtherrnore, if we return to her definition, we get the sense that Sarah
does not necessarily see sustainable activities as exclusively benefiting a local
community. This is commonality to note between Sara and Terry, since they both

embraced the ecological metaphor and choose to see all actions as connected through a

network [see Claim Nos. 1 & 2]. I wrote earlier about Terry’s influence on Sarah

47

thinking process. As the director of OCS, Terry provided her with a phrase that describes
what she had been looking for but was unable to find within Oregon activist
communities—“that connection between people’s lives—political and social justice and
the environmental movement.” This was exceptionally important for Sarah since it

heavily influence how her composing process.

Producer 2

Chris’ observation was that “there’s not definition of sustainability that is exacted
through the website or through its documents.” For him, everything on the site presented
a nebulous definition of sustainability at MSU, which he felt ultimately made it harder to
connect with both local and national audiences. Like Sara, Chris was relatively unaware
of sustainability as a concept before he entered the office. Furthermore, he did not have a
particular definition of sustainability that drove his practice. I must admit that before I
interviewed Chris, I only knew that he was the webmaster. I had no idea what content on
the site he was responsible for. As he detailed his contributions to the office, our
conversation naturally developed into a discussion on definitions. Much of his comments
concerning definitions resulted from his referencing the definitions of others who had
direct contact with the office (i.e. Terry). This is not to say that Chris’ lack of a definition
correlates to ignorance or disinterest in sustainability; instead, as a producer I see him as
uniquely positioned in the occasional role of critic. I find Chris interesting because unlike
the other producers, he has more control and access to the website as he serves as
Ecofoot’s webmaster. Ironically, he indirectly provided, what I deem to be, a component

of a localized definition based upon functionality, aesthetics and consistency of content.

48

From what I have gathered, this lack of cohesion is a direct result of the site’s design
aesthetic and much of the content appearing on the site as well as in print that radiates out
of the office [see Claim No. 4].

Accordingly, he stated, “It’s not a very cohesive site—different pages are done
different ways.” This lack of cohesion, which brings about Chris’ frustration, resulted
from design he perceived as not very user-friendly. The collection of information in the
form of multiple PDFs presented a nightmare for visitors querying for information. Some
pages are entirely textual with no visuals, while others have layouts that vary drastically
from the standard presented on the main page. The biggest reason for this lack of
cohesion is the different site managers who have passed through the office over the years.
Terry provided a list of at least four different students aside from Chris who were
responsible for the maintenance of the site. Each of these webmasters were of varying
skill level, which is something that Chris cited as a major difference between he and his
most recent predecessor. Chris, however, noted there were some pages that he was able to
rebuild into htrnl format in order to “bring everything together,” but this revision process
has been slowed by the fact that “Terry doesn’t see the need for it.” As he offered a
critique of the site’s design, I wondered whether he had any particular conversations with
Terry concerning a particular definition of sustainability that should be present on the
website or in any of the documents he himself designed. He answered, “No;” in fact, he
cited this as the fundamental problem with the website and the office itself.

Despite this problem, he has been busy deliberating about how he can redesign
the site to allow for a more unified definition of sustainability that radiates beyond OCS

toward other on-campus environmental initiatives. Along with Lauren, another office

49

employee, He envisioned a redesign of the site in Wordpress format. This would make
the website more of a “database” rather than a “static” site with a collection of “linked
pages” and PDFs. This redesign would transform Ecofoot into a “repository that [could]
be one place for people to go and find out what’s happening here,” but “at the same time
[be] global because people [could] see what Michigan State is doing” and replicate
sustainability in their own locale. It is very important that the information on the site
retain the “MSU brand” as the its primary audience is students, faculty and staff. Yet, the
need to connect to an external audience presents the opportunity where we can
immediately see a local to global framework associated with sustainability. It is very
likely that we can see Chris definition from a designer/editor’s standpoint as trying to
streamline content in a way that we can simultaneously sustain a definition that is
immediately vital to the functioning of a culture of sustainability here at MSU and serve
the larger principle of connecting our local actions to larger global situations [see Claim

Nos. 1 & 4].

Producer 3

Rich stated that he had heard of the term before but he “had sort of failed to link
the other pieces of sustainability together.” Instead, he was more “myopically” focused
upon the environment without connecting to the broader concept of sustainability that
Terry and Sarah raised in their definitions. Unlike the other producers, Rich did have
some formal education concerning environmental issues since he minored in
Environmental Science as an undergraduate student at Wake Forest. Yet, he didn’t begin
to alter his view of sustainability until he arrived at MSU and met Terry. This was a

transformational meeting for Rich as it helped him to alter how he thought about

50

sustainability or in his own words, “that sort of turned my thinking more towards the
broader concept of sustainability.” In a way, we should see Terry through the lens of
what Brandt (2001) has termed as a “literacy sponsor,” or someone who helps to prompt
the acquisition of knowledge and heuristics for organizing knowledge for the purposes of
future application; I shall discuss this at length in a moment. When I asked Rich if there
was anything in particular from his conversations with Terry that expanded his definition,
he followed suit saying:

I think that I’ve always been interested in issues of—I mean—economic
sustainability or what I consider to be economic sustainability or you can call it
the first bottom-line. Is something that I was schooled in because I had a business
major—I was—I took accounting classes. I understand what balance is according
to dollars and cents. I also was interested in issues of social justice from a very
kind of armchair expertise way...So, I guess long story short, Terry kind of
helped me put them all together into one kind of concept [saying], “Hey there’s
this thing; We’re calling it sustainability. It looks at these three components. And
let’s you think about them within one kind of conceptual framework.”

One difference between Rich and other producers was that he was able to articulate his
definition in a way in which he could recall how all of his varied interests came together
to make a distinct whole under the banner of sustainability. His knowledge of economics
and organizational management served as a guiding frame, in which he could draw on his
prior educational and employment experiences to build a definition of sustainability.
When asked to provide a definition, he answered:
I think that when I think about the word “sustainability” to me it means the ability
to perpetuate some type of operation. I have to think about it in terms of
organization first and then move up toward the environment. The ability—[So if
you think about] a corporation, the ability to perpetuate that entity indefinitely, so
that you’re not drawing down any of the resources that that you need for future—
we’ll call it—production or future operation. Yeah. So, in terms of the

environment. . .we should be using our environment and our natural resources in a
way that we can’t imagine a time when it would end.

51

The “organization” metaphor was something that Rich frequently revisited during the
interview. He conceptualizes sustainability as a well-oiled machine that depends upon all
of its parts in order to function properly. Although he speaks in the abstract, I see a trace
of local dimensions inside his definition. I extract from his view an utterance of the local
as he perceives an organization as part of a larger network that utilizes resources, but
must do so not only to sustain itself but also the world. The “operation” he speaks of is
more like a chain reaction that reverberates outward toward another system that might
encompass the organization. All firings considered, Rich’s definition fits the local to
global model of sustainability’s ecological dimensions [see Claim No. l]. A
commonality shared between Rich and Terry is that the term “environment” is absent
from their definitions. Terry vehemently stated that he “do[esn’t] talk about
environmental sustainability;” instead, he talks about “sustainability,” choosing to live
under a broader framework of a philosophy that includes environmental, social justice,
and economic components. Thinking about sustainability in terms of a continual
operation within an organization did allow Rich to think more holistically in terms of the
“positives and negatives” associated with sustainability. The negative aspects of
sustainability as a concept arise from definitions too rigid in composition that they do not
allow for change:
If I look at the sustainability of other things, of an organization for example, there
are innovations that may cause them to use their resources in a different way ten
years from now then they are today. So, sustainability helps us to focus on present
as it’s leading to the future. But I think we always have to fold in this notion of
change and be flexible and adaptable as we think, so that tomorrow’s
sustainability may look much different than today’s sustainability.

For Rich, “a fluid definition” is a necessity as time and the depletion of natural resources

may cause use to rethink our production and consumption practices. While Terry was

52

influential in facilitating Rich’s understanding of sustainability, he did not add the
“organization” component, as it was something Rich brought to MSU. Rich did,
however, state that he was sure that Terry would be receptive to his definition though
they had no conversations regarding his perspective. Still, there was something
particularly insightful that rose during our interview. Rich offered that his definition
influences his composing process as he writes about sustainability at MSU. As we
examined a message he produced for the OCS website, Rich discussed how he applied a
heuristic from organizational theory and behavior refer to as the “street-level bureaucrat.”
I shall more extensively treat this later in the discussion of the respective case, but I
wanted to raise this as an example of how individual definitions of sustainability travel
from external locations/experiences and tacitly influence textual production.

I want to return to Brandt’s notion of “literacy sponsor” that I raised earlier with
Rich. His definition fits a schema that cuts across the paths of understanding
sustainability among the producers—Terry’s influence or what I would call sponsorship.
In her literacy study, Brandt (2001) views sponsors as “embod[ing] the resource
management systems of literacy” and important lenses for tracking literacy since they
“appeared all over people’s memories of how they learned to read and write” (p. 26-27).
In this way, Terry, as a sponsor, acts as an agent who encourages/discourages the
formation of definitions and serves as a point from which we can trace the formation of
definitions and subsequently texts [see Claim No. 5]. Though Sara, Rich and even Chris
come to understand sustainability from different paths, their definitions are constellated
in that they are organized around Terry as a central node within a network. For example,

Terry was able to extend Rich’s definition by allowing him to realize how he could draw

53

on his knowledge and background of organizational management and economics in order
to generate his own unique definition of sustainability that still fits the heuristic of the
broad definition of the “three ring” model, which Terry uses to discuss sustainability.
People come with their own values and Terry helps to shape them into ideas that are both
easily translatable and fit within the broader conception of environmental sustainability
that the office was originally founded upon. In spite of that, Terry is unaware of how
Rich directly applies principles from organizational theory and management to the texts
he produces for OCS. This is significant since it validates the claim that Chris mentions
above—there is not a consistent definition of sustainability tracing throughout documents
produced by the office. While Terry may be open to this application, it is another story
altogether whether readers of the message are able to recognize this and treat it as part of

a (or their) definition of sustainability.

The Readers

What we have at present is a tale of two readers—one who is “very”
knowledgeable about environmental issues; and another who is a recent adopter of green-
thinking. I presented the readers with pre/post-interview survey questions that attempted
to isolate their opinions and orientation toward environmentalism. Although their
answers are not direct manifestations of definitions regarding environmental
sustainability, to some extent we can see these answers as contributing to a working
definition from each reader. At the time of our interview, Hanna did not have a definition
of sustainability formed in her head, but all of her pre/post-test survey responses
indicated that she is very much involved in the environmental movement. Hanna rates

environmental issues as being “extremely important” to her personal values. Moreover,

54

she indicated that she has changed her behavior in the past three years “quite a lot” in
order to lessen her impact on the environment. These preceding statements are supported
primarily by her regular recycling of most products she uses as well as opting to pay
higher prices for items that are considered environmentally friendly. Hanna is extremely
familiar with many of MSU’s environmental stewardship initiatives as she is familiar
with UCSC and has visited Ecofoot.

In many respects, Michael is the direct opposite of Hanna; however, this is not to
say that he does not care for the environment. Michael simply does not have the level of
awareness or connection to environmental issues in the way Hanna does. He did have a
definition of sustainability, which he recently formed after attending a public forum on
sustainability. He offered this definition as “preserving the environment or creating
communities that would be self-sufficient that people children and their children can live
and thrive in that community.” While he noted that environmental issues were “quite
important” to his everyday life, he indicated that he “hardly at all” made any moves in the
past three years to reduce his impact on the environment. Furthermore, he had never
heard of OCS, the website or about anything related to the environment at MSU until our
interview. Still, Michael marked that he finds it “very important” that individual people
should alter their behavior to reduce impact on the environment. This statement from
Michael leads to an interesting point of contrast between he and Hanna. I asked them to
rate on a five-point scale “who they felt was most responsible for protecting the
environment.” Whereas Michael cited that he believed the responsibility fell mainly on

9’ 5‘

the shoulders of private individuals, Hanna rank “local communities, companies and

’9 66

organizations, private individuals,” “states,” and “US government,” respectively.

55

Michael’s response is extremely representative of most of the information he provides in
the other three cases regarding how sustainability functions in each message.

For him, sustainability starts with actions on the local level that radiate outward to
the larger whole; therefore, personal responsibility and actions become extremely
important for getting things done [see Claim No. l]. I am not too sure on how to
characterize Hanna’s response. In fact, sometimes her answers are not immediately clear;
but a single cohesive thread that may explain her view on responsibility is that Hanna
looks at environmental sustainability through what I would term an anti-
globalization/Marxist lens. Corporate accountability and community action rather than
personal responsibility appear to be very important toward ensuring environmental
preservation. Yet, there were items in the post-interview that seem to suggest that she still
places heavy emphasis on local actions toward affecting change [see Claim No. 6].

Hanna and Michael agree that each message they viewed generated “local”
knowledge for audience members. They also agree that messages that are “local” provide
more opportunities for action than “global” messages [see Claim Nos. 1 & 6]. In reaction
to this, Michael stated, “People are generally interested in what effects them, so they will
be more inclined to respond to local issues. Characterizing environmental sustainability
as a global problem has not seemed to work in the past.” Hanna had a similar response as
she said, “I suppose because most people tend to operate form (sic) an out of sight out of
mind sort of perspective. If something seems relevant to immediate concerns and
livelihoods, the chance for an active response may increase as opposed to a distant more
abstract concern.” Her concentration on corporate and group responsibility returned, as

she believes global messages are more

56

Figure 6
Circulation of ideas

   
 
 

 
 
 
 

  

University

    
       
   

   

University 8‘ Definitions Committee for a
\ (Administration) Sustainable Campus
‘ .
\ i
\ \ /‘//I
\ .
‘ Terry Link
\ (Director)

 
 
     
 

Producers

(Sarah, Chris &
Rich)

   

x\\
a

 
 
  
  
   

  
 

’

f.
”

  

Readers
(Community)

  

’

 

  
 

External
Knowledge

 

'—1

Kill

  

Direction of Ideas —>

Level of Influence

 

r- __._.____ _.

 

 

Note: I was curious as to how information circulates based upon information provided during my
interview. This figure is directly comparable to Terry’s sketch in many ways as it displays who is
answerable to Terry and to whom Terry remains answerable. The difference between the two
figures arises with the level of influence that comes with the circulation of information.
Obviously as the director of the office, Terry has more influence upon the producers and
subsequently the texts. Yet, the difference is that this figure shows that producers do not entirely
develop their texts under Terry’s guidance. Like the readers during consumption, each producer -
in their interview notes that they tap into external knowledge sources during the writing process
in order to make meaning. This figure is vital in that it attempts to plot the complex interaction
that occurs during production and reception of textual artifacts.

57

convincing toward inciting a change in attitude. Specifically, she wrote, “If people were
able to picture the health of the planet in terms of tangible commonality, then they might
realize that attempts at a capitalist status quo typically involves the exploitation of
peoples via the breakdown of sustainable resource management.” From this, we can build
a definition of sustainability for Hanna, which includes the necessity for local actions to
affect change within communities, but also the push for the circulation of more global
knowledge in order to affect change around the world. These elements closely coincide
with what I characterized as her “anti-globalization/ Marxist” stance in that they run off
of a working social justice model that takes power out of the hands of corporate entities
and restores autonomy to communities.

In the beginning, I stated that definitions are important because they are heuristic
and drive writing situations. This was an initial claim I held before I deployed my study.
Yet, what I found in the course of my interviews validated my claim. The local gets made
through definitions in ways that are explicit and (to some extent) implicit; however, there
needs to be the presence of a mediating body who can take seemingly divergent views
and find ways to converge them into a unified whole. The readers were able to pick up on
several aspects of each producer’s definition when discussing their own definitions of
sustainability and reviewing each message. I do not want to belabor the point here, but as
we move through each of the following cases, you will see how a trend develops where
both Hanna and Michael agree with Sarah, Chris, Rich and even Terry regarding
dimensions of the local within messages. Writing about sustainability at MSU entails
producers working from definitions of sustainability based upon the local in order to

attract and hearten readers toward action within the community [see Claim No. 6].

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Case II—“Vote Local First”

Only as an aesthetic phenomenon is the world justified.

—Friedrich Nietzsche from The Birth of Tragedy

This case is slightly limited in that data was gathered differently from Chris in
comparison to other producers. Yet, what makes this case so interesting is its centering
upon whether there is a specified look to local dimensions of sustainability. In many
respects, this focus on design conventions associated with the local highlights the
pressures that producers undergo during the writer process as they determine what
rhetorical appeal would have enough sway upon potential readers. As stated earlier, Chris
serves as the webmaster for EcoFoot. This position involves many projects such as
formatting the newsletter in .htrnl form, designing banners for the site, and streamlining
page content so that it fits a single unifying aesthetic. Terry also commissions Chris to
design flyers and other types of media that advertise OCS events and programs. The
primary message that defines this case was a flyer that Chris produced with other students
in a professional writing course. According to Chris, Terry initially started the project,
which was a series of posters titled “Vote with Your Actions.” This project was actually
Chris’ entry point into OCS and introduction to the concept of sustainability. While the
originally appeared in print, the posters have found their way online as part of the
website, which features .pdf versions of the original posters with and without local
content. The posters “specifically targeted students at Michigan State University,” but
Chris noted that there were some initial problems in the beginning of the design process.
First, he noted that “it was a push-and-pull throughout the whole class of how [they]

should target those students because...[they] had a lot of different personalities.” Some

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students in the class were politically liberal and more inclined toward environmentalism
while others were conservative and more skeptical of the environmental movement. The
second problem the class faced regarding the design process was a disparity of
knowledge amongst each member of the design team. There were those “[who] had
interest in sustainability” and those “[who] had no clue about sustainability.” And finally,
they were generally unsure about how they would attract students on campus to the
message of sustainability. To this point he stated:
So, how do you really—sustainability is so large and it’s not like you can donate
twenty dollars and we’re going to be like, “Ok, we’re going to be sustainable is
everybody donates twenty dollars!” It’s about behavioral change. And in our
estimation the majority of students either didn’t care, wouldn’t care, or did not
want to make sacrifices. And so to them, it would just fall into the white noise of
global warming. So, we didn’t know how to target those students; and I’m not
sure we did the greatest job in the world.
His remarks seem to hone on a particularly insightful problem. As a group of writers
charged with the mission of talking about sustainability, there is an immediate dilemma
in how they can represent such a concept in a way that it holds true to their individual
values and those of OCS and the MSU community [see Claim No. 7]. Working across
what can be described as different orientations to sustainability, the class decided to
frame the project around old political saying that mesh with environmental issues that
students care about. For example, they remixed the phrase “no new taxes” from President
George H. Bush’s 1988 Republican National Convention nomination acceptance speech
and transformed it into “no new bottled water.” They also adopted slogans from other
political campaigns (e.g. “I like Ike” to “I like Bike”) as well as the Black Power

movement (“Power to the People” to “Wind power to the people”). The move to use

these slogans was a saavy approach toward solving the many problems they faced as a

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design team as these messages tap into an American political consciousness that would
allow readers to easily receive messages regarding the environment. In spite of this, Chris
expressed disappointment in the excerpt above. This discontent stems from his belief that
he and his classmates were unable to connect directly to a local audience. He did,
however, state that the final products “look[ed] really sharp” but most of this was the
result of the visual design, which was drafted by three design students in another class.
Chris felt as if in most of the posters, the information was too general and so they did not
go far enough to make the content matter to members of the community. It was at this
point that we turned to the message that primarily defines this case.

The phrase “vote local first” sits toward the top of the message, which helps to
define the general tone and theme. In terms of color, it is composed of shades of dark
green and white. In the background is an image of an indistinguishable plant that spans
from the bottom to the top of the flyer on the left side. The term “local” repeats several
times in the text below, for example: “locally grown food,” “local farmers,” “locally
owned businesses,” “local economy.” These phrase when coupled with “vote with your
actions” and the url addresses for the office and Capital Area Local First’s (CALF)
websites suggest that readers of this message should engage in actions that occur within
their own locality by making conscious decisions to purchase goods and services
produced and sold in the communities rather than purchasing externally produced and
trafficked goods [see Claim No. 6]. For me, it seemed especially important to talk about
the “vote local first” poster because it seems as if the content itself would suggest

immediate connection to a local audience. This, in fact, would be an immediate

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contradiction to his original feeling of not being able to connect to his audience. As we
surveyed the features of the message in question, his feelings changed:
This one it says “vote local first,” but we weren’t necessarily targeting directly at
this locality. We thought about doing that a lot, but—you know—we wanted to
include local information—we researched local businesses that was—you know—
this one was probably the most local of them all. We wanted to put information
out there about local businesses; but then at the same time, we didn’t feel we had
enough reliable information and know-how in ourselves to kind of be able to tell
people, “These places are good! You should use these” cause we didn’t have any
background to put our stamp on it and. . .say, “these places are good,” because
they might not be. We’ve found research that says their good, but we haven’t
gone there; we haven’t done and independent study. We were very leery of
statistics. I was the strongest opposer of statistics, because I feel they’re over
done...I’ve been bludgeoned with statistics my whole life; at least that’s what I
feel like. And they always contradict themselves. People can always use another
statistic to combat another statistic. We ended up using them; but not to the extent
they wanted to. But it was tough.
The statistics in question were kept minimal. Chris and his group opted not to use
numbers, but instead simple descriptive phrases that showed the benefits local actions
have on both communities and the environment. Yet, in his description of the flyer itself,
Chris stated that their reasons for keeping the statistics at a minimum was their lack of
faith in research conducted on local businesses and also they wanted to “make them look
like something that [students would] want to hang up on their dorm-room wall.” The
latter was also another reason as to why he felt that this message did not necessarily
work, since to his knowledge he had only seen one person display the flyer on their door.
It was after this statement that I directed him to my computer desktop to show him one of
his flyers that I had used as a background image. Still, I was interested in whether the
readers would be able to look at the flyer and proffer the same reaction as Chris.

Michael’s immediate reaction was that the repetition of the term “local” made it

“obvious” what action the producers desired from their audience. By noting that “local”

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was a very important with its repetition throughout the message, Michael felt that it was
important to sort of have this distinct language in making a message local. He articulated
his feelings saying, “I mean there’s not that many ways that they could say it. There not
that many synonyms for the word “local,” but you do want to drive home—you know—
eat food grown in your—in your area. . .or support your community businesses—I guess
they could have said “community-owned businesses”——but yeah, it’s necessary.”
Moreover, Michael had a similar feeling toward this message in comparison to others we
looked at because it had the same ripple effect where all the varied indicators position it
as being local but still moving towards national and global in action [see Claim Nos. 1 &
2]. It was his opinion that the message could travel beyond MSU “if you took out the
websites down at the bottom;” however, even if one were to do that, “the message lends
itself to just kind of stay in the local category”:
You would have to like think—well you know—my local impact would have
something—you know—or like what I do locally would have impact on the
nation or on the globe. But the average person is not—I don’t think is going to
think about it like that. But it’s not necessary for them to think about it like that.
Cause thinking about it—for some people thinking about it in terms of the nation
or the globe becomes too big. So, I think this message is like—you know—in
saying, “vote local first”—think about your own. . .get your local community—
you know—[to produce] it’s own food and transportation et cetera.
Like Michael, Hanna was able to pick up on the intent behind the message stating that the
“obvious focus is like for local actions and interactions.” She, like Michael, was able to
find other indicators within this message—namely national, due to the general mention of
“voting” throughout the text. It was, however, her feeling that the non-specified

attachment of the term to any locality made it national, but it was still local as she sees

the abstract uses of term inspiring actions that branch out [see Claim Nos. 1 & 2]:

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I guess because like the “local” thing—you know—obviously made me think,

“Oh ok, local.” You know it was just the same word association. But, I guess

“vote with your actions”—cause I think a lot of the times—you know—our

national identity and thinking—people are thinking, “Oh how am I involved—in

likwthis democracy.” A lot of the time people just think, “I vote”—you know——
so I guess like I just feel like that’s sort of like a common language nationally—
you know—is voting. So—you know—obviously it would be individuals so
therefore a sort of local bent to it, but with your actions but I feel like just—as just
the scope of a phrase like that it makes me think nationally just because—you
know like I said—the association with democracy is so often voting.
Although Hanna associates the use of voting with national participation in democracy, I
still think that her thoughts are in concordance with Michael and Chris’ feeling that the
message is more local in that the immediate action happens within a local community and
its effects branch outward when concatenated with the actions of others. This was
evidence by Hanna’s double-coding of the phrase “stay in the local economy” as both
local and global because of the presence of “local economies around the world” and the
need for such change to occur in order to maintain individual community sovereignty.

It was Hanna’s insights on another aspect of the message that I found interesting
because it connected with comments that Chris and Michael put forth in their interviews.
During our interview, she specifically coded the background image (or “plant life”) as
local. I thought this was interesting because it points to aesthetic dimensions of a local
definition of sustainability [see Claim No. # 4]. When I asked her why she made this
decision, she simply responded saying, “that’s what we see where we’re at. . .like MSU or
wherever you happen to stay—it’s like you know—you’re able to stay their saved by the
grace of oxygen.” Accordingly, certain graphical elements of a message can work to
influence local actions or what may be considered as local. For instance, when I asked

Hanna if we were to replace the image of “plant life” with something else, she expressed

that if it were “an image of the Earth...certainly that would be... global or if it had the

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States. . .it would be national.” I was happy that Hanna raised this as an important element
of what made this message local because it confirmed an initial claim that arose during
my interview with Chris—aesthetic dimensions of the local. I wrote earlier that Chris’
interview differed slightly from those of other producers because I was not immediately
sure what material on the site he was responsible for creating. As he navigated
throughout Ecofoot, Chris presented several documents available on the site itself and
some archived in his online portfolio. The message that initially built this claim was a
.jpeg version of a flyer Terry asked him to create for a week of special campus programs
titled, “Journeys to Sustainability,” which was part of a larger nationally syndicated
event. This flyer was actually the first job Chris had when he started working for OCS.
An image of a red wheelbarrow sits in the middle of the flyer with the adjacent
slanting title, “Journeys to Sustainability.” Beneath the red wheelbarrow is an oddly
placed poem by William Carlos Williams that reads, “some much depends on a red
wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens” and another set of text,
which seems to be more of a description of the event: “Sustainability is a journey. It
happens within bodies and across nations. It is personal, philosophical, and practical.
Journey with us beyond the classroom and into a sustainable future.” The bulk of the text
is in either read or black on a neutral white background. When Chris opened this image I
thought it would be interesting to discuss how he attempted to design this for a local
audience because his choice of color and the image in the background entirely deviates
from what most people would associate with the environmental movement or the concept
of sustainability. Naturally, this was the first thing that Chris addressed when we looked

at the flyer:

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This was going to go out to students; this was for students mostly. And I realize
that it was going to be posted on the bulletin boards all-around campus. So, I
wanted to have a really dominant visual that would catch the eyes of students
walking past it, cause I know when I walk past those things I notice a blur unless
there’s something that absolutely stands out. And the theme of this week of events
was this red wheelbarrow from a poem of William Carlos Williams, which is
included right there down there. That’s just an excerpt from the poem. Actually
that’s the entire poem, it’s just a very short thing. So, I imagined this this big red
wheelbarrow and I imagined that people wouldn’t know what the hell this big red
wheelbarrow was. Plus I liked the color red for the theme once I got working with
it. But—so that’s where the giant visual came from.
In his own words, his use of the image is completely unrelated to the event and is
necessary only as a strategy to attract a local audience. As odd as this may sound, both
Terry and the UCSC were completely on board with the design as they served as
reviewers for the final product. I wanted us to play around with the message a little and
test the limits of what make it local. The first question that I asked Chris was whether he
would still consider the flyer a local message if we took out all of the event information
at the bottom, which features the dates, times, and places. This became important as Chris
responded by saying he would not consider it to be a local message because “everything
local here (MSU) and with sustainability seems to be focused on the color green.” The
idea that color, typeface and images could come together to build a local composition of
sustainability was something that I had not considered while planning this study. It does,
however, make sense that one would have to think about how these elements might work
to induce particular responses and actions from readers as they relate to the content. Yet,
producers of content need to be aware of these elements and also realize that there is
some risk associated with deviation from expected design standards, which Chris himself

realized:

The “Spartan” branding there always seems to be something there. That’s
something I never actually considered, making it (“Journeys to Sustainability”

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flyer) appear visually local. In fact in a lot of the work I’ve done—not all of it—
I’ve tried to avoid the color green as a dominant element—use it but not use it
dominantly because—you know—sustainability is “the green movement,” but at
Michigan State everything is green. So, I’ve always tried to kinda work around
that to make everything standout; but it’s kind of a catch-22. You can’t abandon
green entirely, but if you don’t...it’s going to look like—you know—a sporting
event poster.
At MSU, everything is, in fact, green and this does present challenges for producers
trying to represent the environmental movement in a local where everything seems to
revolve around the color green. Though Chris as a writer is aware of this, he chooses to
diverge from accept standards that would make his message more local in favor of what
he feels would enhance his chances of connecting to a local audience. Still, I wanted to
talk about this message in relation to the “vote local first” flyer because they are both
connected in the sense that they raise the importance of how much attention should be
placed into crafting a local aesthetic. Making a message local is not just about writing
sufficient content or repeating the word “local.” A local message is a combination of the
aforementioned elements and other graphical omamentations. Therefore, to effectively
craft a local message, writers need to make careful aesthetic choices that create

connections between a community’s character and the mission of sustainability to attract

local audiences and induce desired response.

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Case III—“Sustainability @ MSU”

I was always looking for environmental stories in Michigan and that one was a
little passed by. . .But I think it’s definitely one of the best examples we have.

—Sarah describing “Sustainability @ MSU”

Messages found on the site can be in the form of texts, images, and sometimes
video. Video is interesting in the sense that it is an amalgamation of text, image, color
and various other things that cannot quite be captured in an image or on paper (e.g.
emotions). Attention to the functioning of such messages of sustainability found on
websites expands our understanding of how writers creatively and tenuously fashion
distinctive local appeals. Before I discuss this case any further, I would like to underscore
some shortcomings that make this case less robust than others. First, one of the readers
scheduled another appointment during our interview and had to leave early. We were able
to discuss all of messages at length except the video; however, I was able to get some
brief comments about the material she coded for the video. The final problem concerning
this case occurred in my last reception interview. There were some technology problems
that occurred throughout. While most of them were minor and appeared as slight
inconveniences and deviation from protocol, there was a major problem in that the audio
stopped recording before we discussed the message. I receive some feedback from a
friend and tried to piece together as much as I could from my notes and additional
communication with the reader; but I remain dissatisfied. Nevertheless, I chose not to
discard the data from any of my interviews. I feel as if there was material present that
might extend how we could possibly understand the local in relation to sustainability.

In this case, I chose to focus on a video produced by Sarah, which discusses the

concept of sustainability through the voices of various people affiliated with the

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university. Within this case, I am principally concerned with the geographical distinctions
of the local and how geography plays vital roles in building community. As stated earlier,
Sarah came to MSU to specifically pursue a specialized graduate degree in environmental
journalism through the Knight Center. Although they are not the focus of this case, Sarah
made several videos during her time as a student, which are also located on the website.
One video that she seemed rather keen to talk about was something she created while
enrolled in a course on environmental film. The purpose of the short film was to debunk
the myth of whether allowing engine idling was a good or bad thing. This was not a topic
assigned to her; instead, it was something that randomly popped into her head as she
described that she was “a jeewiz kind or person.” Still, Sarah felt this topic had value to
the people around her. If not beyond MSU, because “this [was] the kind of question
people fight about all the time” and answering it “also [had] environmental implications.”
We did not discuss the content of the video in—depth, but Sarah noted that the final
product was received well by both her classmates and her professor who “had really
strong opinions” that were ultimately transformed. Terry was so impressed by the quality
of Sarah and her classmates’ work on other videos like this that he asked that they be
linked to the site. These videos were not necessarily produced with MSU students in
mind; however, Terry thought they had enough value for the local community that it
would expand knowledge about an issue and encourage changes in behavior [see Claim
No. 6]. This is something Terry indicated earlier when discussing his litmus test for
loading student generated content onto the website. Material placed on the site has to be
immediately useful for the community. Though this example is peripheral to the main

video I shall discuss shortly, in a way, it illustrates how local messages, which help to

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define sustainability at MSU, are often produced with little to no connection to OCS or
knowledge of on campus initiatives.

The primary message that defrnes this case is titled, “Sustainability @ MSU.”
This was not a course project. Instead, this was a joint venture between OCS and UCSC
to produce a short documentary piece to present during summer orientation for incoming
MSU freshmen. The purpose of the project was to help students expand their definition of
what it means to be interested in the environment, to bring in other aspects of
sustainability beyond the environment, and to talk about how MSU participates in that. It
was the necessity to describe how MSU participates in sustainability that primarily drove
our interview. One of the first elements that a reader encounters upon view the message is
the opening sequence, which features an array of words converging together. Some of
these words included “water,” “social justice,” “pollution,” “health,” “economic justice,”
“land,” “racism,” “war,” “food,” “waste.” Sarah expressed that her decision to open the
video in this matter grew from her desire to “represent the fact that there’s a lot of
interconnected problems” when thinking about environmental sustainability. These terms,
according to Sarah, are a conglomeration of issues that “people don’t consider as part of
sustainability or environmentalism” but should be “brought into the picture.” Literally,
the converging of the terms in the video stands as a metaphor for how these issues are
interconnected. Moreover, when I think of her discussion of this portion of the message, I
think about the broad definition of sustainability that Sarah offered in the first case [see
Claim Nos. 1 & 2]. Choosing to see all these terms as working together rather than
separate retains the idea, for example, that problems with water are environmental and

social justice issues or disputes on land use/development issues are environmental and

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social justice issues. Sarah notes that thinking about things in this way can be
“intimidating,” but these are serious problems that need real solutions and the solutions
may be as complicated as the problems.

Michael was the only reader to have made a reference to the opening segment as
he coded. While he felt that the overall message was local, he coded the content of the
opening sequence as global because he saw them as abstract concepts that were not
grounded in anything particular thing. He placed terms like “community engagement”
and “student organic farm” as local. For Michael, the difference between these two
categories is the type of action they encourage. The words he highlighted as global
indicators work to “make you think more about sustainability” and the local indicators
“actually put a face on the issue by providing information on how to act and participate”
[see Claim Nos. 1 & 6]. The latter point was an area of common ground between
Michael and Hanna. They each intimated what made the video local was seeing people,
who were affiliated with the university, talking about and participating in
environmentally sustainable activities. Sarah felt that it was requisite to feature people
within the institution as representatives of sustainability rather than people from the
Greater East/Lansing area. When I asked her about this she said that she felt
“representing what goes on at Michigan State [was] pretty important” and thus this called
for interviewing staff, students and professors. Though there are people within the
Greater East/Lansing area, who could talk about environmental sustainability with greater
expertise, using their personalities in this video would lessen the local appeal by making
the content more broad, thus increasing the range of audience members. The presence of

community members is important because they literally put a local face on sustainability

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by just being visible in the community [see Claim Nos. 5]. This is an aspect of
sustainability that I shall talk about at length in the final case.

The UCSC and Terry served as the editorial board and to some extent they acted
as producers providing Sarah with content and people to talk to. “Yeah. We had some
committee meetings after the first draft and they said, ‘Shorter. More kids,’” Sarah said
discussing the production process. “More people that were not professors or staff. They
wanted more young people. They really wanted another undergrad or two.” Featuring
more students and less “old people” was a step toward heightening the local appeal.
There was one comment, however, that completely altered the feel of the first cut. Sarah
said that after looking at the video for the first time, aside from desiring younger
representation, the committee felt that the way sustainability was being discussed was far
too general. So, they opted for a “cartoon” as an addendum that would best illustrate how
sustainability works at MSU. The cartoon occurs at the end of the video as a final
summation of all the items discussed. It is a quick synopsis of the relationship between
coffee consumption here at the university and East African coffee plantations in Rwanda.
It was at this time that I started to notice how important this relationship between MSU
and African growers was to not only the office, but also the university. This was a shining
example of sustainability that seemed to crop up a lot either throughout my interviews as
each producer and reader occasionally discussed the importance of reputation toward
fortifying a local definition of sustainability. In these instances, participants would
highlight in some way the significance of MSU defining itself against other regional and
national institutions [see Claim No. 4]. For example, Hanna herself said that MSU’s

reputation as the “leading land grant university” and everything that it has done to

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establish itself as an environmental leader among higher-ed institutions is what
influenced her decision to attend school here. In many ways, our discussions led to the
idea that prestige may play a pivotal role in delimiting the local, which lead to the
creation of two interconnected claims.

First, if this is true, then it holds that the local may not have a set geographic
location or the local is always seen in reference to another location [see Claim No. 2].
This is important because part of building an identity or a reputation means making
moves toward defining yourself in reference to other localities. Following along the lines
of this logic, the local sometimes operates in the abstract, which is not always
immediately clear. The local can be a person’s body (as sometimes environmental issues
a framed as dire situations if there is a perceived threat to an individuals health), a
community and regional, but these are never separate from the whole and are always
connected in a network that extends outward. For example, Sarah uses the cartoon as a
model for discussing sustainability here at MSU. She has to use another entity that’s
global in order to define and place into perspective local actions here on campus. Such
references make the message less general and help to ground it more so that audiences
can realistically see the effect of their local actions, which is why the committee
suggested the addition of the cartoon. This writing strategy can lead to encouraging a host
of actions ranging from altering the way one thinks about an issue to actually changing
consumption and purchasing practices. The second claim regards prestige and how the
local is often defined in respect to other entities in order to build a communities sense of
identity [see Claim No. 3]. What I suggest is that local indicators scattered throughout

texts sometimes as an appeal to a community’s character and esteem. This most often

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occurs in the form of praise that makes direct comparisons to other regional or global
entities and the referencing of recognition from various persons or institutions. I think
that the cartoon in this video works because it provides a model for how sustainability
works on the local level, but it also serves as a public relations piece for the university.
This is a message for community members as well as those outside the community that
says, “Look how sustainable we are here at MSU.” Its presence on the website aids in the
delivery of its content to ensure that people will recognize the institution for its efforts.
Therefore, it might be useful for writers to mention any type of recognition a community
has received in order to possibly increase the likeliness of action from a particular

message.

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Case IV—“Stories of Sustainability”

Behind every action, every change, there is a story to be told. These are the tales
that tell the story of how sustainability happens.

—Opening epigraph to “Stories on the way to Sustainability”

This case focused specifically on messages that Rich constructed for OCS that
were only available on the website. More than any of the other cases, I find Case IV to be
incredibly robust in that it supports many of the claims from stated in other cases. In this
case, I highlight how local manifestations of sustainability can be embodied in
community representatives and are built through community deliberation. While this is
somewhat implied in the other cases, it become explicit through Rich, Hanna, and
Michael’s discussion of the messages. I decided to use two messages, because these were
the only messages immediately present on the site that we comparable to each other and
had the same author (“Gateway Drug” and “The Squeaky Wheel”). I also thought that
this presented a unique opportunity where I could test whether readers would still be able
to rate comparables messages as local depending upon the various indicators embedded
within each. In a sense, this case was merely another stab at testing the reliability of my
coding scheme. These messages are a part of a series that OCS has in syndication titled,
“Stories on the way to Sustainability.” Rich had no idea we would be talking about these
pieces during the interview. Instead, while we were discussing his background in the
environmental movement as well as his relationship with Terry, he revealed to me that he
was currently working on some “green stories,” which would look at sustainability
among different individuals on campus. The University Committee for a Sustainable
Campus originally commissioned the series. Committee members decided early in Fall

2008 that they needed to set a series of goals that would allow greater visibility for both

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the committee and sustainable initiatives on campus. Rich, who has served as a
committee member for the past two years, said, “So, one way to do that we thought was
to sort of do some very informal sort of journalism style interviews with people who are
both on the committee and not on the committee—mostly Operations people——and ask
them about. . .how they did sustainability at wor .” Originally, Rich was commissioned to
write fifteen stories, but due to time commitments he has only been able to finish the two
that are currently on the website.

In the first message, titled, “The Gateway Drug,” Rich interviewed Lauren Olson,
an alumna of MSU and OCS employee. The article focuses exclusively upon Lauren’s
efforts as an undergraduate to institute an adequate and accessible on campus recycling
program as well as her opinions on the importance of recycling. My initial analysis of this
message coded it as being exclusively local though I did find national and global
indicators present. Most of the indicators point to actions that are immediately local.
Furthermore, I felt each indicator worked to goad readers toward not only believing that
it is possible for them to do the things that Lauren did as an undergraduate but also
encourage them to engage in these activist activities and recycle as well. Aside from
Lauren, the defining characteristic of the piece is the repetition of the phrase “gateway
drug,” which positions recycling as a step toward sustainability. I had heard the term
before, but I was unsure of how to code it. Part of me wanted to code it as local, because
the activity attached to the phrase (recycling) is an immediately local action; however, the
phrase “gateway drug” seems to be more of a national indicator as it is deeply tied to
discussion of the habitual use of marijuana leading to the use of more dangerous drugs.

As he discussed his writing process, Rich relayed how he came up with the phrase

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“gateway drug” (acquired from Lauren during his interview) and its significance to the
message in toto:
So, I’ve got all these stories kind of in my head and somebody will say something
or I’ll re-read a manuscript and see kind of a snippet of something that’s kind of
cool. And that would usually—the rest of the story kind of follows...So...she
used that word “gateway drug” and I thought that was such a cool thing because
it’s sort of carrying on the philosophy. . .which is that need for extension—sort of
outreach. That to me seemed like a term that was both hmnorous in thinking about
sustainability and also kind of would draw people in without being cheesy and
hipstery.
The use of this phrase was strategic for two reasons. First, it taps into the definition of
sustainability, which Rich provided earlier. This definition sees sustainability as both
broad and networked wherein a series of local actions can lead to changes throughout the
system [see Claim Nos. 1 & 2]. Second, his use of the phrase “gateway drug” taps into a
national consciousness via shared terminology in order to draw readers into the subject. I
shall cover the importance of local actions in relation to Rich’s opinion regarding desired
responses from an audience reading the message and the reader’s reactions shortly in this
case. I, however, would like to discuss the latter of the two first because it points to the
intersubjective nature of Rich’s writing process as it was heavily dependent upon
community for construction [see Claim No. 7]. Rich corroborated my initial analysis
saying that his use of “gateway drug” was an attempt to tap into a national narrative that
resonated with people. In fact, the use of the phrase when coupled with Lauren’s
activities becomes “sort of a microcosm of the American story.” In Rich’s mind and for
most of us who have sat through a US history course, the “American story” is deeply
defined by the ordeal of a single individual, who against all odds is able to win against

forces more powerful and influential than himself. Lauren stands as an archetype for this

narrative, which makes it easier for readers to relate to the message’s content and subtext

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[see Claim No. 5]. Naturally, Rich’s assertion that the message evoked a sense of
nationalism led us to discuss audience as it related to the construction of the message. At
first, I was surprised to learn that what I had coded as being exclusively local was
actually written for a primarily national audience; but that started to unravel as Rich
further explained the intent behind the message as multi-tiered. Although “gateway drug”
operates on a high level of abstraction that could easily travel to audiences beyond MSU,
Rich conveyed that while he was writing more of a “national” message, he was primarily
thinking of MSU community members:
When I said, “US” earlier that was in terms of like the kind of the underlying
philosophy of the story. . .I mean this is also a quintessential MSU story because I
mean first of all the setting is at MSU and secondly it involves her as a student,
which I think speaks to what is possible among the student population here on
campus.
Once I again, I would like to note that there is no evidence on Rich’s or the office’s end
that would suggest that this document traveled beyond MSU as there are no statistics to
track delivery. The explication of his thought process, however, highlights the complexity
of his rhetorical situation as he finds himself communicating with multiple people in
different parts of the country as well as on campus [see Claim Nos. 1 & 2]. What further
complicates this discussion of audience and writing community is Rich’s editorial
process, which surprisingly does not feature Terry alone. “I go back to my participants
with the actually story and ask them if they thought I had accurately represented what
they thought, and what they did, and did they want to make any changes. The next move
is to send it to Terry,” he said. In a sense, the community is valuable to Rich, because it

helps him write his stories through providing content that better helps to frame the subject

(e.g. Lauren, “gateway drug” and Laurie “squeaky wheel”), checking the accuracy of his

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statements and comparing these statements with the overall mission of OCS. These
people within the community represent a marshalling of knowledge that helps to create
sustainability here at MSU [see Claim No. 7].

I would like to return to the first reason I found the use of “gateway drug” to be
strategic as it directly connects to the desired actions Rich would like to see from his
participants. I wrote earlier that I thought that this was a strong candidate for encouraging
action because of its incredibly local focus and strong connection to Rich’s definition of
sustainability. Despite the presence of some national and global markers, these indicators
work to enhance the local references for the purposes of inciting participation in efforts to
ensure sustainability at MSU. In fact, when describing his message along the three
indicators listed, he stated that he would use all three but that “the story itself is very
local” since “it’s about MSU; it’s about a campus program; it’s a case study; it’s not
generalized. . .it takes a special person; it takes a special context.” As I thought about this
statement coupled with his statements on national indicators within each message, what I
gathered from Rich’s analysis of his writing was a connection between “specific”
knowledge and the local and “general” knowledge with the global [see Claim Nos. 1 &
6]. When presented with information that is increasingly abstract and does not
immediately relate to them, readers are placed in positions in which they are unable to
act. Providing more specific information that relates issues of environmental
sustainability to the community presents guides that facilitate involvement, participation
and action. The latter of this corollary is a traceable dimension of the local within
environmental sustainability. This claim is further augmented by Rich’s report of what he

would like to see from an audience encountering this message:

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I would be disappointed if someone read this story and got really involved in the
recycling movement. I would be excited if they read this story and were
compelled to recycle. But I kind of feel like this has been dealt—like now it’s
time for you to think about—you know—what else needs to be tackled... And not
that everything ever been done, but I just kind of like this is probably something
that—you know—this is something that Lauren did and she owned it and now
she’s kind of doing something else and recycling is a very important issue and I
want to get that across, but at the same time I would like them to absorb it a little
deeply than that and say, “Ok What am I passionate about? What am I interested
in? How could I do—maybe I can go meet with the Board of Trustees”—
obviously that’s valued at this university. So I think that that’s howl would hope
that people would read it and not just—not just freshman. I mean I think that it
can be applicable to anybody who has a little bit of time and some—and is willing
to put in some effort.
Rich’s level of approval regarding action is tendered by the degree of participation from
his audience. He expressed disappointment over “involve[ment] in the recycling
movement” because that would indicate only a change in mindset without physical
participation. His working model of sustainability is driven by his definition, which calls
for small action-oriented steps that would work to change the whole. It is not enough that
someone expresses an interest in recycling or feels more inclined toward doing so. Rich’s
expectation is that his audience not only recycle but use that act as a stepping stone
toward other actions related to sustainability. Rich’s use of Lauren as an archetype for the
“American story” and the highlighting of specific local activities establishes an
atmosphere for action, something that is not necessarily as possible with more general
information because ambiguities would circulate as to what role audience members could
play [see Claim Nos. 5 & 6]. When I asked each reader about this message, they
responded with an avowal that the message itself encourages local actions. Michael
asserted that the “immediate purpose [of the article] is to really push recycling” as it

encourages “actual action” that would “definitely [cause him] to recycle more on

campus.” Though all of the words he coded seemed to be local in my opinion, Michael

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initially coded them as global. Specifically, he coded the phrase “recycling is a gateway
drug for sustainability” as global because “[he] also put sustainability in global. And
since recycling is a key component of sustainability, to [him] that is also a global issue.”
His choosing global as an indicator connects back to what I initially noted about the
phrase “gateway drug” connecting to a broad and networked definition of sustainability.
Rich, Michael and myself all coded the phrase differently; however, our responses each
connected back to local action as the driving force behind the metaphor. For example,
despite initially coding all but a single indicator (i.e. “Office of Campus Sustainability”)
as global, Michael had a change in which he moved everything into the local category.
“Well, I might actually put all of these in the local because like I said if I focused on what
this particular message is talking about, it seems to focus more on the MSU community,”
he said. He further discussed at length why he opted for the change:
I would describe it as highlighting one person’s effort in’—-in—I’ll use the word
“sustainability—I’ll use the word “movement.”—So, it shows that one person can
make an impact in this movement. Where it be—yeah, and it would be an impact
that would not only affect the local but also the national as it would have an effect
on the environment.
Accordingly, Michael understands this message as taking a “bottoms-up approach” to
sustainability—seeing the local affecting the national and subsequently the global. Hanna
chose to highlight an equal number of indicators as local, national or global, but like
Michael, she believed the overall purpose to encourage local action. In describing her
reaction to the message, however, Hanna expressed difficulty in choosing between the
categories saying, “It’s hard for me to separate the local from the global” [see Claim No.

l]. The reason behind is that she was more inclined to think about the global as composed

0f several localites because people are “local wherever they are.” Her rationalization

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arose from the logic of globalization, which moves to organize several different areas
under a single streamlined banner for the purposes of better communication and strategy.
She does make a stark demarcation between market-driven understandings of
globalization and how she would like to understand the global in terms of social justice.
For Hanna, it is more of a question of autonomy. “My tendency is to try and like resist
the thought of like “globalization,” she said. “Like this—you know—nice word for sort
of like imperialist capitalism versus like thinking of local as all these sort of local
people—you know—people who are having trouble living on the land that they’re on.”
Accordingly, thinking of the global as a specific entity composed of many localites rather
than an abstraction places power back in the hands of local people. In a way this supports
my claim regarding both specific and general knowledge in regards to sustainability. Part
of that specific knowledge includes community self-recognition and self-determination
[see Claim Nos. 1, 3 & 6]. Communities that lack specific knowledge or the ability to
think of themselves as separate entities unto themselves rather than indistinguishable
parts of a large system may find it difficult to marshal resources toward action. As a
matter of fact, an increased focus on general knowledge may inhibit a community fiom
recognizing problems occurring at home. Any attempts toward investigating the local
dimensions of environmental sustainability must take into account the ratio between
general and specific knowledge toward influencing audience reaction.

I wont discuss the second message (“The Squeaky Wheel”) in great of detail,
since many of the findings echo those from the first message. Instead, I would like to
focus on a connection that arose between “The Squeaky Wheel” and “Gateway Drug,”

which helps to fix a claim about the local. Each of the readers and Rich rated the message

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as exclusively national. Yet, in speaking of why they coded it as such, they began to
reveal insights of the local that I began to realize. Within these stories, agents become
particularly powerful in the sense that they take on the representative function of
sustainability on campus [see Claim No. 5]. When comparing both Lauren to Laurie, the
focus of “The Squeaky Wheel,” Rich offered that both present different approaches to
sustainability for readers to embrace:

I think Lauren’s view of change is much more “in your face” and kind of going

about it that way. Laurie’s path is much more—I’m going to use kind of a funny

analogy but you’re going to have to stick with me—it’s more of the kind of “Dick

Cheney approach. Like, I’m just going to hang around and keep doing what I’m

doing and eventually I will be the winner. Eventually I will beat you, because

every day I’m going to come in and put forth what I think is right. And then it’s

gonna get there and then I’ll say, “Well that’s the way it should have been.” And I

think both—there’s value to both approaches. So, I had to make this story reflect

the fact that she doesn’t want to come out and put it in your face that she’s

sustainability.
It was Rich’s last two words that made me think of an element of sustainability and the
local that cut across both messages—the idea that someone can become a personification
of sustainability on the local level. Obviously, if we return to the material presented from
the first case, we can presume that Terry himself in some way functions as an embodied
figure of sustainability at MSU since his definition of sustainability and his position
within the office powerfully shapes what sustainability looks like on a local level.

Like Terry, Lauren and Laurie embody the local values of sustainability that OCS
and members of the UCSC would like to see and offer solutions to community members
on how they too can live sustainable lives. When I ask the readers whether Laurie’s
personality or her presence was a factor in coding the message as local, Michael

respOnded saying, “It makes it local in the sense that that’s her like that’s kind of her own

grassroots campaign. But it’s still kind of give that insinuation where—you know—if she

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can do, other around—others period can do it anywhere.” Hanna highlighted the phrase
“a reminder and voice of reason in an often unsustainable world” as a global indicator
due to Rich’s use of “world.” She, however, found that as a person, Laurie, adds a
dimension of the local that traces through this phrase and throughout the entire message:
I mean clearly cause it’s—you know—highlighting the story of this particular
woman at MSU, that’s the local bent to it. But I feel like the sort of details of it—
you know—point to that sort of expanded awareness of like—you know—how
it’s more like the “squeaky wheel” is the metaphor you know like the ripple effect
how someone can just get you thinking—you know—beyond sort of your one
spot, which is—you know—the benefit of it I suppose, thinking about your own
spot as it is.
One interesting matter to note is that each message contains a picture of Lauren and
Laurie; however, neither the readers nor Rich chose to code the picture as part of the
message. In fact, Hanna was the only one to refer to them in her discussion of the
message, saying that she thought one was “cute” (Lauren) and the other related to the
story, as it shows “[Laurie] happy and actively recycling.” In this case, appeals to the
local can be in the form of a community member in which people can witness and model
the practice of sustainability. The presence of this person (or group of people) provides
community members with a sense of possibility regarding their own actions. Therefore, it
is likely that producers writing about sustainability must trace their networks and find
local personalities who embody the values of sustainability most representative of the

community, so that others within the community have a sense that they can realistically

act.

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“Drawing Things Together”—Claims & Conclusions

I made a series of claims based upon the data collected. These claims work to
build a working definition of what sustainability looks like at MSU, but also what it
might look like in other communities. As I stated in my introduction, this work seeks to
build rhetoric from the ground by looking at how a series of practices lead to a series of
claims and subsequently a rhetoric. In my explication of these claims, what I see is the
unfolding of a rhetoric of sustainability as understood by way of the local. I have divided
each claim into four parts the first being a corollary or what I consider a contribution to
rhetorical theory in a common topoi. The statement that follows is how that such a
corollary plays out in individual texts. I have provided specific examples in some claims
that do not seem immediately clear. The third part is advice that I offer to producers who
write messages concerning environmental sustainability, which is chiefly based upon the
preceding content. The final portion of each claim is a recommendation to producers of
environmental rhetoric. I felt that it was important to have this addendum in the sense that
both Rhetoric/Composition scholars and environmental stewardship practitioners could
have something useful to take away from this project. At length, there is no real order
into how these claims are established; however, you will notice that some claims are
interconnected. I have done my best to position these in relation to each other, showing

how the presence of a single claim leads to the existence of another.

Claims

1. Claim: Local is seen by producers and readers only in relation to global as it
radiates outward in a complex system of strong/weak relationships that is
networked. This indicates that on some level local and global are never separate
and have influence upon each other.

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a.

2. Claim:
a.

Enacted Claim: Appeals to the local branch out in a network that
influences behavior in other locations. The delivery of text via the web
works twofold: 1) to inspire a local/national/global audience in that order
and 2) Maintain identity and a community’s character.

Example: In order to make a local appeal, producers rely upon some
general or global information, which may overwhelm but doesn’t
necessarily influence the intent of the message. For example, in their
definitions of sustainability, Rich and Terry both opted not to use the term
environment in connection with sustainability. Their decision to do so was
in part due to their belief that all issues are connected be they local or
global in scope. Another example comes with Hanna’s decision to code
“voting” as national rather local. Although, the message appeared to
indicate that voting occurs with the place a person resides, both the lack of
“local” as a modifying adjective and her belief that all actions are
interconnected to serve a larger purpose influenced Hanna’s decision-
making. This suggests that on some level local is always connected to
national and global no matter how situated the act may seem.

Advice: If the intent is to connect to an immediately local audience, then
there is no such firings as too many local indicators. To increase the level
of appeal, it is important to have as many local indicators as possible. This
means that producers should not worry that texts appear exceptionally
local because no matter what the cost-benefit of such writing is that it will
to some extent have influence upon external locales. For example, while
repeating the phrase “vote locally” has a tremendous amount of local
influence, to some extents readers encountering this message via the web
from other areas may be inspired to adopt this mantra for their own
communities.

Local may not have a set geographic location.

Enacted Claim: To some extent, the local operates in the abstract which
is not always as clear as some may think. Sometimes local can be:
regional, your body (my observations of participants & texts), or
community, but these are all still connected in a network.

Example: In order to make an effective local appeal, producers make
explicit references to geography to increase the likelihood of action and
paradigm shift from their respective audiences. In the third case, Hanna
talked about MSU’s reputation as the “leading land grant university”
which influenced her choices during the coding of the video. The
university’s has to compare itself to other institutions in order to establish
a reputation. Therefore, national and global stand as important markers in
relation to the local. Another aspect of this claim not immediately
addressed in the cases was the degree to which environmental issues
become personally local in respect to the self. While most of the claims
focused on the local as being communities or neighborhoods, there is
some room to consider that appeals to the local in a rhetoric of
sustainability often highlight personal health as a persuasive strategy.

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C.

Advice: Referring to physical spaces creates images within the minds of
readers of places where they can venture to be sustainable. Producers
should consider how using a phrase such as “buy locally-grown produce
here in East Lansing” is more effective than “buy locally-grown produce.”

Therefore:

3. Claim:

Local is often defined in respect to regional entities and may reflect

prestige.

a.

4. Claim:

Enacted Claim: Local indicators scattered throughout texts sometime
appeal to a community’s character and esteem. This most often occurs in
the form of praise that may be: 1) direct comparisons to other
regional/global entities and/or 2) the referencing of accolades and reviews
from national and/or international institutions.

Example: In order to make an effective local appeal, producers mention
recognition their community has received in order to possibly increase the
likeliness of action from a particular message. This is best represented in
the example I gave regarding Hanna in Claim No. 2. Accordingly, the
need to compare oneself to others has the effects of boosting reputation
and inspiring community members to act.

Advice: As a recommendation to producers, it is a good practice to keep a
log of any type of recognition or statistics necessary for distinguishing
their community from others. Making references to these accolades and
points of distinction serves as an effective way of encouraging people to
engage in sustainable activities.

Local representations of sustainability have aesthetic dimensions.
Enacted Claim: Appeals to the local can be in the form of color, images
and typefaces that have come to characterize a community over a period of
time.

Example: In order to make a local appeal, producers make careful
aesthetic choices that entice rather than exclude local audiences. This
results in a particular “branding campaign” in which producers seek to
create connections between a community’s character and the mission of
sustainability. For example, color is a very important aspect of
sustainability here at MSU. The BeSpartanGreen campaign is a primary
example of this. Chris talks about in his interview that when he designed a
flyer for the office, he consciously chose not to use green because he was
familiar with other on campus environmental initiatives that embraced the
color as identity. What he did realize was that there are some perils present
that come with moving outside of community aesthetics. This may be
unique to other universities/localities in different ways as they try to mesh
their identities with sustainable desires.

Advice: Producers need to think about how their campaign on
sustainability meshes with characteristics that have come to define their
community. Think about elements like color and images and how they

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5. Claim:

6. Claim:
action.

represent the look and feel of a community and how these elements would
potentially blend with an environmentalist agenda. Doing this allows for
community members to better visualize how sustainability matters on a
local level rather than seeing them as separate.

Local may manifest/be represented in a person or figurehead.

Enacted Claim: Appeals to the local can be in the form of a community
member or figure in which people can directly see sustainability practiced
and thus have a sense of possibility regarding action.

Example: In order to make an effective local appeal, producers trace their
networks and find local personalities who embody the values of
sustainability, so that others within the community have a sense that they
too can realistically adhere and act. Sarah chose to increase the local
breadth of her video by following the UCSC’s call for “more kids” and
including community practitioners of sustainable living. The most
obvious incidence of this occurs in Case IV where Rich offers both Laurie
and Lauren as representatives of sustainability at MSU. Their roles as
agents within texts and on campus present realistic behaviors and activities
for local audiences to model.

Advice: Producers should scan their communities for individuals who
embody their values of sustainability and use them within messages
directed to their communities. Whether their practices are textualized or
seen, the presence of representatives powerfully help to influence action
within local communities.

Local appeals in texts incite individuals within a community toward

Enacted Claim: Appeals to the local most often want audiences to move
beyond changing their attitudes regarding the environment. In fact, these
appeals often are designed to encourage action in personal habits, which in
theory will radiate outward on a global scale.

Example: In order to make an effective local appeal, producers make
explicit and implicit statements that provide their audiences with
information on how they can participate in sustainability initiatives as
individuals. This is something that is apparent in all of the cases except the
first. When I asked them why they chose to code certain items as local,
each reader intimated they saw local references as action-oriented. This is
what Michael alludes to in the second case as he discusses why he chose
to code “student organic farm” as local. Items he coded as global, such as
“land,” “war,” “recycling,” and “racism,” he felt were less likely to
encourage action because they were too general and did not provide any
specific direction for audiences other than to sit and think.

Advice: In their effort to martial action within their community, Producers
need to provide their audiences with specific information on how they can
act. Speaking too generally about a subject alienates readers from action
and does not guarantee that they will venture off the site and change their

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behaviors. For example, it’s better to say, “bring your recyclable material
to the MSU recycling facility in order to reduce community contribution
to the granger landfill” rather than “recycling effectively reduces
community contributions to landfills.”

Action can occur by means of...

7. Claim: Appeals to the local involve community feedback or participation in
preparing documents or statements on sustainability.

a. Enacted Claim: Appeals to the local are intersubjective in nature where
communication with members of a community is paramount for any idea
of sustainability to take root. We see this take place in definitions of
sustainability visible in print and by means of deliberative forums where
people engage in consensus-building on what certain principles might
mean for a particular local. This ultimately revisits claim No. 5.

b. Example: In order to make an effective local appeal, producers make
themselves answerable to their community either through polling, public
forums, and/or directly receiving feedback community members. On the
other side, community members (readers) must actively participate in
deliberation in order to create a working local definition of sustainability.
If you recall, Rich, as a writer, felt that it was important to involve the
people he interviewed in the writing process. This was his way of making
sure that what he had written accurately portrayed the culture of
sustainability that OCS would like to see at MSU. Another means for
intersubjectivity to take place would be allowing community members to
openly write and contribute material that help to define sustainability and
other initiatives on campus. When discussing definitions in the first case,
Terry noted that members of the MSU community generated much of the
content appearing on the site. This claim is quite possibly the most
important because without community participation, a rhetoric of
sustainability cannot exist. While it may seem that the producers exert an
enormous amount of control over how things mean, their production is
rendered inconsequential without the existence of a responsive, adaptive
and somewhat productive community.

c. Advice: It is imperative that producers think about how community
members can participate in the process of designing and promoting
sustainable initiatives within the community. An environmental
stewardship initiative that ignores its community cannot thrive and is
subject to being deemed irrelevant and non-representative. An example of
open participation would be to allow community members to write and
documents that best suit the goals of the initiative. Furthermore, public
deliberation forums can serve as particularly useful sites for building
consensus and meanings about how a community envisions sustainability
in relation to their collective goals. Opening the process to community
members contributions increases the local feel of sustainability as
messages become more robust.

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Once again, I would like to say that this is a working model of sustainability from
a practice as it occurs at MSU. This is not to say that it is impossible to generalize to an
overarching whole that would generally account for a rhetoric of sustainability, but I am
committed in my conviction that more situated accounts are required for generalizability.
These claims, however, do hold affordances for the field in some capacity. Claim Nos.
1,2, 4 & 5 speak to the rhetorical dimensions of sustainability and the local. These can be
seen as general contributions to the field of Rhetoric/Composition. Claim Nos. 3, 6 & 7
focus exclusively on how sustainability is practiced at MSU. This is not to say that these
claims would not surface as part of a rhetoric of sustainability at other institutions, but the

information used to generate these claims can only be supported with data from MSU.

Conclusion

Earlier, I made the call for us to work outside of the phenomenon of building
rhetoric through literary hermeneutics and move beyond the writer as a subject and focus
more upon the writer and texts as being small nodes in a complex network. This was an
attempt to think about rhetorical methodology in a new way that accounts for the
complexity of writing situations. This is what I achieve through my study involving the
Office of Campus Sustainability. If one attempted to do what I have called for us to do as
a field, I am confident that the method would yield comparable results when applied to
another site. My preoccupation with methodology arises from my displeasure with how
certain accounts of environmental rhetoric have been assembled in rhetoric/composition
research. Too many of these accounts seek to place texts at the center of rhetorical
inquiry as if they exist in a vacuum onto themselves. In truth, while they offer good

insight into how things possibly mean, they are far from reliable in that they present a

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limiting view of rhetoric by ignoring various forces enacted upon textual production. In
my opinion, there can be no rhetoric until we trace and map these forces of influence. I
talk about the methodology and the rhetoric as being constituent parts of this study that I
offer to the field, because I see them as important and inseparable parts. I guess this is
why I found Connor’s intercultural rhetoric model interesting. Although, she writes with
linguistics in mind, Connor’s research methodology is meticulous in light of research
demands arising from the need to know what went into the process of writing and the
historical contexts that affected the writing process opposed to just relying on rhetorical
analysis of language. My view is that intercultural rhetoric methodology is important
because it challenges our ways of thinking about writing research, as it requires the
development of a series complex questions that seek to answer phenomena from a variety
of angles.

One deliverable of this rhetoric, which is not discussed in the beginning but
makes its way into the claims section, is the advice that I recommend to practitioners.
Specifically when I look at this project, I am moved to think about rhetoric as a tool for
helping organizations solve problems and achieve goals. My opinion rests with the idea
that rhetorical work is useful outside the endeavor of canon building and should not just
inform what we do as a field, but also benefit the communities whose practices we study.
This is a something that is not always available in most accounts of rhetorics. It seems
that accounts have been mostly assembled for rhetoric/composition scholars interested in
theory of how the world works rather than for the people whose practices inform
rhetorical inquiry and theory. For me, there needs to be some sort of reciprocity in the

work that we do. We can expand our disciplinary boundaries and offer advice to

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producers of rhetoric. For example, it is my hope that someone similar to Terry could
take up this paper, read it, and find useful solutions that might improve how they operate
within their organizations and communities. The advice works to improve local
environmental stewardship initiatives by providing information in the form of best
practices for stewards to model. If there were one recommendation based upon this study
that I could recommend to OCS, I would recommend thinking more about a singular
message of sustainability that is representative of the community and the people working
in the office. This is not to say that a definition does not exist as Terry’s moderating role
implicitly creates a working definition. Comments from my interview with Chris,
however, indicated that a more definitive definition may be needed in order to create a
more cohesive identity reflected throughout the website and documents produced by
OCS. Furthermore, now that Terry has lefi the office, it may be more important now than
ever to have that definition. It is possible that community deliberation in a public forum
featuring representatives from students, staff, faculty, university administration, members
of the office and UCSC may bring about a feasible solution to this predicament.

One thing that I am reminded of as I reflect upon this study is the short list of
limitations, because I feel that they open avenues for future research. I was interested in a
particular methodological way of approaching rhetoric that would allow toward moving
in the direction of generalizability via situated accounts of production, circulation and
reception. Although I tried to be as through as possible, there were some methodological
issues that arose during the research process. There were two texts in the study that were
not entirely single-authored, but this information was not revealed until I conducted the

interviews. In the second case, Sarah relayed that the University Committee for a

92

Sustainable Campus (UCSC) played a role in the construction of the videos contents. I
made no attempt to interview members of the board and gather information on the
production of the video. Moreover, the flyer discussed in the third case was not single-
authored as it was constructed by a group of people with Chris as a member. I admit that
the guidelines outlined in my methodology require that I completely trace all of the
influences enacted upon the construction of a message in order to provide a deep
descriptive account. A limitation of this kind can only be solved' with more time and
focus on a single artifact. Another limitation on this study was time, which subsequently
relates to the amount of readers that I interviewed. I was never quite felt comfortable with
just interviewing two readers. There was always a part of me that wanted to use a larger
sample population. Yet, a representative sample population was deemed impossible due
to the relatively short period for research. I wrote earlier that a deliverable from an
intercultural method would be the ability to detect the pressures enacted upon a given
writing situation. The ability to investigate perceived pressures is somewhat limited in
this study; however, a more definitive understanding of pressure would require a more
representative population of readers. The results of this study, when coupled with these
limitations, are promising in that they describe an emerging rhetoric of sustainability that
can only be confirmed (or reaffirmed) with a larger study at MSU or other institutions.
While I realize that it is important to think about the shortcomings of a study, I
admit that I am more interested in seeing how this rhetoric took shape, which is what I
proposed initially as a deliverable. Sometimes I felt as if the research process was a black
box where I was relatively unsure what type of result I would have, but I was surprised

and sometimes shocked by the level of agreement between producers and readers that

93

supported the local dimensions of a rhetoric of sustainability. One aspect of the rhetoric
that I was unsure about was whether more local equates to more action. Both the readers
and the producers corroborated this claim as their coding of the data and explanations of
why they made their choices indicated that it seemed as if local indicators called for
specified actions within situated communities, while global indicators worked to make
readers think about the issue rather than act physically. Furthermore, I was curious as to
the relationship between the local and the global as both concepts were expressed
throughout texts. My interest stemmed from whether these indicators competed with each
other. My immediate assumption was that they in fact they did; however, the data in the
cases proved instead that they are dependant upon each other and not quite separate no
matter how local a text may appear. It seems that in order for readers to become more
aware of what is going on in their local contexts, to some extent they need to be reminded
of what is going on in the world that surrounds them. In this regard, local and global can
never be seen separate but networked. This gives me cause to think about the other end of
the spectrum or how global might mean culturally in relation to local. Such an inquiry
would ask whether a focus on the global would support many of the claims indirectly

raised while investigating the local. This seems like a fruitful area of future research.

94

Appendix

95

Appendix A
Recruitment Email

Greetings!

I am a graduate student in the Critical Studies in Literacy & Pedagogy program here at
Michigan State University. Currently, I am conducting a study that investigates audience
perception and intended response to messages concerning environmental sustainability.
As part of this study you are being asked to participate in an interview.

The interview will last about a half an hour to an hour. The information that you provide
will not only aid in the completion of my Master Thesis, but also contribute greatly to
research on rhetoric and the environment. Please response as to whether you are willing
to participate in the study and the times when you are available.

Sincerely,

Donnie J. Sackey

96

Appendix B
Interview Protocol (production)

ovanvraw/omsNrArron
I Introduce myself and describe the purpose of the interview.
I Read the “Consent Script.”
I Inquiry as to whether they understand or have any questions about the study;
thereafter, I ask if they are willing to provide consent to participate.
I Ask permission to use an audio-recording device and disclose why I am
choosing to use the device as part of the study.

PARTICIPANT BACKGROUND
I Where are you from?
I What is your current level of education? What’s your major?

PARTICIPANT KNOWLEDGE AND ORIENTATION TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY
I Do you have any background knowledge or involvement concerning the
environment movements?
I Are you familiar with the phrase environmental sustainability?
o If so, how would you define it?
I What do you know about environmentally-oriented programs or activities that
take place on campus?
0 Where / When did you learn or see these activities taking place?
0 Do you participate in any of these activities/events?
I Are you familiar with Michigan State University’s Office of Campus
Sustainability?
0 Are you familiar with the Office’s website?

RESEARCH SPECIFIC QUESTIONS (RESPONSES TO THE PRODUCTION OF MESSAGES)
I’m going to turn toward the secondary portion of the interview. During this period, I
would like to present materials fiom the site and ask that you provide a response as to
what desired action you expect from your intended audience.

I What was the purpose for this message?

I Can you tell me a little about your composing process (Step-by-Step from

outline to final product; even the people you consulted).
I What key elements help to draw out this purpose?
I What would a desired response be for someone who interprets this message?

97

Interview Protocol (reception)

OVERVIEW/ORIENTATION
I Introduce myself and describe the purpose of the interview.
I Read the “Consent Script.”
I Inquiry as to whether they understand or have any questions about the study;
thereafter, I ask if they are willing to provide consent to participate.
I Ask permission to use an audio-recording device and disclose why I am
choosing to use the device as part of the study.

PARTICIPANT BACKGROUND
I Where are you from?
I What is your current level of education? What’s your major?

PARTICIPANT KNOWLEDGE AND ORIENTATION TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY
I Do you have any background knowledge or involvement concerning the
environment movements?
I Are you familiar with the phrase environmental sustainability?
o If so, how would you define it?
I What do you know about environmentally-oriented programs or activities that
take place on campus?
0 Where / When did you learn or see these activities taking place?
0 Do you participate in any of these activities/events?
I Are you familiar with Michigan State University’s Office of Campus
Sustainability?
0 Are you familiar with the Office’s website?

RESEARCH SPECIFIC QUESTIONS (RESPONSES TO MESSAGES)
I’m going to turn toward the secondary portion of the interview. During this period, I
would like to present materials from the site and ask that you provide a response as to
what you perceive would be your intended upon encountering the message. I will ask you
to point out certain elements of the message that you believe to influence your decision
making.
Read this message carefully.
What do you think is the purpose for this message?
What would your response be upon encountering this message?
What key elements help to draw out this purpose?
Would you say that the language is more local, national, or global in scope.
Could you please highlight the features of this text that point at that purpose?
0 Blue = local
0 Yellow = national
0 Green = global

98

Appendix C
Pre-Interview Survey Questions

. How important are environmental issues to you personally?

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Slightly important
Not important at all

. How much have you changed you behavior in the last 3 years to reduce your
impact on the environment?

A great deal
Quite a lot
A little bit
Hardly at all
Not at all

. Which of the following do you recycle?

Paper

Cardboard Regularly
Plastics

Glass

Metal/cans

. How important do you think it is for individual people to change their behavior to
reduce their impact on the environment?

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Slightly important
Not important at all

. Which do you think should be responsible for protecting the environment? Please
put in order with the MOST responsible first.

Private Individuals

Local Communities

US Government

Companies and Organizations
States

99

6. Are you prepared to pay extra for items you buy if they are environmentally
friendly?

Yes
Uncertain
No

7. Would you spend an extra $100 on a new appliance if it would save $200 over the
next three years?

Yes
Uncertain
No

8. How important is it to you that MSU is a leader in campus enviromnental
stewardship?

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Slightly important
Not important at all

9. What is the most important environmental issue on campus?

Trash/litter
Recycling
Water quality
Air Pollution
Energy Issues
Unsure

10. How convenient are the recycling facilities around MSU?

Extremely convenient
Slightly convenient
Not convenient at all
Unsure

11. Do you feel that recycling in the dorms is convenient?
Extremely convenient
Slightly convenient

Not convenient at all
Unsure

100

12. How important to you is it that MSU use 100% recycled paper or tree-flee paper?

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Slightly important
Not important at all

13. How important to you is it that MSU consider using fuel-efficent vehicles and
alternative fuels to run its vehicles?

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Slightly important
Not important at all

14. Should MSU stop using herbicides and pesticides on campus lawns on campus
lawns even if it means an increase in weeds and insects?

Yes
Uncertain
No

15. How important is it that MSU consider renewable energy sources for campus
energy needs?

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Slightly important
Not important at all

16. Would you be willing to support such a measure even if it would result in a slight
increase in your cost to attend the university?

Extremely willing
Very willing
Slightly willing
Unwilling

17. Have you ever heard of/had interaction with EcoFoot?

Yes
Uncertain

101

No
18. If yes, where?

Visited Website

Volunteered at an event where it was mentioned
Attended a meeting where it was mentioned
Seen articles

Seen a poster

Other

Other (please specify)

19. Have you ever heard of/had interaction with the University Committee for a
Sustainable Campus?

Yes
Uncertain
No

20. If yes, where?

Visited Website

Volunteered at an event where it was mentioned
Attended a meeting where it was mentioned
Seen articles

Seen a poster

Other

Other (please specify)

21. Have you ever heard of/had interaction with ECO?

Yes
Uncertain
No

22. If yes, where?

Visited Website
Volunteered at an event
Attended a meeting
Seen articles

Seen a poster

Other

Other (please specify)

102

Post-Interview Survey Questions

. After viewing these messages, you feel more inclined to become more
environmentally involved and/or conscious?

Disagree strongly
Disagree somewhat
Neutral

Agree somewhat
Agree strongly

. Did these messages expand your knowledge of the environment?

Yes
No
Unsure

. How would you characterize the knowledge "possibly" generated from these
messages?

Global

National

Local

Other

Other (please specify)

. If a message is more local, do you feel that you have more of a chance to act then
say if it were global?

Yes
No
Unsure

. If a message is more global, do you feel that you have more of a chance to act
then say if it were local?

Yes
No
Unsure

. If a message is more national, do you feel that you have more of a chance to act
then say if it were local?

Yes
No
Unsure

103

. If a message is more global, do you feel that you have more of a chance to act
then say if it were national?

Yes
No
Unsure

. What type of message do you find more convincing toward inciting physical
action?

Global

National

Local

Please specify why.

. What message do you find more convincing toward inciting a change in attitude?

Global

National

Local

Please specify why.

104

Appendix D
Sample Messages Used in the Study

 

 

September 15 - 19, 2008

 

    
 

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Mon. 15th Tue. 16th Wed. 17th Thur. 18th Fri. 19th

 

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normI'rrut.r‘ucrrril.nt‘ 0 mu'omllr‘nl{worms O uousrllsumir‘omtnnl‘vmm;

 

 

105

 

 

Lat locally .own food Support restaurants that serve products by local farmers
Locally grown food travels less distance reducing transportatrtm imparts «and torts
The food should be fresher and the money you spend helps local farmers d')(l
emnomres And farmers’ markets are Just plain fun. Also. suoport totally (rs-.o-go
businesses in domg so, more of every dol!ar you spend stays in your local mommy

\ée

 

106

The Gateway Drug
2/23/09

by Rich Grogan

Recycling is a “gateway drug” for sustainability, at least according to Lauren Olson, an
alumna of MSU and the first person you see when you visit the University’s Office of
Campus Sustainability. But if recycling is a funeral for the products we consume, Lauren
sees it as more of a jazz funeral; more celebration than consternation. She has been
featured in the State News for producing art from other people’s waste, and offers an
example of what surrounding ourselves with our passions can look like.

Lauren’s recycling odyssey began with grassroots campaigns, rooted in her involvement
with the student environmental group ECO as an undergraduate. Through various efforts,
including a ruckus campaign, Lauren and her recycling crusaders realized that while
other campuses in Michigan had comprehensive recycling programs, MSU was lacking
one — and that was the reason they felt that MSU wasn’t doing as good a job recycling as
it could have.

The students came up with a list of demands that included plastics, metals and cardboard
- because the office paper and newspaper recycling available at the time wasn’t enough.
In particular, it was important that everyone have access to recycling. And with the
demands the campaigns became more sophisticated; while the ruckus brigade had banged
on recyclables and literally made noise about the issue, this new effort included soliciting
administrative support, as well as more coordinated actions. It was Lauren’s Senior year
in 2005 when students having class in Wells Hall might have peered into the courtyard
and seen 206 pounds of recycling materials lying about; they had been dumped there by
Lauren’s pickup truck - a very public display of individual waste, as 206 pounds was an
MSU estimate of the amount of recyclables each student was forced to throw away per
semester due to inadequate recycling facilities.

While this was happening, planning was underway for a presentation to the MSU Board
of Trustees. Lauren and others were able to secure a small 5 minute block at the end of
the Trustees’ meeting to make a recycling presentation; it was a realization about how to
get things done in a bureaucracy, and a lesson Lauren didn’t forget: “we. . .had our suits
on, and we tried to act professional because we realized that the ruckus brigade wasn’t
going to fly anymore.”

Fast forward to today, and MSU has approved a new on-campus recycling facility, and
the types of materials accepted on campus has increased dramatically — even beyond
those initial student demands. Now students can even recycle the carpet from their dorm
rooms at the end of the academic year.

But Lauren isn’t done — she has spread her passion and enthusiasm to other aspects of
sustainability on campus. Is she still a recycler? Of course. Does she still advocate for

107

recycling issues? Yes. But as she says, recycling is only a gateway drug for other
sustainability issues - there are so many more. And if it isn’t recycling, it will be
something else. As she says: “There will always be issues with the system.”

For Lauren, recycling has sustained her thus far, but it seems that she wants us to
remember that recycling is not robotic — it is people who recycle, and people often ignore
the deeper issues related to recycling and sustainability. Recycling, like many
environmental issues, is quick to become a commodity, masking the real issues, such as
why we need to have anything to recycle in the first place. As long as these issues are out
there, as long as there are “issues with the system,” Lauren will be thinking about them,
and they will be sustaining her.2

 

2 This is not the orignal formatting of this article. The formatting was changed in order to comply
with the MSU Graduate School thesis formatting guidelines. To read the article in its original
form, please visit god/ecofootmsuedu/stories/st 2f23 09.htm.

108

The Squeaky Wheel
12/1 6/ 08

by Rich Grogan

Laurie Barnhart is a modest person. She won’t tell you what to do, but after listening to
her patient, common sense approach, you will likely want to listen to her advice. Laurie
has also always been a recycler — an old school recycler, when she used to cart it all to
Meijer to load it onto a semi-trailer dedicated to recycling; this is how it starts for a lot of
people — some dedication to recycling from an early age, or a war story about their own
efforts at sustainability at home. What sets Laurie apart is not what she does at home, but
how she is helping to change the her world at work — the world of purchasing — from the
inside-out.

In her words, she wanted to “start with things that were division related. . .what we could
do here, what resources are available to us. . .one of them was about what we could
recycle.” Of course, sustainability is a journey, and once you start, it can be hard to stop.
One of Laurie’s colleagues at MSU, now a mainstay in the Office of Campus
Sustainability, has called recycling the “gateway drug” for sustainability. And so it was
for Laurie. After tackling recycling in her office, she decided to concentrate on inputs.
Purchasing involves a behavior that we’re all familiar with — shopping. And with
shopping comes catalogs. According to Laurie, there could be as many as five people in
the same office receiving the same catalog, something that she felt needed addressing:
“We are trying to reduce the inputs so we don’t have to deal with it as a trash issue or a
recycling issue. It would become a non-issue.”

But why stop at catalogs? It is one thing to reduce office wastes, but yet another to
publicize it. As any good marketer will tell you, when you have a good thing going, the
next step is to talk about it. Hence, the birth of the Green Tip for the Day e-newsletter,
which has become a fixture on MSU’s campus, and most recently made it as far as
California, riding the waves of cyberspace. She comes at this, not as a political activist,
but as a “squeaky wheel,” as she often describes herself, that reminder voice in your
inbox that lets you know that it is easy to make greener choices. In her words: “It has
been a mix to inform yourself about what other people are doing, what the university is
doing, and also the little tips here and there about how you can change your behavior for
the better, both here and at home.”

Perhaps the biggest change on Laurie’s plate is one that won’t come easy — far from
changing office behaviors, she wants to help to shape the future of purchasing. Laurie is
helping to lead the way in working with vendors of materials procured through the
purchasing department to help them to specify the green products they offer. On the other
end of the transaction, she is working with departments on campus to raise awareness of
the possibility of greener products that they can purchase. Even if they don’t choose the
green option (there are, after all, a lot of constraints within the university, especially if the
green product is more expensive), she feels that they are at the very least aware that
greener options exist: “. . .these firings evolve.”

109

And so they do. As sustainability has evolved for Laurie, she has helped to introduce the
concept to others all across campus (and across the country). Who knows which green tip
will start someone on their own journey to sustainability? Who knows which vendor
might decide to produce their own line of greener products because a major university is
now asking for it? Perhaps it is a simple as being a squeaky wheel — a reminder and voice
of reason in an often unsustainable world.3

 

3 This is not the original formatting of this article. The formatting was changed in order to comply
with the MSU Graduate School thesis formatting guidelines. To read the article in its original
form, please visit http://www.ecofoot.msu.edu/stories/stf12 l6 08.htm.

110

Speaker

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:
Donnie:
Terry:
Donnie:

Terry:

Appendix E
Transcripts

Interview: Terry (Director). Monday, April 9, 2009 @ 2:00PM

You don’t have to swear on a bible or anything, but I’m going to be
recording it for my own notes.

Yeah.

I’m going to transcribe it, but I just want you to know that any data is
going to be secured on a computer password protected and all that stuff.

That’s nofiring I’m worried about.

Ok. So, one of the reasons why I wanted to speak to you today was mostly
because you’re the Director of the Office of Campus Sustainability.

For a couple more days.

For a couple more days. And you’ve been associated with the office since
it’s inception.

That’s right.

So one of the firings that I want to do was just ask you some particular
background information like where your from and how you got started
with the office here.

Ok.

So, where are you from?
And how I got started?
Yeah.

From Detroit. Grew up in Detroit. Went to high school in Detroit. Moved
out of Detroit when I went to college, and came back to Detroit when I
was in college. Went away from Detroit, Michigan for a couple years.
Came back and got an undergraduate degree from Wayne State and went
off out of state and came back and got my master’s degree in library
science. And my wife and I got married. And then we moved to Grand
Rapids. And then I took a job at Aquinas. And then I came here in 1992 to
do library work at MSU. And fire movement from the library to here was
probably precipitated somewhat by I was elected to Academic Council

111

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

here probably after my third year here, so I started to become more
involved with university-wide issues. And simultaneous to that, I help start
with the American Library Association somefiring called the “Task Force
of the Environment,” so I was using activist approaches in my professional
life and here in my academic life. Come 1997, the university was about to
put to sleep a committee called the “University Committee for an
Academic Environment” because it wasn’t getting much business coming
that was important.

I got elected to Academic Council in the fall of 97” and it was the first
item on the agenda. And I proposed that rather than do away with the
committee; we needed the committee to focus more broadly on
sustainability and the environment. I lost that debate in that meeting, but it
led to conversations, which ultimately led to the creation of the University
Committee in January of 1999. And then that committee, of which I was
chair, determined in a relatively short while that we weren’t going to make
much progress on the many fronts if we didn’t have some sort of full time
staff and we knew that the university wasn’t going to find money in their
pockets to do this because it wasn’t high on their priority. So, we found a
grant opportunity that we explored and were actually successful—l of 27
out of a thousand proposals to get firnded—and that created the office in
September of 2000. And the rest as they say is history. As the prime
mover of firis from the beginning and because I was ready to leave my
profession anyway (I made that decision a few years before, but was not
going to make a gross change because I had kids in school and I was
taking care of my mother-in-law), I took on firis new job. Then I’ve been
doing that until firis upcoming Friday.

Cool. Now I wanted to ask two follow-up questions to that, one was
focused on fire Taskforce on the Environment and one of fire firings I
would like to know is have you always been interested in environmental
issues or is firis something that had just came up?

That came up for me, initially, when I first even thought about it was when
I was pursuing a geography degree in the early 703. That’s when I first
thought about it. When I moved to Grand Rapids in the late 70s and into
fire early 808, before I came here, I got involved with a public policy group
and a number of their, they were broader than that they’re consumer-
based, but a number of their issues were environmental. And so I just
becarrre more and more engrossed in policy and environmental. That’s part
of what I did when I came here as a librarian was focus on areas like that.
And so that all nurtured that whole emergence into firis field.

And the next follow-up question deals with the grant opportunity. Where
did that grant come from and how did you find out about it?

112

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

It was a US Department of Environmental Protection Agency grant—
sustainable development challenge grant is what they were called. I don’t
remember if I was the first person to spot the opportunity or if somebody
else on the committee did. I cannot say that I remember that. I know that I
was pursuing grant opportunities when other people [inaudible] “well we
could kind of shake firis and maybe they’ll take it.” [inaudible] And that
was the last year that they actually funded that program. So, we were
among the last recipients under that environmental sustainability challenge
grant.

Now, conring back to what you were talking about back in January of
1999 when you first proposed the idea to the university. You said that
there were folks who were too hot about it or there wasn’t a lot of
groundswell toward promoting an office like firis. Has there always been a
conflict with other folks in the university as far as the existence of the
office?

I don’t know so much about. Once the office was founded by outside
dollars the university found that, it was a three year grant so it was funded
to nm for three years then the money ran out, well after firat three years the
university thought that there was enough value coming forward on what
we were doing that it made sense to fund it themselves. So they’ve been
funding it since 2003.

So, 2003?
Yes.

Some one of the things I was going to ask, an entity like firis, do you guys
see yourself in relation to other offices like this at other universities?

We been—I’ve been connected actually even before this office was
created at that time with pretty nascent higher ed involvement [inaudible].
I know I went to some meetings around 2000 or maybe 99’, I know I went
to a meeting in 99’, where there was not too many people from colleges
attending. This last fall they had 2200 people at the meeting. So I mean
it’s. And firere’s all kinds of networks and groups of firousand of people
involve with that, but back then it was no firat many. So, I was getting
support and learning from other people’s experiences from other
campuses. So that’s kind of how firis mostly works, which happens a lot in
civil society when you see this garden program looks really good here in
Oakland. I wonder if we could adapt firat here in my city Ishspring or
Pewter City. And so it’s firat kind of cooperative network that goes on and
it’s been useful to me and h0pefully I’ve been useful back.

So a lot of the stuff you got from them has helped to make this office

113

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

Donnie:

Terry:

grow?

Oh yeah one of the firings that helps is firat you can show that a program is
working somewhere else. A lot of what I would do is say, “Hey look at the
cool program at that Syracuse University, University of Florida, Texas
A&M” whatever that school was doing I’d pass it on to firat area of
campus. [inaudible]. So that people would see firat what we were
suggesting through fire committee wasn’t just stuff we were dreaming up
out of ether—that they were the basis of people at ofirer places trying it
and seeing it had particular value to it.

So for you—you would say that that network of connection between ofirer
institutions in higher ed basically is the only other source that fuels ideas
about what happens in the office?

No that’s internal to the institution especially now. I mean there so many
people on campus who are into these ideas. So, it’s mutually reinforced by
ideas coming from people at all levels here at the institution and find their
way into the network and sometimes they play out and sometimes they
don’t for any number of reasons. Why do some ideas germinate and other
don’t? Who knows; there are probably volumes waiting to be writing
about that. But yet, they find firere way in and come from all places.

Cool. Well, we gauged from your history and everyfiring, even before
being a librarian here and your earlier degree in geology—geography I’m
sorry—, that you have a general familiarity with environmental
movements or the environmental movement. So, one of the firings that I
want to ask you that I guess is getting more specifically pointed wifirin firis
study is to gauge what is your definition of environmental sustainability is.

Well I don’t talk about environmental sustainability. I talk about
sustainability. And sustainability is, in my mind, the nurturing of mutually
reinforcing relationships between social and econonric justice and
ecological integrity and the process by which we balance those with is
open, transparent and democratic. And then with long-term horizons; so
we can talk about what going to happen in six weeks and what’s the long
term impact. What’s the long-term impact of the choices we’re thinking
about? What’s the long-term impact of economic justice or ecological
integrity? That’s why fire short-terms and the long-terms might be
different.

Ok.
So the long-term got to be part of that to. But that’s howl see it. Now

admittedly, based on my history—or part of my history—I gave you the
environmental part because it was fire environmental part where the

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emphasis was when we went through with this. Our initial—back in 1997
when my proposal had been defeated, we actually submitted a proposal—I
can’t remember if it was that proposal of another proposal—but we had
sixteen areas of interest. Most of those were environmental; but firere we
some then firat were economic and social. But fire agreement to come
forward and form firis committee was that we would focus our—we would
focus on three areas: solid waste, water and energy. So by that we were
constrained in firat way.

But when we wrote the grant proposal we used language that was broad.
So when you look at our 2003 sustainability report, which is an offshoot
and promised product from the grant proposal, you’ll see that we have
indicators that deal with diversity, wages, sickness and injuries, drug use,
as well as fire solid waste, water, and energy management. And so we
broadened that back out again and so I firink firat a lot us then moved a lot
of people who were positioned on committee I think that were looking at
firis more environmentally, so we broadened that idea of sustainability. I
firink personally, I have broadened my idea of sustainability because of
what the group firat has created the office has brought. But I don’t think
it’s done. I think if you go forward 10 years from now and interview
whoever is coming out of firis position, I firink you’ll find a richer, deeper,
more complex view of what firis is. Because I think that we’re relatively
infantile in trying to figure out: “what is firis and how do we do it in a way
firat is sustainable?”

As some follow-up questions to that, you sort of said, “We.” Who does the
“we” encompass? It’s not just the office.

The University Committee for a Sustainable Campus, which founded the
office, still is the advisory and driving piece of what the office does. So in
a sense the position reports for, we have to have a position to report—a
supervisor. So I currenfiy report to the Vice President of Finance and
Operations. A few years ago I used to report to the Vice President of
Research in Graduate Studies. The committee doesn’t report to anybody.
It’s broad-based. And it really sets out the agenda year-by-year of what it
is that we should be focusing our efforts on. And as the university
continues to shift and put emphasis on other firings, that we use to put
more energy into ourselves, frees us to consider other things that are not
being addressed wifirin that big umbrella of sustainability.

So wifirin you definition of sustainability, within the umbrella definition of
sustainability, has there sort of been historically a difference between how
the university wanted to look at sustainability in contrast to how fire
committee views sustainability?

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There has been a tension. It’s hard to say, “the University” because I don’t
know who that represents. But in some ways when I say firat I’m referring
to a couple of people who are key as opposed to saying, “What are fire
Board of Trustees saying about firis are they the voices of the President? Is
she [the President] the voice?” It’s hard to say. I would say that firere is a
tension there between fire breadth that we see and what those that looks at
use much closely firink we should be doing. But that’s softening too; in
terms of people’s understanding of issues that firey previously thought
were not relevant are maybe now somewhat more relevant. And I firink
that’s partly in response to efforts firat we’ve made to try and help make
that stuff more visible.

So most of the tensions—I don’t know firis is me just stabbing in the
dark—did the surround the more social justice elements?

I think there’s been. The university has had a long-term comnritrnent to
diversity on the operations side, the recruitment side. So, when we talk
social justice we have to make sure in terms of bofir race and gender,
specifically, ethnicity they’ve already had that on-going program. It’s a
high-level commitment. But there are some other firings. And I firink more
of the abrupt is in the economic justice part of firis. So one of the issues
firat was in our last report that we raised some flags about was the growing
gap between the lowest paid employee in the university and fire average.
There was a gap growing there. And we kind of highlighted that as one of
ten areas that we thought people should look at. That wasn’t a trend firat
we thought was a good trend. That doesn’t even take in fire top.
[inaudible] But more or less it was a concern.

And I don’t firink the institution has that as a high priority. I don’t firink
fire institution is , people at the institution are, I don’t think the institution
as a whole—I don’t see anywhere in the boldness by design or anyfiring
other leading firings out there is talking about ending world poverty.
Whereas many of us firink that ending world poverty is as crucial as
ecological integrity and that the two are intricately link. But, I don’t know.
I’m its gonna be kind of hazy for you. But it is hazy.

Ok. So firis actually—What you said actually gets to another question.
And so one of the things that I’m looking at is the efforts of fire office and
even the efforts of the committee as you were describing. Would you say
that the efforts are tailored more toward a local focus or a global focus?

I would say that the committee and the office has been more focused on
the local. The university has a huge amount of people invested in focusing
on sustainable development in the third world. A lot of faculty, some of
which you already know, are there right now working on projects. You
know the story on the Rwanda coffee plantations coming out of research,

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and efforts and outreach through MSU’s signal and firat work and that
intention. [inaudible] But I’d say fire office clearly—I firink we’ve thought
that our focus is more local. Not firat we don’t have a global responsibility,
so that we look at firose issues about our purchasing—where’s it coming
from and under what condition. Therefore, the support for fair trade and
those kinds of firings.

Is firis something that has come out of your definitional understanding
of sustainability?

Yeah, I firink so, I firink that’s fair.

And then maybe—because I’m trying to understand firis in the sense
firat—would you say firat the university’s focus on the global maybe is
their own? Or I shouldn’t say the university, but certain people in the
university are focused on the global wifirin their own particular perception
of how sustainability operates?

Yeah. They nright not even be firinking about it in sustainability terms
wifir the large view that I gave you. They might be firinking about the
scene of the economic development for people that ain’t got squat. Or
even community development if they’re working on bringing the whole
community up. Or just involving appropriate technology. So firey might
not be firinking of it as firis whole world view firing I firink there is
somefiring that we bring to the table. When I say we again—the office and
the university committee. Is firat we try to bring the big picture because we
think that everyfiring is related, which of course makes everything more
complicated when you want to try and figure out a response and who your
going to invite to fire table and the table has to be bigger. All of those
firings kinda go part and parcel with firat. But fire university is structured
so that people are responsible for certain areas or they study certain
disciplines. And so were kind of a counterbalance to firat firat says we need
them all because these firings are all interrelated in a complex web. And
only when we bring in other people do we get a better sense of making
decisions that are moving the general welfare of people on the planet
forward collectively than otherwise.

So now time to focus more specifically on I guess what I would say is

the central sort of focus—artifact of the study and that revolves around the
website. And so I wanted to ask more pointed questions about the website.
How long has the website existed.

I think the website actually exists from some time in 99.

And what was the purpose behind creating the site.

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I firink first of all it was to let people know A) there was a university
committee and that we had some interest in it firat it became an avenue by
which we could share information and connect interested folks. I think that
is the original intention I realized that we didn’t have a lot of programs
going on necessarily so the website clearly isn’t the same as fire website
now.

And so you said, “let people know, share, and connect,” like who were
you targeting?

Everybody on campus.

Everyone on campus?

It was internal; it wasn’t external focused at that time all.
Has that focus changed?

It’s shifted a little bit more and we and the office specially over the last
number of years again directed by the university committee has done a lot
more outreach bofir in terms of fire local community but even nationally by
getting our stories out almost as a pr piece, if you will, so that we get
recognized for the firings that we’re kinda doing. Which in turn when we
get recognized gives us more support when we go internal to the
institution saying, “Look we’re getting recognized here because were
doing good things. Keep supporting us, let move it furfirer.” So we see it
as a feedback loop firat was missing before and that we firink has been
useful and I imagine in my mind it’s totally been very effective that we’ve
been recognized nationally a few times with awards. Wherever fire
sustainability award is; that firing on fire door. And a couple of other firings
we’ve been recognized for partly because we’ve gotten word out to people
who are unaware that we exist. Even if they have an incomplete or
distorted view, I willing to bet they firink firey’re better than we are. In the
same way I’d grade us the same way as other people outside grade us.

Cool. Now one of the firings you talked about is that you said that the
website has obviously changed since like 1999. Can you talk a little bit
about some of the changes that you or the office has made to the website.

Not in a very coherent way, but I’ll firroughout bits and pieces. It’s

always been done by a student. The initial—I think the initial mock-up
was done by a faculty member or staff person, but firen we turned it over
to students to do updates on everything. The students we’d get for a while
were graduate students, but it’s been both graduate and undergraduate
students. So we give them some freedom of creativity so it shifis a litfie by
just fire person whose doing it. And then different firings come up and

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there’s a body of stuff that didn’t exist before. So now we have a tag on
there for example for “media,” which is a combination of media that’s
been done here on campus whether it’s an event we’ve sponsored like a
speaker series or other little media projects that students have done that
somehow relate to some components sustainability that we’ve kind of
captured. Or in some cases firere videos done elsewhere that we firink talk
about sustainability pretty good and we’ve just got them in links and you
kinda go to them. So that didn’t exist when we started in 1999 for
example.

So would you say that the changes in the sorta like the layout or
elements that are on the site are they more technologically-driven or are
they more environmentally-driven?

I would say they were more driven by the activities and focus of the
office at the time and to some extent by technological stuff. But we don’t
have a lot of flash stuff or anyfiring going on there now. But I firink
[banner for] the earth charter website has a little action on it but most of
it’s pretty simple. Straightforward. Text-based. Photos. The newsletter,
which I don’t know how many years fire newsletters been running, but
that’s changed. Initially it was occasional. Then it went to birnonfirly. And
then we tried to make it monfirly and within the last year we’ve tried be
biweekly. Still based on the time of one person to firrow it together and the
student editor to massage it around so it fits. So that’s been more of a
vehicle to collect and disseminate information from a variety of external
and internal [entities]. Keep things a buzz. It’s a nice firing to have
electronically and nationally as well as internally.

And where do you send it out electronically actually?

People that I know that are doing this work at other institutions some
listserves from people who do firis. There’s a few websites that I send
firem to firat sometimes pick up pieces. Some of the organizations firat are
involved in higher-ed. I’ve got people that are on my list who are on the
other list. I send it out to EnviroMich—a listserve in Michigan for
everybody who’s interested in environmental stuff. So we send it out
through a lot of networks.

Now when people come to firis site, what expectations do you have for
them?

Well people come to the site firrough a lot of different ways. One, they
just Googled and looked for somefiring and that somefiring just happens to
be somefiring found on our website. So I mean that’s one possibility right
there. Other than that we sometimes direct people specifically to look at a
project or a study or the campus sustainability report. Or we direct them

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their when firey want more information about a speak series that’s coming
up. Or to direct them there to see the newsletter. But I don’t send out the
newsletter embedded in an htrnl document. I send firem out as a link to the
webpage. Specifically to the page that’s got the newsletter on it, but—so
they’re coming at it from different angles. And until we moved the
webpage over to fire server here we used to be able to get a count. They
don’t have a counter on fire one upstairs, so I don’t know how many hits
we’re getting. But years ago we would get you know a thousands hits-
per-month or so. I supposed that it would be even higher now if we were
counting, but I really don’t know.

So the office no longer collects any statistical data?

We have no data on how many hits—as that’s not possible at fire
moment.

And so you would say that most of fire— Well, I guess from the way it
sounds—is like most of fire expectations—that you would say—from
users who come to the site are mostly to be informed about what’s going
on here on campus as it relates to?

Or interested in somefiring that relates to campus sustainability firat we
have from which we have something that can help firem. So, one of fire
things, when you go back to one of your earlier questions Donnie firat we
talked about the connections with people around fire country, since we’re
one of fire older programs and relatively well-known people will say, “We
should go check out MSU’s project cause they do a bunch of firings.” So
people will probably come. And I get emails from people both students
and faculty and operations people from around the country saying that
they were directed to the website and wanting to know whether I have firis
or that and if I can answer—the same questions your asking me—how did
the office evolve?—blah blah blah—So, I mean they’re finding there way
to us perhaps by way of some referral directly by talking to somebody
who says you should [visit the sites of] Harvard and Emory and Tufts and
Yale. So that kind of stuff goes on.

And two more questions, firis last one relates back to the content of fire
site. Can you name firree or four individuals who currently write the
content for firis site now that are available?

I write the content for the most part. Well Chris [surname deleted] is

the student whose been editing the newsletter and managing the website.
And Chris is in WIDE, I think. Chris [surname deleted] was doing it
before him. And Nick [surname deleted] was doing it before him. And
Alyssa [surname deleted] was doing it before him.

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Who writes the “Stories of Sustainability?”

The story pieces are being written by Rich [surname deleted]. And

Rich is a PhD candidate in CARS—And he would be good to talk to about
the stories; he’s got more coming. He was doing that as part of a project.
And he’s writing it for this kind of media, if you will, firis kind of
audience. Because he’s doing what your kind of doing in a narrative style
a little bit. And I think he’ s done sixteen; firere’s been two so far.
Ultimately when we get enough, we’ll rotate them like we [playing with
computer].

Alright and so basically, would you say firat you’re maybe like the
review board for all these pieces that come in firat aren’t written by you?

Yeah. Yeah. That’s true. I mean there are some reports that have been
done outside my office, but we’ve been aware of them and supported
them, so when they’re done I would typically read every page of the report
before I post it. If it well-written and useful, we’ll put it up firere. The
same firing for student projects. Even if fire student projects really aren’t
top-notch, if they’re somewhat useful then [I’ll put them up firere]. But I
don’t write fire student projects, because they’re done by the students.

And I guess the very very last question—it’s not even on here but I
thought about it—it involves drawing. It’s not elaborate drawing. It just
involves diagrams. I’m really interested in sort of how decisions are made
with the office, maybe how they are funneled and firat sort of firing. And
you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, but I was wondering if you
would draw a diagram of possibly how decision-making happens within
the university and the office?

[Begins drawing]

Ok. So we’ll put the director here. And we’ve got the UCSC here.
[inaudible] So, some decisions are made unilaterally here. A lot of
decisions get made because they [UCSC] decide that something needs to
happen and they send it to me. I sometimes send something back to them
or I initiate and idea and say “What do you think?” The idea might even
come from students. They may come from staff. They can come from
outside the university. So firen an idea is generated—it can be generated—
from our earlier discussion from anywhere. It comes to me; I will not
move on it if it affected the campus without bouncing it back to UCSC. Or
I would say, “What do you guys firink? Is firis a good idea?” And then firat
conversation might say, “Go ahead and do it.” Or it might say, “You
probably should go check with Fred.” Ok. There are somefiring that I
would probably check with Fred. Now subsuming that—subsuming’s not
quite the right word—there is now in place an environmental stewardship

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program that’s come into place over the last few years and it’s got a whole
lot of people in it.

And Kathy is kind of the lead on that. So, I’m also on the steering-
committee of that. And so there are some of these relationships that get
kind of fuzzy. So, like everything that we do regarding transportation is
really not going firis way [directs away from Environmental Stewardship
Program], other than—you know—if we might come here for just some
general feedback and direction, but it’s coming back to—in firis case it
would be the transportation technical team. [inaudible] There’s a lot of
committees that come out of that. And on the steering committee I relate
to that and have some general direction of it. I’m not just a member of it—
I’m not chair of the steering committee. It’s a communication avenue
where we can give input and massage discussions but they go separately.
And firis is in a sense true more and more firis is pretty simplistic. When
we started firis office there wasn’t for example an Office of Environmental
Health and Safety. So Environmental Health and Safety is now an office
with quite a few people in it. And one of the firings they do among many
others is——besides dealing with compliance issues on the environmental
side—they’re also doing what called environmental management systems.
Environmental management systems are at the heart of things we wanted
to do before. But we don’t want to direct them at all because it’s a new set
of folks. They have their own direction. And they go. And their
professionals. And they know how fire systems work. And through various
places we come together and have conversation. But it might not be here
[points to UCSC] though one of the environmental health people does sit
on UCS[C]. They might come over here to environmental stewardship.

Cool.
Is that at all useful?
That is totally useful.

It continues to be—the layers of complexity are continuing to be added as
we become more aware of relationships. Who’s not at fire table who
should be. I’ve been doing some outreach to student government in the
last month or two to try and get student government more engaged with
UCSC. And now I have someone from COGS specifically assigned on
UCSC. [Before] we had graduate students, but they weren’t connected to
COGS. But now we have somebody connected to COGS. We’ve had
discussions with ASMSU but that did—hadn’t gone forward, but firat was
probably conflicting schedules. I got to make sure [inaudible]. So there’s
more of the student stuff. We do a little more with the student life side of
campus.

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Donnie: Alright cool.

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Speaker

Donnie:

Sarah:

Donnie:

Sarah:
Donnie:
Sarah:

Donnie:

Interview: Sarah (Producer 1). Wednesday April 14, 2009 @ 5:15 via
Skype.

You being able to participate in the study and all for a variety of

reasons more or less because I firink that the work that you’re doing or the
work that you did for this site will be both helpful in that regard toward
building an analysis of what I’m trying to build and understand in relation
to sustainability and writing practices. And so did you get an email from
me to your Gmail account.

[Affirmative response]

In that email there are I firink three different documents. One is a link.
One is the actual video that you produced for the office of campus
sustainability. And the other one is a consent script And so more or less
fire first part of it is like a procedural sort of firing. And so one of the
firings I have to do is read firrough the consent script just to sort of make
sure that everything is clear with IRB and that sort of firing. If you can
open it and just more or less read along wifir me and afterwards if you
have any questions I can answer some of your questions based upon the
script or based upon the consent for or anything else related to the study.

[Affirmative response]
Is that cool?
Alright. Ok.

Alright. So, You are being asked to participate in a research study. The
purpose of firis study is to investigate the ability of writers and readers to
agree upon the intent imbedded within messages related to environmental
sustainability.

You have been asked to participate because you are a member of the
MSU community and you fit within the criteria of what constitutes a
potential reader of the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability Web Site.

You have been invited to provide your thoughts and opinions regarding
messages acquired from the website of the MSU Office of Campus
Sustainability. The interview will first start by asking a series of
background questions related to your familiarity with environmental
issues. Thereafter, the researcher, myself, will present a series of messages
acquired from the Office of Campus Sustainability’s website and ask you
to provide a response to each message. And so in this case since you are a
producer and not a reader I will just more or less be asking you questions
pertaining to the product that you produced rafirer firan showing you a

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series of messages. After the interview, the researcher will answer any
questions you may have regarding the purpose of firis study.

While highly unlikely, the only perceived risk in firis study regards the fact
that you may be asked to provide your opinions concerning a potentially
controversial issue—environmental sustainability. You are free to decline
to answer any questions that make you uncomfortable. There are no
perceived benefits to research participants. Direct benefit of firis study will
potentially assist the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability since firis
study has the potential to generate knowledge about its website.

Your identity will be protected to the extent allowed by the law. You will
not be personally identified in any reports or publications that may result
from this study. While this is not an anonymous study, all information
gained will be considered confidential. The researcher will retain your
data from firis study for no longer than firree years. And the three years is a
federally-mandated provision but what will happen is after firree years I’ll
destroy it. So only me and Professor Bill Hart-Davidson will have access
to fire data.

There will be no cost to you nor will you be compensated for participating
in firis research study. You may refuse to participate or withdraw from firis
project at anytime without penalty. If fire study design or use of data is to
be changed, you will be so informed and your consent re-obtained. You
will be told of any significant new findings developed during the course of
firis study that may relate to your willingness to continue participation.

If you have any questions, please ask us. If you have additional questions
later, please either contact Dr. Hart-Davidson or myself. And the contact
information is listed below. And another firing if you have any complaints
or concerns about fire study itself. Please do complain to the human
subjects research protection program here or IRB program here. And you
can do so anonymously. And I wouldn’t know who did it or didn’t do it.

But the first firing that I’m going to ask is, “Are you willing to participate
or volunteer as part of firis study?”

Yes.

And do I have—Do you provide me with the permission to record firis
interview for transcription?

Yes.

Ok. Cool. Awesome. So one of the firings if you can do it. You can

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Sarah:

either. I firink I sent it as a .doc form you can just sign your name into fire
blanks and then send it back to me. And then maybe type somefiring in a
confirmation email and I’ll attach that to that. Or if you want your can
actually sign the form and scan it and send it back to me. Either or is fine.
But it’s just more or less to keep for records and that sort of firing so I can
document that I did obtain consent.

Great. Can you see me on the video?

I see a picture on the video

I see you like full action. I just want you to know.

Yeah Yeah I see like a picture. It’s no big deal it’s no biggie.
Ok.

Alright so the first firing I want to do is just tell you a little about

myself. My name is Donnie Sackey and I’m a second year masters student
here in the critical studies in literacy and pedagogy program, which is also
a part of the Rhetoric & Writing program. I’m about to start my PhD here
in the fall I just made my decision a couple of days ago in the Rhetoric &
Writing program. One of the firings that I’ve been sort of interested in
recently has been the concept of environmental sustainability and sort of
environmental rhetorics and how people sort of write within green
movements and some of the choices they make in relation to there
audiences—and various audiences. Whether it’s local community
audiences or even very very sort of broad global audiences. So one of fire
things that I’ve done is that I’ve sort of set-up a study where I sort of
looking at a particular institution and a particular institutional website and
sort of looking at messages that are written. And so what I want to do is I
want to talk to people who are producing the messages and try and figure
out what types of moves that you guys are making when your actually
writing these messages for audiences. So firat’s just basically fire general
frame of the study itself. So, do you have any questions so far?

No. No, I’m good.

You’re good? Ok. So, just some general background information.
Where are you from in relation to MSU?

Well I grew up in upstate New York actually near Binghamton, which
just made the news recently. And firen I went to Reed College for my
undergraduate. Michigan State for my master’s degree. And now I’m in
Washington, DC.

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Sarah:

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Sarah:

And so, is there anything particular that brought you to Michigan?

Well, actually my partner, he’s an acupuncturist and he was offered a
position there at a nearby clinic. And so I was in town for a year working
for the University of Michigan before I started looking for programs that
were offered at Michigan State. So, it was kind of coincidental.

What was your program again at Michigan State?
It was Journalism.

Did you have a specific focus within journalism?
Science and environmental writing.

Science and environmental writing. Have you always been interested
in science and environmental writing?

I’ve always been more science focused. I did my undergraduate degree in
Biology with a focus in Molecular Biology. And I was in Oregon for four
years and it’s a very progressive state. And so I ended up being exposed to
a lot of sustainability issues and progressive politics firere. And so, I
carried that with me all the way, you know, to Philadelphia, which is the
short story. But I was there for a while and then on to Michigan. And so it
made sense that I would participate in that—you know Michigan State
actually has a really strong environmental journalism program. And so, it
fit really well with what I was already doing with science writing.

That’s really cool. And so, and so, have you found yourself after
leaving Michigan State have you found yourself still involved in
science writing or—.

No. Not really. I’m sorry. I just—I took a job at the American Society
for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and so, I do science writing,
web design, and podcasting for them and that’s pretty much “all cell”
biology. And I don’t really have a chance to do environmental stuff for
them.

Does that make you sad?

A little bit, yeah. Although environmental stuff is really hard.

Why would you say firat?

Well you know it’s just that—it seems to be more—people are more

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easily distracted, I guess, from paying attention to environmentalism. It
seems to make the headlines and then disappear without anything else of
some kind of report coming up. You know where as science is always at
the same level with popular interest with a certain group of people. To me
it seems like environmentalism is somefiring that gets left out of the
headlines very often.

Yeah. I can definitely see that. That’s been something that I’ve been
noticing a lot more of. Do you know or can you like—do you think there’s
a reason why environmentalism is left out of the headlines?

I think that it’s considered a luxury?

Is it a luxury like for a class issue or is it a luxury for a certain group of
people?

I firink—I don’t think of it as a luxury, but putting on the hat of mass
media here, I guess, and saying that I think that for them
environmentalism is a luxury item that can be presented when
circumstances are right but not necessarily as a pressing issue that needs to
be addressed over and over again.

Is firat—Is that notion of a luxury issue something that you thought
about when you were sort of writing environmental topics?

No. It’s somefiring I firink about when I’m really poor. [Laughter] And I
can’t do what I want to do and, you know, be more sustainable.

Cool. Now one of the firings I want to do is I want to get more
specifically at your background knowledge of environmental
sustainability. And so, one of the firings firat I was going to ask is that you
said that you participated in green organizations or green movements out
in Oregon. Can you talk a little bit about that sort of work or sort of
participation you may have done?

It was just more of a lifestyle. I lived in big group housing and

everyone there was recycling and working for peace and justice and
vegetarian at the same time. And so, it was kind of—just a coalescing of
circumstances in my house in most cases. You know I worked on more
political stuff than I did environmental stuff at that time; but it was all
connected. I worked for the “police accountability” campaign in Portland,
Oregon, working on like basically making fire police accountable to the
public. You know, firere had been a series of beatings, police brutality and
that kind of stuff. And I firink that the people that I was connected with in
that venue really were like you know they were recycling, they were

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gardening, they were eating organic and doing all firis other stuff. And so
firat was were I first got exposed to it.

Ok. Cool. And particularly with the term environmental sustainability,
have you ever heard firat phrase before conring to MSU?

Before MSU?

[Affirmative response]

No.

You hadn’t?

[Affrrmative response]

So, is that something that you just learned when you came here?.
Yeah.

And so, like, in thinking about that term, how would you define
environmental sustainability.

[Break in interview; Goes to answer phone] Hi! Sorry about that.

That’s ok. That’s ok.

So, environmental sustainability I think succinctly means somefiring along
the lines of making sure that you don’t do damage or use up firings firat
future generations need and you think about the consequences of your
actions along a network not just in your local area.

So, it’s somefiring that radiates outwards, you would say?

[Affirmative response]

So, in that sense, when you firink about your definition of

sustainability, you don’t necessarily see it as just being situated wifirin
what you doing right here and there just benefiting your local community,
but just sort of think about how your actions have a ripple effect?
[Affirmative response]

Is that a definition that you find yourself pulling from anyone in
particular here?

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Well you know I did that video. And I worked wifir Terry Link for a
year. You between firose two things I really got a big picture of all the
different kinds of takes firere are on sustainability. And those are fire
firings that really stuck with me even though I haven’t in the loop for like
eight monfirs.

And so outside of that working with Terry, because I know firat he
runs the office, has there ever been a point where I guess you perceived it
definitionally has been different from how he perceived it definitionally?

I’m sure that that’s true. Yeah. He’s a different person than me.

Yeah. I understand. I understand. Is there anything in particular that
you would firink about like a component of a sustainability definition? I
know that the office is very broad, because firey firink in terms beyond
environment.

And that’s my preference as well.
Ok. So you lean in that direction.

I’m more of a social justice goes hand-in-hand with environmental
justice.

So in a way would you say that ties in a lot of fire work that you’ve
done in Oregon as far as like accountability and firings of that nature.

It was really nice actually to meet Terry. I work the summer between
my three years of school at firis magazine called Sustainable Industries. It
was more of a business-oriented magazine, but it was kind of my entry
into it after two years of the master’s program. And then when I came
back I met Terry and I was talking to him about this grad position. And he
wanted someone to make stuff for the office and also help organize and all
that kind of thing. And he started telling me what his view of it [the office]
was and all the people he had read and what I needed to know about.

And I was really waiting for that connection between people’s lives—
political and social justice and the environmental movement. Because a lot
of times I saw them as held apart. As like in Oregon there are people who
spike trees and blow up labs. And those are people who have very targeted
agendas and I don’t agree with them and in terms of people trying to save
these small tracks of land and vast wastelands of treecuts it seems

reasonable, but—I don’t feel like——it never really moved me they way firat
bring it back to human beings moves me.

Ok. Cool. And so now that we’ve talked about the definitional aspects.

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Do you—when you were here, besides the office of campus sustainability,
when were you involved with any environmental organizations here at
MSU?

No.

So your only connection to the environment was maybe your own
personal practices and the office of campus sustainability?

Well, I was also in the Knight Center—for like—so I was usually taking
one environmental writing class or workshoppy thing while I was doing
my master’s.

And was there a lot of action between the Knight Center and the
Office of Campus Sustainability?

Somewhat. I mean one of the firings that Terry and I worked on was—

the journalism program has web design classes and we shared back and
forth. Some of the Knight Center students did web design—I did one on
engine idling. And one of my friends Jessica [surname deleted] did one on
perfumes and toxins and cosmetics and stuff like firat. And we linked
them up with Terry’s website and then he actually asked the Knight Center
to follow up with another website design project where they help out with
fire cafeteria revamping firing that fell through. So there was some back
and forth. But I firink that the every year the Knight Center has a barbeque
like sorta outside thing. I’m totally blanking. You know like before a
football game?

A tailgate?

A green tailgate. And I think they worked with some people from the
sustainability board. Well I mean also, some of the faculty for the Knight
Center are on the board of the office of campus sustainability. Jim
[surname deleted] is also on the office of campus sustainability board and
he’s also fire director of the Knight Center.

So, there’s a lot of interaction going on between the office of campus
sustainability and the Knight Center.

Yeah and we always have for like two or three years there’s a grade
student who always works on the newsletter that’s run out of Mya’s office.
You know Mya? What her last name? She does agricultural environmental
stuff and there’ s a grad student from the Knight Center who actually
works for her and the newsletter too. So there’s that level of
communication as well.

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Ok. So.

One more. There’s also a class on environmental film that’s taught

every semester. And they tend to recruit from the types of people [who]
come from the science side of sustainability and bring them in and talk to
them about various environmental issues and follow them up with a
documentary.

Well the videos, you were talking about the videos earlier like the ones on
engine idling and I firink there was another one on cosmetics. You said
that you guys or Terry had asked firat these videos be uploaded on the
website for the office.

Linked together. There actually whole free-standing sites, but they’re
probably gone by now.

Ok, so, well the question about that is, when he asked you to do firat or
when you produce them—when you guys initially produced them, who
were you actually producing firose videos for?

Well the engine idling one was kind of a funny firing cause like—just kind
of like—I’m kind of a jeewiz kind or person. So I was like “a-ha!” firis is
the kind of question people fight about all the time and I want to answer
firis question and it also has environmental implications that I drink that a
lot of people will be drawn into the environmental aspect of it because it is
solving firis minor puzzle that they firink about all fire time so it’s kind if a
popular topic. So my kind of audience was general. And I did that for a
class and I did find that a lot of people like my professor had really strong
opinions. And they kinda like the fact that it was kinda contrary to fireir
opinions.

Do you firink that when Terry asked for them to be linked to firis site
do you firink his perception of audience changed—changed from the way
you personally saw your audience?

I don’t know. I don’t know much about who goes on the MSU eco
website. So I don’t know what his perception of the audience was. I know
that the site was maintained by what’s his name—I’m having a bad name
day—it was maintained by someone besides Terry.

Was it Chris Bell?

Yeah. The film guy?

[affirmative response]

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Yeah. So, I don’t know exactly. It’s definitely changed a lot since I
left.

Alright so let’s talk about the video. In speaking specifically about the
website, have you ever—have you been to the website before?

Yeah, but not since I left the office. I did investigate the whole firing
when I worked there.

And so, what do you mean by “investigate”? What type of
Investigating were you doing?

Well you know since I was working for Terry and taking web design
classes, I wanted to see what was going on. So you know I looked at—I’d
open every link and tried to follow the different navigation schemes that
were going on and it was kind of broken. So—I don’t really know what to
say. It didn’t have a lot of up-to-date content and firere were some areas
that were lacking in content.

In speaking of the content that was on the website, just a general sense
of that content, could you get a sense of who firat audience was firat would
be reading that document?

I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to reach out to people who are familiar
with environmentalism but don’t know much about sustainability.

Ok.

Mostly like students or people in other areas of the university.

Ok. Alright. And so, your contribution to fire website has been—like
when you were there—researching the website a little and following
the links to see what was broken and what wasn’t broken and the videos
that you produced directly and indirectly?

Affirmative response

Ok. Let’s talk about the video, specifically, the one titled
“Sustainability @ MSU.” Was that a film—was that a video firat was
produced specifically for the website?

No. It was actually intended to be given as part of orientation materials

Orientation for?

In-coming students.

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At AOP?
What is AOP?

I firink that’s like the sort of over the summer—welcome to MSU for
freshman undergrads.

Possibly.

Alright, so it was produced more or less for an orientation session. Now
when you—and firis is moving away from that direct benefit or that
audience benefit—when you constructed firat video what was the purpose
behind that video?

I firink it was to kind of help students expand their definition of what it
means to be interested in the environment To kind of bring in other
aspects. To talk about how Michigan State participates in that. How
different people firink about it and make it more interesting.

Now in firinking about how Michigan State firinks about it and how
other people outside Michigan State firink about it. Would you say firat
one or the other was more important in the crafting of the video.

Well, I firink representing what goes on at Michigan State is pretty
important considering that we interviewed staff and students and
professors. You know it was really just a perspective of people inside the
institution.

Here’s one question that I have to sort of shake things up. Would you
have considered interviewing someone from fire Lansing/East Lansing
area?

For that video. I guess so. I mean I don’t really know if that would—I
don’t know. I didn’t think about it. I really had my hands full trying to get
all of those people into that video.

Yeah . No, I understand—do you firink it’s safe to say or would you firink
that choosing someone from outside the university would affect the way
that you intended the message to go as far as directing it toward students
here on campus?

I firink it. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I firink it depends on who you talk to .

Ok.

I mean I interviewed—I did a story on some kind of green award show

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out in Lansing and I talked to people out there for that on video actually.
And I did another firing on the café——that greenish café out there in East
Lansing. So I mean I have interviewed on camera people, about
environmental issues, off campus; but you know I firink that our purpose
was more of an orientation and a definitional video than it was kind of
direct out into the greater world.

Ok. How did you—Was there a specific selection process for deciding
who you would interview and who you wouldn’t or was it just proximity.

No, actually I used the board. I solicited suggestions from them.

Is that the University Committee for a Sustainable Campus?

Right.

Ok. Alright so firey gave you suggestions?

Yeah. All of them.

So one of the firings that I do want to do—and I know that I sent you a
copy of the film just in case you had a copy or not—I wanted to ask some
more specific questions about the video itself.

Ok. [laughter] Sorry. Have you made a lot of video?

I suck at making videos.

I’m not so good either.

Yours is perfect. [laughter]

It a—that’s a second or third cut.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Well, that’s interesting. Let talk about—

People and a—it’s very short.

Oh—no no no. It’s fine. But you said that this is the firird cut What’s the
difference between—I mean structurally or content wise—what’ s the

difference between the third cut and the other two cuts firat came before it?
If you could just firink off the top of your head?

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Well one of the guys is missing!
Really?

What’s his name he’s a professor. Dude, I can’t even remember his
name. Man. See firis is also a very long and drawn-out editing process.
And I just—it took me so long. I think there’s one or two people missing.

Was it for time constraints? Or was it like—

Yealr. Yeah. We had some committee meetings after the first draft and
they said, “Shorter. More kids.”

Oh more kids? What do you mean by more kids?

More people that were not professors or staff. They wanted more
young people. They really wanted another undergrad or two, but I was just
like, “Summer’s almost here can’t help ya anymore.”

Now did you have undergrads in firis film?
Yeah one guy’s an undergrad.

One guy’s an undergrad? Cause I saw also—I’m going to kick myself for
not remembering—Lauren is in the film. Was she an undergrad at the
time?

No, she was in the master’s program at that point The ofirer kid is an
undergrad, but he’ 5 just about to graduate.

Ok. And then so you have—so so you have—they told you to have more
kids in there, so that’s the main difference between the firree films, but
their whole—is it safe for me to say that there move toward asking for
more kids in fire film was to broaden the appeal to the MSU community?

I would say that yes that they wanted it to appeal to incoming students.
And so, they wanted them to see a mirror of themselves talking to
themselves about firis topic.

Ok. Alright.

But I think it’s also much shorter and the storyline—at the request of the
committee I added in that cartoon. So, I watched firis before we talked on
the phone so I would know what the heck I’m talking about. And that was
another firing; they wanted that cartoon in there as an example of

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sustainability. It was too abstract; they wanted to ground it into somefiring
more—you know—understandable.

And by cartoon you’re talking about the whole Rwanda—?
Yep.

Yeah. And so, I mean—because—firis is really interesting because firis
was sort of—when I interviewed Terry—firis was—it seems to be like a
very very shining example that seems to crop up a lot between the office,
fire university, and even some of the documents that try to position how
we sort of think about sustainability as a campus—a definition of
sustainability as a campus. Did you like firat addition to the film?

Your talking to someone who’s kind of the artist and also like the
advocate, so it’s hard. I didn’t like it as an artist, cause it was hard and
ugly. I like it as—and I was also uncomfortable talking on camera.

Ok.
Sorry. There’s a lot going on here, so I’m sorry.
No it’s fine. It’s fine.

Now I’m much more comfortable, but it’s too late. But yeah, I firink it
made sense to add it in there for sure. But I mean I kinda sense in your
question like firis idea firat Michigan State hasn’t done very much since
then. Is that somefiring firat your getting at?

Well, since——since you made the video?
Since the Rwanda coffee deal.

Well, well—I wouldn’t like—I just came to Michigan wifirin the past two
years. So, I don’t know if I would say that. But I firink firat there’s
something interesting because like firat’s been sort of pushed up or
heighten as like one of the shining examples of how sustainability works
here at MSU. Like firat’s been something that’s been marketed to students.
Also when you go to fire sort of MSU library you see—you see like fire
whole gist—the whole spiel on the coffee plantations in Rwanda. This sort
of a PR campaign for the university. One of the firings that terry talked
about was that whole effort itself was a great firing for the university
because it says—you know we can do sort of local firings here but also—
tying back to what you were saying about the network firing—we can help
a war-tom region out—you know with our consumption practices. And

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that was somefiring that was echoing throughout your video. At least that’s
the way firat I saw it. I was just wondering—

Ok. I was just curious.

No, no—no. I was just wondering if firat was just somefiring firat that you
have seen maybe in like writing or seeing people discussing sustainability
on campus. As firat being sort of an example that you’ve heard time and
time again. Cause I think it’s a cool example.

Yeah. I think it’s really interesting and I was always looking for
environmental stories in Michigan and firat one was a little—you know—
passed by when I was doing my journalism stuff. But I think—you
know—it’s definitely one of the best examples we—you know—talked
about a lot of different things—you know—and I kinda knew usually
what was going into the newsletter and I knew what people were writing
about—you know—in a bunch of different classes and you know I kinda
knew what was going on you know and that was definitely the top part
regardless of what came after.

Alright. And then getting more specific to some content that was in the
video as well. You stared out with a lot of terms. Like terms like “water,”
“social justice,” “pollution,” “healfir,” “economic justice,” “land,”
“racism,” “war,” “food,” “waste.” And so one of fire firings firat I want to
ask is like so why did you start out with these words?

Because I feel like I really wanted to represent the fact that there’s a lot of
interconnected problems. And so, I kinda took firose words bofir from
conversations with Terry and also from some of my interviews that I did.
And some of the readings firat I’ve done kind of—You know—All firings
that maybe people don’t consider as part of sustainability or
environmentalism, but should kind of be brought into the picture. And so
they’re kind of brought into the picture right at the beginning. Like we’re
talking about big issues lots of issues at the same time. Sorry to be
intimidating, but—you know—we’re going to get to—next we’re going to
get to solutions and how those solutions are more complex then maybe
you would firink about.

So—so moving from left to right, you have that sort of phrase “connecting
problems.” So, someone who is sort of reading firat video or looking at
firat video, how are they to connect the problems wifirin their
understanding or their day-to-day lives or that sort of firing?

So how are firey to connect it?

Yeah. Yeah. How—how would you intend for them to sort of connect

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those—or to connect the dots? Is there something that they should be
firinking about or doing or—changing the way they firink.

I guess so.

I can give you an example. A little bit later you have Rich Grogan
speaking and you have two phrases firat go by. You have “paradigm shift”
and “community engagement.” And so would you consider those terms as
being like ways at connecting the problems of the various terms you sort
of throw out—that you present in the beginning of the video?

Yeah.

9

So, “paradigm shift’ —And by “paradigm shift” you mean—?

Well I think that really described what Rich was experiencing in that
moment—kind of culminating moment of that speech was that he’d never
had firis feeling or thought before—just completely—And that’s the kinda

definition of “paradigm shift.”
Ok.

Things from a new perspective.
And “community engagement?”

And that kind of came out of—I mean the conversation firat I had with
Rich was really long—we talked for about an hour and a half—and he
really built himself into a community and it all started with the car. You
know he does mention it in the clip I have of him with the idea that your
more than just your nuclear family. You know that kind of—I don’t know
if that comes across in the video? But I firink it’s somefiring that people
need to consider when they’re making decisions. I hope I—is Sarah in
there—Sarah [surname deleted] still in there?

Ifirinkso.

She’s also an undergrad. She talks a lot about decision-making. I don’t
know if that made it in there either.

Yeah. I firink that she was one of the folks towards the beginning of the
film.

Yeah.

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And I think she might have gotten just maybe a couple—yeah she got like
a couple of seconds.

Yeah.

Ok. And so, those terms sort of definitely kinda connect back to what you
said earlier about fire whole living in a network radiating from the local to

the global.
[Affirmative response]

Ok. So—so that’s cool. One of the other questions that I had about the
film itself were the locations. So, the locations were very sort of—like
they were ambiguous—like if you were a viewer you wouldn’t necessarily
know where they were. Did you pick those locations deliberately?

My only real motive there was to have it in different places and I asked
firat the interviewees select the place.

Cool. Cool. So, what kind of locations were they picking?

Well Sarah [surname deleted] just picked here dorm for convenience sake.
But it was also on campus, so I thought it was nice. Lauren [surname
deleted] picked the recycling center, which was interesting because it was
noisy. And I thought that was cool because it was an interesting
background. It’s where she spends a lot of her time I’m pretty sure. And
then that professor—what’s her name—Laurie picked that chicken coop
on the organic farm, which was really firn and wet. I had a great—I really
enjoyed that shoot. It was my favorite; firere were chickens everywhere—
and even on the tripod.

And where is the recycling center located?

It’s—do you know where the Amtrak station is?

Oh Yeah.

It’s next to that. They are building a new one though right?

[Affirmative response]

Is the new one done? The new one might be done.

I firink it is done.

So, that was an old one next to Amtrak.

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So, is that considered a part of campus or is it?
Yep.

It is? Ok. And so, here’s one question, I’m going to try and ask you to get
into the head of an audience. Would you say an audience or a person in the
audience that watched that video would sort of—without you saying
anything or without you moving to mention firat these are sort of places on
campus—do you firink that they would sort of assume firat those were
facilities on campus?

Yeah. I don’t know. I mean everyone—their placard said somefiring like
“student” or like “at Michigan State” or “student” or “professor” or
whatever. So yeah I guess I would assume that they were somewhere
associated with their name, but I guess not for sure.

That’s a very sort of fair assumption, cause that’s one of fire firings that I
was thinking about—if like—with like location. Say if you changed the
location of where you were shooting the site. Like, if you decided to shoot
someone in front of the capital building would that have sort of affected
the aesthetic. Do you think that that would have affected it in any way?

Yeah. I firink so. I think that if you put a big symbol in the background
firen I think your definitely gonna have some impact on your message.
You know there’s some more neutral territory. I firink—I did—one of
them was just in a conference room in Olds. And firen one was in an
office. Oh man you know—a couple were in offices, but those had some
personality.

I firink that Steve [surname deleted] I firink firat—it looked as if he was in
the office that Terry used to occupy—or Terry’s office I firink.

No. Steve’s actually in his own office.
Oh that’s his own?

Yeah. Sorry one more phone call! Sorry. [Break in interview; goes to
answer phone] Hello!

Hello!
I’m sorry.

So, Steve’s actually in his own office. Is that in Olds Hall?

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No.
It’s not?

He works for grounds, so he’s over—where’s that—they have their own
little building with trucks parked outside.

That’ s so weird. I feel like institutional—like the background—like—I
used to have an office in Olds and it reminds me so much of Olds. Like—
the stone wall in the back—the cement blocks. But alright. So, the whole
big symbol—put a big symbol in the background and that will definitely
sort of affect—no I firink that that is like spot on——spot on. Let’s see. I
firink firat I’ve pretty much—I firink that you pretty much answered all the
questions I had about the video and firen some. Is there anything else that
you would like to sort of add?

No. If you want to see the other cuts, I can send you them if I find them?

Oh, If you can find them and send them those would be pretty cool to see
and compare and look at them.

I’ll have to dig around a little bit.
That’s fine.

Yeah. You know, I pretty much happy—like I haven’t watched it in six—
eight months.

[Affirmative response]

Ten months? You know I kind of have firis weird attitude about stuff that I
make. Like I enjoy it Then I’m miserable. Then I’m happy to be done.
And then six months later, I’m really glad [laughter] that I made it. I don’t
know, because I have to make stuff for work all the time and it’s kind of
challenging all the time for me. I do know so—

It looks good.

Thank you.

Alrighty firen. Well, I firink that that is pretty much—pretty much it then.
Great! I hope—I hope I helped out a little bit?

You helped out a ton! You helped out a ton! The way that I am about firis
study is firat I—I go into weird moments of panic where firings to me

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make no sense at al. And then I’m sitting someplace and I’m like “Oh my,
firis makes total sense.” And so, And so—

I feel your pain.

Like, the part of it is like I can’t wait till this is done. I’m ready to have a
summer break.

So, are you doing firis for class of for the office or for what?
Oh, firis is for my MA thesis.

Oh—man! Well, you know, I haven’t—I didn’t have to write a firesis let
me tell you that right off fire bat.

It’s been—well at first I was like, “I don’t know how I’m going to write a
paper that long” And then I sat down and wrote my method and
methodology section and it’s already right now twenty-two pages.

Awesome!

And I’m not supposed to go over fifty pages. So, I’m holding myself to
that.

I had to do one for my undergrad—a thesis a yearlong thesis. So, I was
like, “Heck no! I’m not doing that for my master’s!”

Oh—man.

Yeah. Well cool. If you have any else for me just let me know. I have
done a lot of studies, so I feel your pain about people not answering, not
setting up, not—[laughter]

But you were great. One of the things that I’m going to do is I’m going to
send you a copy of the interview for your records. And when I do a final
write-up, I will send you the final write-up of the project.

Ok. That sounds great.

Awesome.

Cool.

Alright.

Have a good week!

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Sarah: Bye!

Donnie: Bye!

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Interview: Chris (Producer 2). Friday April 17, 2009 @ 10:00 AM

So the first firing that I wanted to do—I actually wanted to sort of talk
about—I wanted to get consent before we did anyfiring.

Sure.

Cause I realize firis is sort of a preliminary firing. And so the first firing
that I want to do is sort of read firrough the consent script. And you have a
copy there if you want to read it as well.

Ok.

I’m going to modify some of it as I read along, but since it’s going to
be recorded it’s pretty much fire same firing.

Sure.

But—You are being asked to participate in a research study. The

purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of writers and readers to
agree upon the intent imbedded wifirin messages related to environmental
sustainability.

You have been asked to participate because you are a member of the
MSU community and you fit wifirin the criteria of what constitutes a
potential reader of the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability Web Site.

And so, this is one area—like you’re actually being contacted because
you’re a writer rather than a reader, but you’re still a possible reader for
the website.

Sure.

You have been invited to provide your thoughts and opinions

regarding messages acquired from fire website of the MSU Office of
Campus Sustainability. The interview will first start by asking a series of
background questions related to your familiarity with environmental
issues. Thereafter, the researcher will present a series of messages
acquired from the Office of Campus Sustainability’s website and ask you
to provide a response to each message. And so in firis case since you are a
producer and not a reader I will just more or less be asking you questions
pertaining to the product that you produced rather firan showing you a
series of messages. After the interview, the researcher will answer any
questions you may have regarding the purpose of this study.

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And so, what I’m going to do—since it’s going to be a little bit different
for you—we’re just going to move around the site and you’re just going to
point out firings that maybe you’re done for the site.

Ok.

And then, I’ll sort of ask you questions about those and you can probably
give me some sort of historical responses about firem as well.

Sure.
And some aesthetic responses as well.

While highly unlikely, the only perceived risk in firis study regards fire fact
that you may be asked to provide your opinions concerning a potentially
controversial issue—environmental sustainability. You are free to decline
to answer any questions that make you uncomfortable. There are no
perceived benefits to research participants. Direct benefit of firis study will
potentially assist the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability since this
study has the potential to generate knowledge about its website.

Your identity will be protected to the extent allowed by the law. You will
not be personally identified in any reports or publications firat may result
from firis study. While firis is not an anonymous study, all information
gained will be considered confidential. The researcher will retain your
data from firis study for no longer than three years. And that’s more or less
a federally—sort of—mandated provision, and then afterwards I’ll destroy
it. happen is after firree years I’ll destroy it.

There will be no cost to you nor will you be compensated for participating '
in firis research study. You may refuse to participate or withdraw from firis
project at anytime without penalty. If the study design or use of data is to
be changed, you will be so informed and your consent re-obtained. You
will be told of any significant new findings developed during the course of
firis study that may relate to your willingness to continue participation.

And so, If you have any questions beyond what we do today, you can you
can contact Dr. Hart-Davidson, you know Bill?

Yeah.
And—or you can contact me. If firere are any problems that come up with
this, one of the firings that I do want to says is that you can anonymously

report to the Human Subj ects—or Human Research Protection Program—.

Alright.

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Which is upstairs. And their contact information is below here as well.
Ok.

But the first firing want to ask is, “Are you willing to participate or
volunteer as part of firis study?”

Yes.

Ok. If I can get you to sign that.
What is the date?

Today is the—.

Seventeenth?

I firink so, yeah. And do you agree to have your voice recorded for firis
research study in order for transcription to be possible?

Yes.
Ok. Thank you.
But my voice sounds terrible on recording.

Oh—I’ve been transcribing and I’ve been listening to my voice and I
absolutely hate my voice. Alright. If you can—I’ll make a copy of that.

Alright.
If you can—just double-click on the spacebar.

Sure.

Double-click. Ok. So, walk me firrough the site? What have you done or
been responsible for that’s on the site?

That’s a complicated question.
Ok.

But I’ll kinda preface it wifir—In my opinion when I first came across firis
site—when I got the job—a lot if it is a mess.

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Ok.

My boss——my former boss Terry, who’s since left, I’m sure you know
kind of agrees with that. And we’ve tried to go through and jumble-out
what we could. But as far as what I’ve done wifir fire site—I maintain firis
front page, which is basically kind of a blog format where we post
happenings. Before I got here they didn’t use visuals whatsoever it was
just kinda—just text. Text upon—text upon—text. And they like it to go
down and keep record of everyfiring, but I mean firis page was probably—
you know—ten times as long you’d go down to two years ago. They
don’t—It’s a static website, which is a shame because you have to go
firrough and manipulate code to add anyfiring.

So tell me, what do you mean by static?

By static, like when you—if you have a blog—I don’t know if you have a
blog like Wordpress or Blogger—you know you have the interface where
you can go through and create a new page and you can take that page and
at anytime you can re-link it to change that hierarchy. It’s under “this”
setting or you can change it and put it under “that” category. You can link
them in different ways, but with firis it’s all just a jumble of html pages.
So, everyfiring you see has to be it’s own separate file rather than entries
in a database. So, if I want to—like we had to create firis [clicks

“F ootPrints” link] kinda “Footpints” archive for all the newsletters. You
know firis is it’s own htrnl page. I had to create create firis page. You
know—Instead of just clicking a button or making a new database entry—
but this could be called up. It’s “footprints.htm.” It’s not—you know just
you see a couple numbers there, which [aside] makes it slightly more
difficult to maintain, but also as you keep adding and adding pages you
look at your folder and it’s confusing, which is a shame. But I mean, firis
was made six or seven years ago so I didn’t really have that much access.

Now, when you were moving to make some of the changes to the site
itself were you firinking about people who went to fire sight particularly?

Definitely. The problem is with that—with firis site where opposed to a
“BeSpartanGreen” site—is it’s such a diversified community of people
who are potentially visiting firis site. It’s intended for students on campus.
It’s also intended for faculty on campus. But it’s also intended for—maybe
not an international audience—but definitely a national audience. Terry
did a lot of work with several organizations. For instance, firis “Earth
Charter,” which we put up just a couple of weeks before Terry left, is
more of a national initiative. And—you know—he works with them and
he wanted to put firis presence and here and this redirects you to this site
[clicks link to the “Earth Charter” site]. So there’s just a lot of different
scenarios for use of firis site. And part of that I’m sure has led to the

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problem. It’ s interesting because he hires student webmasters obviously
and fire turnover rate is pretty high; it’s usually a year and your gone. And
each student has different levels of web-work and experience with html
and css. So, with each student, this have been done a different way, so it’s
not a very cohesive site—different pages are done different ways. And
I’ve tried to go firrough and—trying as best as I could and bring
everything together, but—

And your talking about aesthetics or content or—?
Aesthetics.
Aesthetics. Ok.

It’s—you know—firis archive section [clicks link to the archive section] I
have not touched because Terry doesn’t see the need for it. You know—its
got these different fonts—these different things, whereas you click on the
page [clicks link to the “Calendar” section] that I would take care of and
it’s done completely differently—you know—in the way that Terry kind
of wanted it to be.

So for you—and the difference is like—cause I’m looking at what you
just showed. And you were in “archives” and you compared that to the
“links” section—is it?

This was in the “calendar.” And firis is an event they put on.
So, firis is somefiring that you designed for fire site?

Yeah. I just—I didn’t spend too much time. This is just a calendar

section, so it was just get the information in thee and it would be
redirected from—at the time the homepage had a blog entry style that
would direct them to firis page to get more. And then firis flyer here [clicks
link to the “Journeys to Sustainability” flyer]—I’m not sure if it’ll open up
or if it’s a .jpeg. Ok yeah. This is what I designed for the week. And firis
was posted all-around campus.

So you designed the flyer?
Yeah.
Ok. Cool. And so, let me ask you firis question. You said before that it was

a mess before because there wasn’t much sort of visuals or that were on
the site?

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Yeah. Christopher [surname deleted] was fire webmaster before me. He
was in the PW program the same time that I was, which is where I did my
undergraduate; so, he kind of got me to fire job when he left. But the only
experience he had with html and css was the 210 class in the PW program,
which I’ve taken and—you know—and I actually didn’t learn anything
new because I had access to computers all firroughout my life and
Windows 95 and I got on the web immediately and kept playing with it
until I learned it. But so, he couldn’t necessarily—if he put a picture in he
could put it in but he didn’t really know how to manipulate it to where you
can change the size a certain way; you can add borders; you can pad it;
you can add margins to include it on the page rafirer than put it to fire side
of the page. So he didn’t—he chose not to use a lot of pictures. And back
then—now the newsletter is in html format, so it’s hyperlinked, which is
what Terry wanted. But Chris couldn’t do that. But before firis, Chris
couldn’t do that—none of his webmasters could do firis——so it was just a
pdf newsletter. So, it was much—kind of a different approach to things not
integrated-«you know, I’m a little off-track—but—but yeah, there weren’t
a lot of images—it wasn’t a lot of design. It was—“take text, put text
here.”

Now the use of—cause I like where you were going with that—the use
of links, why did you guys feel that it was important to add links to the
newsletter?

Well, especially with the newsletter—as far a I can kind of estimate—the
newsletter, Terry sends out to a large audience. He sends it out to several
listserves that are nationally syndicated. And before the pdf newsletter, it
was kind of a terminating spot; you send them fire newsletter, they read,
and that’s all firey get.. But when he sends firis out, first of all it’s easier to
read because it’s not a large pdf file—some of the pdf files that I noticed
were several megabytes which is not optimal for an email message firat he
would send out. You’d have to download it and—. But they can get to fire
information. So instead of posting these big-long kinda newspaper stories,
they’ve been condensed kinda to blurbs where you can find information
from fire source rafirer than kind of a regurgitation. And—And firen it also
gives us the opportunity to link back to are site, which is important; we do
that a lot. A lot of the events which would go on on campus, we put a
blurb about it in the newsletter, which would link back directly to the
“calen ” section, which is barren right now cause nofiring’s really going
on. But it was a good way—you know—to incorporate the site with the
newsletter rather than all-these people who were getting the newsletter,
they might never visit the site. So, that’s what we were going for firough.

What ofirer image work have you done with the site in particular?

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Well, let me navigate [navigates away from OCS website and visits online
portfolio] away fiom here, cause I’ve got it in one spot where I can
refresh. So—obviously the “Footprints” newsletter; I created all—the
header for that, the design for that. This “Journey’s to Sustainability”
poster; firis is somefiring that’s not on fire site yet, but Terry—are you able
to open pdfs on firis computer?

Yeah.

Terry—They just began firis new sustainability specialization on campus,
so they’re working with a couple classes on campus and his class came up
with the ideas for firis. And they were each four groups—or so of five
students were assigned to create a pamphlet for traveling MSU students
and faculty. And firis is what they came up with [opens pdf copy of
pamphlet]. It wasn’t designed well. I still don’t think it’s the best design,
but it’s more visually appealing then what they had cause firat did it in—
you know—Microsoft Word.

Can you tell me why you don’t think it appealing?

It’s just—as far as the pamphlet goes, I’m big on white space and
minimizing information. They have a lot of information in paragraph
form. So, I firink it works. It’s just—I wasn’t at liberty to condense any
information or remove anyfiring, so I had to cram everything in there as
best as I could.

What about fire image [plane in the sky among clouds] were you
responsible for this one?

This image?
Yeah.

They initially—What Terry did was he gave me one student design,

who design it pretty well, and he wanted me to kinda use their images; and
one student design with the content. So take those togefirer. Initially, the
students with the design had a picture of an airplane—you know just a
rectangular picture stabbed in the center of the folder. And I thought it was
a good picture because the smoke coming out of—whatever that is—
coming out of the engine. So, I took that picture and I went out and took a
picture of the sky and superimposed that on firere to make it the dominant
element of the front. So, it was their idea, I just expanded it. And then
Terry said firat they were a big fan of firis picture [picture of hand holding
a green Earth], so I had to include it.

Is there a reason why they were a big fan of it?

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They just kind of liked—you know I’m not sure what level students these
are whether they are—you know—sophomores, juniors, seniors. But they
just really liked fire hands holding the world. You know the whole “I got
the whole world in my hand firing.”

Now like I firink like visually—If you were to take firis to an MSU
student does this like evoke like—like would you say that firis is a very
MSU kind of message or do you firink it like a more external outside of
MSU message?

It’s for inside MSU, but we didn’t brand it as Michigan State cause we
wanted it to have the opportunity to be picked up and used. It says—you
know—, “for the traveling MSU employee” right there on fire front, but
that’s the only mention of MSU in fire whole thing. So, we wanted it to be
able to be picked up by anyone who wanted to use it really because
there’s—I mean these tips are not specific to MSU whatsoever. So, it is
for employees, so we were kind of going for—cause we assumed that
would mean adult faculty or graduate students—so we wanted to go =for
more kind of non-flashy firis is solid kind of look. Kinda put ethos of
professionalism to it. So keep it simple. Just the spot color with the green
all firroughout, and then the donrinant visual, and firen fire bookend visual.
Didn’t want to—Plus——you know—from my own point-of-view,
regardless of what Terry wanted, there was so much information there
wasn’t a lot I could do. Just to get the information in there I couldn’t add
much of anyfiring. I had to shrink down fire font size several times just to
fit it all in there. But it was fun.

Can you open up that—I saw you had another—that wheelbarrow
image—that flyer that you did. What was it—“Journeys to
Sustainability?”

Yeah. [opens pdf of “Journey’s to Sustainability”] This was probably—the
first—the first job I had when I entered was redoing the newsletter in html
format, but firis was the first kinda design job I had to make somefiring
that was going to be printed rather than just digital.

Can you walk me through like—I guess like if you remember your
design process and how you approached to design firis.

This was going to go out to students; firis was for students mostly. And I
realize that it was going to be posted on fire bulletin boards all-around
campus. So, I wanted to have a really dominant visual that would catch the
eyes of students walking past it, cause I know when I walk past those
firings I notice a blur unless there’s somefiring that absolutely stands out.
And the theme of firis week of events was firis red wheelbarrow from a

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poem of William Carlos Williams, which is included right there down
there. That’s just an excerpt from fire poem. Actually firat’s the entire
poem, it’s just a very short thing. So, I imagined firis firis big red
wheelbarrow and I imagined that people wouldn’t know what the hell firis
big red wheelbarrow was. Plus I liked the color red for the theme once I
got working with it. But—so that’s where the giant visual came from. The
information putting firis in was difficult. Again, firere’s always an over
amount—too much information. And the way Terry operates as opposed
to Lauren—Have you met Lauren?

[Affirmative Response]

Terry sends me information as he gets it? So, as I’m designing firis firis
flyer, these are all the events down here and I set up firis box that was
cutting them out per day. And then firat middle box you see—you know—
a week later he sends me three more events for the middle box and he sent
me another event for Thursday so without redesigning it I had to scrunch
everything in and rebalance. So, firere was much more white space down
there originally. The-didn’t have any sponsors at first. So, the read bar that
was there was skinnier and it didn’t have text on it. We went firrough
several—we had—at one point we had “Journey’s to Sustainability” [title]
horizontally and the date down here; but we did two versions with it kind
of slanting. Because firis particular—because of the sponsors and how the
event was put on it had to go through committee review with the—oh the
comrrrittee for sustainability firere a actual name for it.

University Office for a Sustainable Campus?

Yeah. Yeah. So it went through that committee. There’s a couple
students on there and then faculty; so they had to approve it. And they
ultimately went with firis slanted version cause they felt it was better for
whatever reasons they had. So, that was just how fire text kind of came
onto—It’s been a while since I’ve worked on this one. But—This kind of
explanatory text, sustainability as a journey, came from Terry I believe.

Did Terry—Did you consult with Terry or have discussions with Terry
about that text on sustainability or definitions of sorts?

The text right under the wheelbarrow?
[Affirmative Response]
You know—He sent it to me and I usually go by what Terry says. What I

did tell him before hand—and I’m not sure what my influences were—
was firat it needed to be concise and not drag on.

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Ok.
But I didn’t mess with that.
What did you mean by concise and drag on?

Well, sustainability is such a broad topic and if you visit some
sustainability website, they have a whole page that defines sustainability.
And you can go on and write a book about sustainability. And Terry loves
what he does; and I knew from a design standpoint it couldn’t be long,
because there’s no place to put firat kind of information on a poster. So, I
just wanted to make sure that he understood we needed as sound byte as
opposed to an explanation.

Was that more of a constraint—was that more of a thought of the
audience on your part—or?

That was both. It was—Initially for me, it was “I have to design firis; I
can’t have this big block of text.” But that initial reaction is influenced by
the fact that, on a poster like firis, most people aren’t going to stop and
read firis big block of text. It’s all about—you know—posters are kind like
a webpage where—or a newspaper lead—where, you know, you probably
get their attention initially and they probably give it eight seconds at the
most. So you can’t have them have to sit there and read cause this text is
probably similar to the size of firis text. And——you know—in a poster
format, firey’re probably not going to get up and really get in especially if
they’re on their way to class or—you know—on their way to somefiring
else on campus.

Awesome. Let’s talk about firis picture. Could you open? I guess I

could drag it out. Now, if you take out—let’s say—everyfiring from here
below and just had here up here or maybe even let’s say you got rid of fire
“September 15, 2008” and got rid of firis black text and everyfiring down
here, would you still consider that to be a local message—a local campus
message?

No. Not at all. Especially cause everyfiring local here and with
sustainability seems to be focused on the color green.

Ok.

And the “Spartan” branding there always seems to be somefiring there.
That’s somefiring I never actually considered, making it appear visually
local. In fact in a lot of the work I’ve done—not all of it—I’ve tried to
avoid the color green as a dominant element—use it but not use it
dominantly because—you know—sustainability is “the green movement,”

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but at Michigan State everyfiring is green. So, I’ve always tried to kinda w
work around that to make everyfiring standout; but it’s kind of a catch-22.

You can’t abandon green entirely, but if you don’t—but if you do—or if

you don’t it’s going to look like—you know—a sporting event poster.

So, in a way, like would you say, because firis was somefiring firat that I
was sort of tacking on even before when you were talking about the use of
fire image and how people weren’t just going to look at it and say, “What
is firis” and stop and read.

Yeah.

Like I see that—like well do you see that as a local appeal? Like your
conscious effort not to use green, but to use red instead? Is that a
conscious effort to attract a local public?

It’s—it’s——you know—using the word “local” I wouldn’t—I was trying to
attract students.

Students?

Who were walking by it. I guess in my headl wasn’t firinking of them in
terms of local; Just in terms of an audience who would need to be enticed
to look at firis information in a sea of information. So, I was really going
for a dominant kinda bold approach. Yeah. I never. For firis one, I never
considered—you know—MSU audience as the audience. The audience for
me was students not just MSU students—you know.

Do you know much about the title, “Journeys to Sustainability?”

I don’t know much about that. This was—I’m pretty sure firis was a
coordinated effort across lots of different cities and states. Each
responsible entity or party set their own schedule; provided their own
events; but it was an initiative for firis September 15fir—l9th chunk. I did
look at it. They had a web presence for the kinda overarching “Journeys to
Sustainability” firing that I did look at for inspiration and what-not. I’d be
damned if I could remember anything about it specific to why it’s called
“Journey’s to Sustainability.”

Alright and one more. I saw that you had the banner on your—

Banner.

For “FootPrints” I think.

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Yeah. This is just the entire “FootPrints.” You just click on that and it
brings us to fire latest issue.

So, firat image that you have on the top of there, where did you get that
image from?

When he—It was my first project so first of all I was excited—couple that
with I just got a new digital camera. So, I went on campus and just took
pictures of everyfiring that I thought would fit kinda of the ethos of
“FootPrints” and “Ecofoot” and sustainability. And so, I was looking to
capture kind of—you know—fire environment of campus. And so, I don’t
know where specifically—firis is in the northern part of campus.

It almost looks like it’s like across the street.

I mean it is very close to here. It’s close to the bell tower for sure. Cause
that’s where I started and it was the first image that I took. But I kind of—
I was firinking back to the poem—you know—“two pafirs diverge in a
wood.” And I just really liked the image. This wasn’t—I mocked up
probably ten different headers. This is the one firat he chose; firis is the one
I would have chose too. You know—I got pictures, it was a beautiful day
when I went out shooting. I got—you know—pictures of a nice tree
juxtaposed against a blue sky. I went to fire International Center and got—
where all those flowers are?—the flowers with the sky with also the
entrance of the International Center. So in a lot of those images I was
trying to convey nature with some kind of building.

Ok.

To kind of—you know—that’s what sustainability is—it’s working with
everything to be sustainable.

Now when you were taking pictures of the buildings were the names
visible?

No.

They weren’t? So, were you trying to minimize the appearance of the
buildings in relation to the nature shots—or?

No. I was trying to make them work together. You know to kind of
show—especially wifir that International Center. I spent a lot of time
crawling in fire bushes trying to get the perfect angle to where it would be
very apparent that firis nature is working with firis building. They’re not
separate; they are part of the same when put into a complete scenario. You
know these trees are designed with firis building in order to just create

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kind of a really beautiful firing. Because firat’s what a lot of—I mean not
all of it—but this campus, they really do seem to firink about where every
tree is; where every bush is; what flower gets planted—different—you
know—how much grass is here. It’s a very beautiful campus. Upstairs
where Terry’s office used to be, on the top floor, there’s a man named Jeff
and he works in the office. He’s the—he maintains the server amongst
other firings. But they had firis—they were doing a project where they
were mapping out every single tree that’s on campus and keeping tabs on
it. And so, it just showed me firat everyfiring was very planned. And so, I
wanted to kind of capture that. And I also just took straight pictures of
firis. I took pictures of the Union cause there’s-—that’s just a beautiful
place when you step back and look at it.

Now was recognition like an important part when you selected firis
image? Like recognition like when someone would go to look at firis
newsletter they would look at that and would immediately firink of
campus?

No. That wasn’t it. It might have been more recognizable had we used one
of the pictures with a building in it—especially the International Center.
But really I just wanted to get pictures; it could have been anywhere to be
honest with you that kind of went with the appeal of what a sustainability
newsletter might be. But I didn’t want to use any stock photos. I wanted to
use somefiring that was on campus; but didn’t necessarily have to be
acquainted with campus necessarily. You know, students who look at firis
newsletter nright recognize firis scene, but it’s also going out there to lots
of different people.

Now—now with Terry, have you guys—and firis might be a two-tiered
question—but have you guys like specifically talked about any particular
definitions of sustainability he would like to see come out of the
documents you design?

See that’s probably hitting on the fundamental problem with the Office of
Campus Sustainability as it was and now is and somefiring Lauren and I
were talking about just last week—is that there’s not defrrrition of
sustainability that is exacted through the website or firrough documents.
And to broaden that, the “Be Spartan Green” initiative—you know—the
“Environmental Stewardship” and all these other initiatives on campus,
there’s no cohesion to it whatsoever, so we’ve never talked about that.
Terry has shared with me his kinda view of sustainability; sustainability is
always kind of showed as firis firree-pronged circle—economic,
environmental, and political. But he wanted to add in firis kinda fourth
overarching firing that he didn’t even have a name for. So we did—he did
want to work on a visual representation of what sustainability meant; but
as far as influence the design of anything, it never happened.

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Unfortunately, because Terry is so busy. He get’s a thousand emails a day
and I’m not sure that that’s an overestimation. And you know we never
really had time to sit down because—I mean the site was already so
piecemeal and cluttered with information that’s outdated and never
touched. You know, were just never had time to really kind of—for design
or for even the office completely—to set out that kind of mission
statement. So where firis is what you kinda want to do, it was really—you
know kind of a—you know you’re in fire bunker taking shells and you’re
just dealing with each one as it comes. So, that’s a shame and you know
talking wifir Lauren, she really wants to create that purposeful cohesive
web presence, design presence, print presence cause she’s got her feet
both now in the Office of Campus Sustainability and she’s also very much
involved with “Be Spartan Green.” So she wants to kind of take a message
and have it—you know— be fire entire—the message can be seen in
everyfiring. It’s just unfortunate that we never got to firat point with Terry.

Now, these discussions that you’re having with Lauren—are you guys
looking at the definitions as being like more exclusively local and then
generating outwards towards a network or being more global or—how are
you guys characterizing it?

The way I see it Lauren coming at it—and I could be wrong, we’ve only
talked a few times and we have some much to talk about every time we
never get into it on a really deep level—but she is worried that we are
doing all of these firings local—the initiatives like the you know—the—I
always say it wrong—“pack-up-pitch in” or “pitch-in-pack-up” that just
happened and happens at fire end of every semester really. The original
research firat’s being done by—you know——doctors here—the initiatives,
the events we put on—we have all firis information and it’s local to us, but
it’s in all these different places and it’s hard to find. So, firink she really
wants to brand what Michigan State is doing and have that repository that
can be one place for people to go and find out what’s happening here. At
the same time it’s global because people can see what Michigan State is
doing but at fire time somebody at Michigan State can come and see what
we’re doing and how we can continue to do it and included in firat—so
that’s as far as we’ve gotten. I’ which her supervisor has apparently put
the kibosh on, but kind of redoing the Office of Campus Sustainability
website using a Wordpress format where we can kind of more easily
create the warehouse of database information rather than all these arbitrary
pages with static links to arbitrary file names—things people aren’t able to
find or are unable to identify with. I just went off on a—

Oh no! It’s fine. That was good and one last question. Were you familiar
with the concept of sustainability before you came to the office?

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No. My entry point to the office—I took—my last semester of undergrad
in the PW program—I took—I’m blanking on the number but it was kind
of managing publication projects. John [surname deleted] was teaching it.
I don’t know if you know John [surname deleted]; I firink he’s an adjunct.
And so, it was kind of a service learning class. We were doing this one
project and it turned out to be for Terry. And it was—let’s see if I can—it
should still be on the main page actually [clicks the flash link with the
archive posters]. It was these “vote with your action” posters online. And
firis was specifically targeted at students at Michigan State University.
And it was a push-and-pull firroughout the whole class of how we should
target firose students because we realized—and firis was where great
discussions came up because we had a lot of different personalities; we
had “conservative,” we had “liberal,” we had “interest in sustainability,”
we had “no clue about sustainability.” So, how do you really—
sustainability is so large and it’s not like you can donate twenty dollars
and we’re going to be like, “Ok, we’re going to be sustainable is
everybody donates twenty dollars!” It’s about behavioral change. And in
our estimation the majority of students either didn’t care, wouldn’t care, or
did not want to make sacrifices. And so to them, it would just fall into fire
white noise of global warming. So, we didn’t know how to target those
students; and I’m not sure we did the greatest job in the world. They’re
[posters] really sharp. We didn’t actually visually design these. We came
up with the content and the overall slogans and the kind of ideas for it.
And then we worked cooperatively with people in the design school—
three students who actually designed them. And what we came down on
was kind of taking these old political sayings and making them “I like
bike” as opposed to “I like Ike.” [The instructor] was really into firat. You

. know, “No new bottled water,” “No new taxes.” “Wind power to the

people.”

And which one did you more have a hand on? Did you have a hand on all
of them?

Yeah. We all came up wifir—you know—collaboratively we work out
kind of the sayings that we were gonna go with in small groups and then
into large groups. And then the text, we all did research to find statistics
for fire text. Which each text is basically “did you know firat you could do
firis.” And it says for the “bottled water” [poster], did you know that it
takes more water to make a bottle than it does to fill it with clean water?
And so we came up with that. No one person really had influence on
anyone. It was very collaborative and very slow-going. A lot of us even
questioned the process for a little bit, but it came out looking good. I’m
not sure we were necessarily on target. I firink they’re beautiful. The
designers did a great job. I firink the theme is solid. But I don’t think—you
know—.

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Even the vote “local first” [poster]?
“Vote Local First,” why do you mention that one?

Well—well you had said that you felt they didn’t direcfiy targeted
students. But like what about that one?

This one and actually firis one—not so much firis one, but mainly firis
one—Yeah. I mean you click on firis and—these are fire background
images I created because we wanted these students to take these up and
use them. That was are whole ploy. We wanted firem to make them look
like somefiring that they’d want to hang up on their dorm-room wall. That
was the whole kind of appeal. I’m not sure firat firat worked cause I’m not
sure I say any hanging up outside of Lauren door.

Or of you move the web—move the screen. Not the screen but the
window.

Oh.

Wo-oh. [looking at desktop background image of “Windpower to the
People” flyer].

There you go! Well, we got one! We got one who was already researching
sustainability. But—good, I’m actually glad that worked. But yeah, firis
one it says “vote local first,” but we weren’t necessarily targeting directly
at firis locality. We firought about doing that a lot, but—you know—we
wanted to include local information—we researched local businesses firat
was—you know—this one was probably the most local of them all. We
wanted to put information out there about local businesses; but then at the
same time, we didn’t feel we had enough reliable information and know-
how in ourselves to kind of be able to tell people, “These places are good!
You should use these;” cause we didn’t have any background to put our
stamp on it—and say—you know—with all-knowing power—you
know—say, “these places are good,” because they might not be. We’ve
found research that says their good, but we haven’t gone there; we haven’t
done and independent study. We were very leery of statistics. I was the
strongest opposer of statistics, because I feel they’re over done.
Especially—I’m going to assume that you’re close to my generation; I’m
twenty-six.

I’m twenty-four.
Ok. So—you know—I can never tell some people in firis program I firink

are twenty-five and they turn out to be firirty-five. But I’ve been
bludgeoned with statistics my whole life; at least that’s what I feel like.

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And they always contradict firemselves. People can always use another
statistic to combat another statistic. We ended up using them; but not to
fire extent firey wanted to. But it was tough. And it was interesting in that
class to see—after we all kind of got on the same level of understanding
what sustainability and what it is trying to do and different places—how
many different opinions in a class of thirteen students people had about
what is the right way to approach firis from a design standpoint and fiom a
message standpoint. Because their were firirteen of us and at least ten
different viewpoints. And that’s when I realized that I wanted to work
with Terry, because I kinda want to try and figure firis out but I’d be
damned if I had any ideas at firis point.

Perfect. Alright, if you go ahead and open and—scroll down I guess and
open up.

Right here.
All the way to the end. Click on that
Guitar? GarageBand.

Yeah. GarageBand. I guess you can hit “play” and it should stop.

16]

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Interview: Rich (Producer 3). Friday April 29, 2009 @ 10:30 AM

Ok. Good morning! If you see right here—yeah—what we have is the
consent form. I’m just gonna go ahead and read aloud the consent form.

Ok.

Basically, that just more or less so I can prove to the Institutional Review
Board that I talked to you beforehand and I informed you about fire study
and all fire complications that come with the study and such. It’s gonna be
slightly different from what is on that because that consent for was written
for producers—not producers but for readers.

Ok.

But the parts that I did change, I’m going to more or less going to read
them to you and sort of talk about why they’re changed a little bit.

Yeah.

And so, I going to actually read from the language that I used with another
person who was a producer. So if you could just follow along.

Ok.

Alright. So, You are being asked to participate in a research study. The
purpose of firis study is to investigate the ability of writers and readers to
agree upon the intent imbedded wifirin messages related to environmental
sustainability.

You have been asked to participate because you are a member of the
MSU community and you fit wifirin the criteria of what constitutes a
potential reader of the Office of Campus Sustainability Web Site.

You have been invited to provide your thoughts and opinions regarding
messages acquired from fire website of the MSU Office of Campus
Sustainability. The interview will first start by asking a series of
background questions related to your familiarity with environmental
issues. Thereafter, the researcher, myself, will present a series of messages
acquired from the Office of Campus Sustainability’s website and ask you
to provide a response to each message. And so in this case since you are a
producer and not a reader I will just more or less be asking you questions
pertaining to the product that you produced rafirer firan showing you a
series of messages.

Ok.

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After the interview, the researcher will answer any questions you may
have regarding the purpose of this study.

While highly unlikely, the only perceived risk in firis study regards the fact
that you may be asked to provide your opinions concerning a potentially
controversial issue—environmental sustainability. You are free to decline
to answer any questions that make you uncomfortable. There are no
perceived benefits to research participants. Direct benefit of firis study will
potentially assist the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability since this
study has the potential to generate knowledge about its website.

Your identity will be protected to the extent allowed by the law. You will
not be personally identified in any reports or publications that may result
from firis study. While firis is not an anonymous study, all information
gained will be considered confidential. The researcher will retain your
data from firis study for no longer than three years. And the firree years is a
federally-mandated provision

Ok.

But what will happen is after three years I’ll destroy it. So only me and
Professor Bill Hart-Davidson will have access to your data.

Ok.

There will be no cost to you nor will you be compensated for participating
in firis research study. You may refuse to participate or withdraw from firis
project at anytime without penalty. If the study design or use of data is to
be changed, you will be so informed and your consent re-obtained. You
will be told of any significant new findings developed during fire course of
this study that may relate to your willingness to continue participation.

If you have any questions, please ask us. If you have additional questions
later, please contact either—please either contact Dr. Hart-Davidson or
myself. And the contact information is listed below. And another firing if
you have any complaints or concerns about the study itself. Please do
complain to the human subjects research protection program here or IRB
program here. And you can do so anonymously. And I wouldn’t know
who did it or didn’t do it.

But the first firing that I want to ask is, “Are you willing to participate or
volunteer as part of firis study?”

[Affirmative Response]

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Alright. So if you can go ahead and sign that part.
I’m gonna go ahead and sign “recording too.”
Yeah go ahead.

I’m a grad student too, so I’ve done these before.
Alright. Cool.

I mean I appreciate you going firrough the whole firing. Today’s the 24th
right?

[Affirmative Response]

Ok. Cool.

Awesome. Alright. So, Richard, let me introduce myself—

I go by “Rich.”

Rich?

Yep.

Ok. Cool, I’m sorry about that.

That’s ok.

Alright. So, I am—Currently, I am a master’s student here in the Critical
Studies in Literacy and Pedagogy program. I started school here in the fall
of 07” and moved up from Chattanooga, Tennessee where I was doing my
undergrad work. And so—

Are you from Tennessee?

No. I’m actually originally from the Virgin Islands.

Oh. Cool.

Yeah, but Tennessee is the longest place that I’ve lived in fire States.

Ok.
So—.

Oh—I’m from Norfir Carolina.

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Oh. What part?

Winston-Salem.

Winston-Salem. My dad, who his family is actually from the States, he’s
from Raleigh. His family grew up, born and raised in the Raleigh-Durham
area.

Awesome.

And now I’m at the tailend of my master’s and I just a couple weeks ago
decided that I was going to stick on for the PhD program—

Oh great.

So I’ll be here for another four or five years.

I’m finishing year three of a PhD program so it—
Oh yeah? So what you’re program?

I’m in CARS.

In CARS? Is that?—

Do you know CARS?

I’ve heard about it.

It’s a long jumbled name. Basically my PhD will end up being in
somefiring in somefiring I’m calling organizational sustainability.

Ok.

So, I’m interested in looking at both organizational reporting about
sustainability and also strategic decision-making about sustainability.

That’s interesting cause I see that our research interests actually
coincide—.

Yeah.
Because what I do—what I do is that I look at sort of environmental

rhetorics, but I’m really interested in sustainability and how people sort of
understand those concepts. So firat’s really cool.

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Maybe we can work together sometime?

We——it would be fantastic to collaborate with you. I wish I had know that
you were into that because I proposed an article last summer for the
Community Literacy Journal, which was looking at sustainability and
organizations—but not organizations—but sustainability and community
literacy. And I was coming at it from and institutional-organizational
understanding and they did not accept my proposal and I was very very
surprised by that. But I mean I can understand that because I wasn’t
talking about literacy, I was talking about institutions. But that’s really
cool. That’s really cool.

Yeah.
And so, after you finish, what are you planning on doing?

I don’t know man. My wife’s getting a PhD here too. We’re on the same
time schedule. So, I don’t know—We’re both sort of undecided about
whether we want to be faculty or not. I firink—I came from a small
college; I went to Wake Forest for my undergrad. And I firink that—I
kind of see myself in a place like that. Because I’m really interested in
both teaching and research; and sometimes it seems that MSU is out of
balance towards the research. So, I kind want a place that couples both
parts of my brain. Cause I really really enjoy teaching and I want to
dedicate a lot of my time and resources to that; but I also really want to
dedicate some resources to that. So, if I can date a university that lets me
get both firings, I’d be super happy. But I can see myself in a lot of
different roles. I worked in New York City for a major investment bank
for a long time too. I would do sustainability work at a corporate level and
do it at a government level. I have a Master’s in Public Administration.
So, I guess I’m kind of a gypsy in that regard. And so there’s a lot of
firings that I can do that would make me happy.

Now CARS—Is that a journalism program or?—

No, It’s Community Agriculture and Resource Studies.

Ok. Cool.

It’s an interdisciplinary program. I started off in communications.

Ok. Cause I was like—I firink someone I talked to said something—I
don’t know if that they were in sort of the journalism program, but they

were talking classes firrough the CARS program. I don’t know but for
some reason I’ve always made that association between CARS and

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journalism. Alright and so, your undergrad and master’s was in
communications?

No. My undergrad was in business. My master’s was in public
administration. I ended up doing communications and communications
strategy work for five years in the private sector before I came back to
grad school.

Oh—wow.

And when I came back to grad school and got a master’s, I was convinced
firatl was going to be a communications director for somebody and then I
got really interested in environmental communication and that turned into
sustainability. And now I’m settled in my new home. So—

So is that—so, would you say that you didn’t take and interest in
sustainability until you came to MSU?

Yeah because I wasn’t—I had sort of failed to link the other pieces of
sustainability together. So I was kinda myopically focused on fire
environment and I hadn’t—I did an environmental science minor at Wake
Forest and it had always been an interest, so I was focused on the
environment—a piece of it and then when I got here I met with—I started
talking with Terry [surname deleted]; I don’t know if you knew him—
people like that. And so he kind of—that sort of turned my firinking more
towards the broader concept of sustainability, which is [inaudible]—-cause
it’s——you know—the flexibility and the broadness of it is both good and
bad I think. Which is probably part of what you’re interested in is
whether—.

Yeah.

How people understand that such a broad concept and how they can—but
I don’t mean to take up some much time for your study—.

No, no, no. Actually you’re answering the question.

Good, well I’m glad I’m being a good subject.

Yeah, this is a good—this is a good interview, because like I’m firinking in
my head all of fire questions that I have to ask you and you’ve been
answering them—.

Good.

Very very good ways, so we’ve been actually making a lot of progress.

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Great.

One of the firings that I want to ask is that is there anything particular from
your conversations with Terry, in which you guys were talking about
sustainability like components he had added to your understanding of it?

Sorry. I’m just trying to get off of your cords. Yeah. I think—Here’s what
I firink. I think that I’ve always been interested in issues of—I mean—
econorrric sustainability or what I consider to be economic sustainability or
you can call it the first bottom-line. Is somefiring firat I was schooled in
because I had a business major—I was—I took accounting classes. I
understand what balance is according to dollars and cents. I also was
interested in issues of social justice from a very kind of armchair expertise
way I mean just in terms of a follower of current events in the news, I’m a
firinking kind of person. I don’t really see how—I don’t really see how
someone liked firat can’t be interested in issues—the social sustainability
piece. And the environmental piece was a natural fit as well. So, I guess
long story short, Terry kind of helped me put them all together into one
kind of concept, “Hey there’s firis firing; We’re calling it sustainability. It
looks at these three components. And let’s you firink about them wifirin
one kind of conceptual framework.” And so I guess—as any scholar—I
mean, as anybody who’s interested in pursuing a career of the mind,
you—I firink we often start off with a lot of scattered pieces and firings
we’re interested in and are constantly searching to put them in some kind
of mechanism for understanding for ourselves. And often times I firink that
harmful or hurtful. It’s hurtful because when you try to take firat into fire
world a lot of people aren’t receptive to it. Like you talked about the
article that you put out that they didn’t like what you were saying even
though concept was probably very analogous to something fire would be
interested in publishing. The way of presenting it—the way you had
conceptualized it wasn’t complimentary to the way they had
conceptualized it. So we almost kind of—I firink firere’s a real tension in
kind of putting those scattered pieces together and then putting firem
together some much that no one can be conversant with other people. And
firen what would be good?

If that makes any sense. So, I firink Terry would—Terry was always really
good at understanding that tension and being able to talk about that
concept in a way firat was understandable for people.

And by “understandable” for people, what people do you think he’s
speaking to?

You know I firink that—I firink that Terry’s audience—I firink that Terry
was very adaptable to his audience. I firink that he could sit down with

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someone who had studied sustainability for years and still be able to use
some of the jargon and language to talk to them. But I also firink that he
made it a point to be able to be accessible to people who weren’t aware of
these concepts at all.

And these people would be located—?

I firink these people would be located all over; but in his role of campus
sustainability coordinator, I firink there’s a lot of students who come in, for
example, undergraduate and graduate, faculty and staff, who for whatever
reason are unaware. It’ s not that firey’re not educated or somefiring like
that, it’s just that they’ve spent their time learning other firings and they’re
not aware of these kinds of issues. So, I think by doing firings like fire
speaker series he did —his other awareness events, firink that was a real to
reach out to these people who hadn’t thought about these concepts—who
may not even know—who may not even think about basic environmental
concepts like pollution and recycling. Who only firink about it as
somefiring in the background that they don’t pay attention to. I firink that
outreach component was so important to him. You know—I firink—I
personally firink you have—In politics I guess you would call it keeping
your base happy—I firink you have to preach to the choir to some extent—
keep those people fired up. But there’s firis huge other component that he
was go at with talking to people. You know—I guess if I was task wifir
operationalizing who those people are they would just be people who for
whatever reason were aware of any of the concepts inherent in
sustainability—who hadn’t thought about the need for some kind of social
sustainability—who hadn’t thought about the need for environmental
protection. All wifirin the context of making sustainability responsible.

So now, here’s the hard part. If you were—
It’s all hard.

Ok, so everyfiring that you’ve said now, what I want—and see if it’s
possible—could you provide me with a definition of environmental
sustainability?

I didn’t think that firat was going to be part of the interview. No, I’m just
kidding. No actually firis is interesting because I did work last semester on
how people define sustainability, so it’s something I firink about a lot. I
actually firink—I firink there—let me talk—I firink I’m going to have to

talk for a couple rrrinutes.
Ok. That’s fine.

I think that there’s some elements of it that are very clear to me. I firink

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sustainability can be good or bad. Ly
Ok.

I don’t firink that it’s necessarily a positive thing. I firink that when I firink
about the word “sustainability” to me it means the ability to perpetuate
some type of operation. I have to think about it in terms of organization
first and then move up toward the environment. The ability—[So if you
firink about] a corporation, the ability to perpetuate that entity indefrrritely,
so that you’re not drawing down any of the resources that that you need
for future—we’ll call it—production or future operation. Yeah. So, in
terms of fire environment, I firink there have been some people who have
said—you know a lot of times we’re referred back to firis sort of seventh
generation concept—you know firink about how people will be affected
seven generations from now with our environment—they way we treat our
natural resources. I actually would take a little bit of a stronger definition
to that and say it’s not—we shouldn’t put a tirneline on it. We should be
using our environment and our natural resources in a way that we can’t
imagine a time when it would end. One firing that I drink sustainability
sort of leaves out, as it’s sort of theorized by the Brundlant Commission
definition, is innovation—proactively addressing new problems and new
challenges in new ways. And that’s not to say, let’s not rely upon—-it’s
very dangerous to go down that path because there are people who say,
“Well we shouldn’t worry about managing our natural resources in an
unsustainable way because technology will say us—you—know firis sort
of technocentric viewpoint.

But I do think—if I look at the sustainability of other firings, of an
organization for example, there are innovations that may cause them to use
their resources in a different way ten years from now then they are today.
So, sustainability helps us to focus on present as it’s leading to the future.
But I firink we always have to fold in firis notion of change and be flexible
and adaptable as we firink, so that tomorrow’s sustainability may look
much different than today’s sustainability and our concept of sustainability
may look much different from sustainability—So it can’t be—it has to be
a fluid definition. So firrough the six nrinutes of tape that I just talked
about that I hope you can pull out somefiring that’s useful about
environmental sustainability; but my caveat will be that if you ask me a
year from now I will probably answer it differenfiy because I don’t know
how things would—you know—if suddenly we used up all of the fish in
the ocean, our definition of sustainability would have to be very different I
guess.

So let me ask you a question about firis cause you were talking about fire
positives and the negatives and you also sort of came at it more or less like

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from an organizational standpoint, is firis somefiring that you’ve discussed
with Terry before?

I don’t firink I’ve discussed—No, I haven’t discussed these. I mean we’ve
talked about sustainability a lot, but I don’t firink firat I’ve necessarily
talked to him about these broader notions of it because I mean I firink a lot
of it is time. Terry’s one person. I mean you knew him, so he was—when
he was at the university he was doing a lot—a million different firings.
And I firink that I was just trying to be very sensitive to his time, so I
wasn’t constantly pushing for can we meet and talk about these firings.

Do you firink that he would have been receptive to a definition like firat?

I think that he would have been receptive to it, because I firink Terry
understands that it’s not—I firink one firing he was always very good at
with me—and he still sits on my committee, I don’t mean to talk about
him posthumously—be he—he’s very good at pushing back and
challenging you to continue developing your definition. So, I’m sure out
of what I’ve just told you, he would have picked out a couple of firings and
said, “Well I would encourage you to read this and firink about that and
how that might change you thinking somewhat.” So I don’t firink he would
ever agree or disagree or say firis is wrong or firis is right. I firink that he
would say that some people might say that firis is x, y or z and perhaps you
might want to firink about that. But I firink he’s a very genuine person and
I think he’s able to tell if you’re genuine and have been firinking about firis
issue or if you’re, for example, interested in kind of just the greenwashing-
marketing aspect of it. In that case, I firink he might be a little more
impatient. I would be. Maybe I’m transposing that on him.

No——no. That’s fine. That’s fine. I was just wondering whether like you in
your—because you said firat he has sort of helped you develop your
understanding of it—especially expanding you definition. I wasn’t sure
base upon—I mean—your background and how you’ve come to firink
about it whether that was somefiring you’ve share with him or disagreed
with aspects of it.

Yeah.

But no, that’ s—firis is good. This is good. One question I want to ask—
Well I don’t know if firis is a question or more or less just a confirmation.
It’s pretty safe to say that you’re familiar with like a lot of the green
activities that are going on—?

On campus?

Yeah.

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[Affirmative response]. That’s actually what pays part of my tuition. I’m
working on a project through the Vice-President for Finance and
Operations. My advisor—It’s actually his project, I’m just a grad
assistant—

And his name is?
Joe [surname deleted].

Joe [surname deleted]. Ok. And you a research assistant. What project are
you working on?

We’re working on—Joe is a Decision Sciences scholar—so we’re working
on a structured decision making approach for firinking about the future of
Michigan State’s power generation. So it’s one piece of the kind of, are
you’re fanriliar with—I guess you’re familiar with like the environmental
systems team-environmental stewardship movement and all that kind of
stuff. It’s clicked in firrough firat by an initiative firrough the Vice
President of Finance and Operations’ office.

And that’ 3 Kathy [surname deleted]?
[surname deleted]

[surname deleted]. Ok. [surname deleted]?
[surname deleted].

Ok.

She works—She’s the Assistant Vice President for Finance and
Operations and Fred [surname deleted]—Dr. Fred [surname deleted] is the
Vice President for Finance and Operations. So it ultimately his—I think
his money and child and I firink she’s probably attached with
administering a lot of firis stuff. And then it kind of trickles down from
there.

Did you meet Terry firrough firis?

[Nod no.] I met Terry because when I was in Communications I was sort
of farming out all throughout the university. Because I was—I’m in CARS
now—because I was ultimately unhappy with the Communications
program that I was in. So, as I was kind of getting interested in
environmental things, I took a course on sustainability through another
firing I’m involved in, which is Environmental Science and Policy

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specialization, which I’m finishing firis semester. But I took a course that
was offered firrough ESPP with a great guy whose no longer here—he’s in
Australia now. But I took a course with him and got really interested in
firis concept and he directed me to Terry. And that’s how I met him.

What’s his name?
Richard [surname deleted].
[surname deleted]?

[Spells out surname]. He—I want to say firat he’s at Queensland, but I’m
not sure. He’s at one of the universities in Australia. I firink he’s probably
part-time now because he was close to retirement

When you met Terry was it a specific project that you were working on—
or?

No. It was just kind of getting connected, firinking about firings, seeing
what—you know—just to kind of chat and see what was going on at the
university. Maybe how I could plug in. Through that I got involved with
the University Committee for a Sustainable Campus, which I still sit on.
I’ve been on that for two calendar years now—so for a little while. And
yes, firink kind of cascaded from there. Now I’m on like too many
committees because it’s like once you like open the door you’re—But I’ve
also talked to Terry about possibly being interested in doing what he does
now when I’m done—or what he did when I’m done with school. So, to
some extent I would call him somewhat of a mentor as well. I feel like I
can go to him with career questions or firings like that and be comfortable.
I mean you’re a graduate student and you know that sometimes there
certain people firat you feel comfortable with and firat you don’t feel
comfortable with talking about career explorations. Some people expect
you to do one firing, some people expect you to do somefiring else, some
people would be disappointed if you did somefiring. With Terry I feel like
I can lay it out on the table—some days I want to be a brewer and some
days I want—you know—so I firink that’s—Yeah but we didn’t me out of
any particular project or anyfiring else; it was kind of get to know you.

Good. I guess—I guess one of the last questions that I have of like the
background is are you familiar with the website of the Office of Campus
Sustainability?

[Affirmative Response]

And what is your level of familiarity with it?

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I’ve actually done some writing for it I have these actual couple of stories.
I don’t know if they’re archived or not, but one of them should be linked

now on the left side of fire page I firink. So—I firink they’re called “The
Green Stories” or somefiring like that.

Oh—“Stories of Sustainability.”
Yeah.
Can you tell me a little bit about “Stories of Sustainability?”

Yeah. That was a project that got started out of a—The University
Committee for a Sustainable Campus decided firat we needed—that we
wanted to do—when we set our goals for last year and firis would have
been a year ago because we were setting them for the spring and fall
semesters. We wanted—Part of what we wanted to do was sort of up fire
visibility anty to become more visible on campus. So, one way to do that
we thought was to sort of do some very informal sort of journalism style
interviews with people who are both on the committee and not on the
committee—mostly Operations people—and ask firem about—what
they—kind of how they did sustainability at work. Like what do you do. I
mean these are people who—Like the first story we did was Laurie
[surname deleted; reference to message used in study], who works in
Purchasing. She’s really spearheaded a lot of effort on green purchasing.
So, firinking about how she can order materials without packaging; how
she can reduce materials and shipment; how people, when they redesign
an office and they order materials, can they—you know—use—you
know—Michigan manufactured chairs to reduce the miles traveled-—
firings like that. So these are the kind of stories like what—The story that’s
up there right now Lauren [surname deleted; reference to message used in
study] who is the Office of Campus Sustainability now. And firis story is
about her effort to get recycling to be a big initiative at MSU. I
interviewed a guy in Landscaping, who has reduced the salt usage at MSU
because of a new product that he has come up with firat doesn’t waste as
much salt. You know—On-and-on-and-on. There are like fifteen stories
and I’ve just been slow at getting them out. Because I’m a grad student
and I have nine hundred other firings to do so firat—Yeah. That’s—so
yeah. That’s—And then the other piece of the website that I find
extremely useful is the newsletter—the EcoFoot newsletter that Terry puts
out. He even provided a link to the site.

Do you write for the newsletter?

I haven’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point I was asked while I’m
here. But I drink that I haven’t written anan for it yet.

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Now here’s the interesting part.

Ok.

Cause we’re actually going to talk about those “Stories of Sustainability.”
Oh ok.

So if you click on—You see on the top you see on the top where it say
GarageBand up at the top of the banner.

Yep.

Go ahead and double-click on fire banner.
How do you?

Just click the—

Ok.

With firis down—there you go. Now go to the extreme right and your
going to see one that says “squeaky”—

On fire bottom?

“Squeaky_[surname deleted]” and then another one firat says
“Gateway__[surname deleted].”

Yep.

Can you click on both of those? Double-click on that. There you go.
Alright now. I guess we’re going to do “Gateway” first.

Ok.

So, if you want, you see where it is firat plus sign firat says, “zoom.”
Yeah.

Go ahead and hit “+” until you feel comfortable reading.

Ok. Can I expand this out?

Yeah. Totally. Go down to fire bottom. And you see firat right there?

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Yeah.

Drag it. There you go.

Excellent. Ok.

Ok. Do you need some time to read over firis or are you pretty—?
I’m pretty familiar with it.

Ok. Cool. Well tell me a little bit about how your got started writing about
Lauren’s piece?

Yeah. I mean I know Lauren anyway and Lauren is one of the people firat
I interviewed for the initiative. So, I’m a writer anyway, I’m actually
working on a—sometimes I’m working on a fiction book and I do a—I
just write constantly. So, if you’ve—you’re a grad student, so you’re a
writer too, so I firink firings at times pop into your head for no real reason
at all. So, I’ve got all these stories kind of in my head and somebody will
say somefiring or I’ll re-read a manuscript and see kind of a snippet of
somefiring that’s kind of cool. And firat would usually—the rest of the
story kind of follows. I mean the whole trick it getting fire story to—So
firis you know, she used that word “Gateway drug” and I thought that was
such a cool firing because it’s sort of carrying on the philosophy that I
firink I was talking to you earlier about, which is firat need for extension—
sort of outreach. That to me seemed like a term that was both humorous in
firinking about sustainability and also kind of would draw people in
without being cheesy and hipstery.

Ok.

If that makes any sense. I mean “gateway drug” is kind of a funny firing
that my father knows what it means and I know what it means and I don’t
feel uncomfortable using it. There’s too many dialectical terms—you
know—if you hear Jim Lehrer say that “someone got dissed” or
somefiring, it’s very awkward, it’s very uncomfortable, it’s sort of like, “I
don’t know why he said that.” But “gateway drug is kind of laughable; I
firink we all get that. So I just thought it was a good way to—I’m really
into sort of drawing people into the idea. I mean if you—So if I was
reading somefiring and I saw that “recycling was a gateway drug for
sustainability,” that to me——I would want to read on I guess. That would
compel me to read this story. Which is actually a nice story about someone
who wasn’t getting paid for her efforts, took it upon herself to basically
create from the ground up a recycling program at Michigan State because
she was unhappy with it. And I think that firat narrative also resonates with
a lot of people. I mean so, I’m firink primarily of a United States audience

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who’s reading firis. And that’s sort of a microcosm of the American story.
You know, you see somefiring you doing like and you have the motivation
and the talent but you also have the opportunity to be able to do something
with that. There’s an outlet for you—you can you can—I mean for all of
democracy’s faults and failures this is one good thing, that you can speak
out and you can get angry; you can go to the Board of Trustees; and you
can do what you need to do and protests. You can do all firis stuff and that
is what she did and somefiring happened out of it. And to the extent that
you can put somefiring like that in—what is that—seven paragraphs, 1
firink that that’s kind of powerful. So, that was my thinking behind that
one.

0k and then you said that the audience—Like you were writing more
towards the US audience.

Yeah.

So when you were writing firis did you like consult Terry at all when you
were writing it?

One firing I always do whenever I interview someone, I go back to my
participants with the actually story and ask them if they thought I had
accurately represented what they firought, and what they did, and did they
want to make any changes. The next move is to send it to Terry and then
he could say, “No, I don’t like this” or whatever. This one and fire other
one he made a couple of minor corrections on because I had stated
somefiring incorrectly or somefiring. But he didn’t disagree with any of the
philosophy behind it or anything.

Has firis document—do you know, has the document moved beyond
MSU?

Oh. I have no idea.

In regards to like—in regards to like audience were you firinking at all of
sort of the MSU corrrrnunity when you were writing it?

Yeah. I mean—because I mean, when I said, “US” earlier firat was in
terms of like the kind of the underlying philosophy of the story. I mean
what I just talked about in terms of that kind of you know making some
element of change because there’s something you want to do that was
really the intent behind firat. I mean firis is also a quintessential MSU story
because I mean first of all the setting is at MSU and secondly it involves
her as a students, which I firink speaks to what is possible among the
student population here on campus. One firing that I think is really hard
for freshman when they come to college or new graduate students—it’s

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well less difficult for graduate students because I think we’re pushed so
heavily into our program when we get here. I mean—you know—you’ve
got all these responsibilities. And for a lot of people it’s very
overwhelming and you know you have to spend some time sorting that
stuff out. For freshman though—I mean undergrad I think part of your
freshman year a lot of it’s just feeling what available and what can we do.
I mean let’s be honest a lot of freshman have a lot of fiee time, so it can be
overwhelming and I firink that if you can see you know—if a freshman
read firis they would say, “Oh! Well firis person spent three years
dedicated to firis issue” that that is somefiring that’s possible. If I find
somefiring that’s that’s that I’m passionate about—that I’m interested in. It
may not be sustainability. I mean I would firink if firey were on the
website, firey’d probably have some interest in sustainability. But firis
could easily be transposed onto some—onto some other issue. I mean I—
you know—name your issue; some type of academic governance issue,
somefiring that they firink is unfair; somefiring they wished the university
engaged more with the Lansing community—you know—any number of
firings that a student can be passionate about. They wish that there were
better financial aid packages, more scholarships, why are—you know—
underprivileged students able to go abroad. I mean anyfiring—you know—
I drink that that—it just shows kind of if you get your stuff together you
can do something—you know—, as a student, cause you’ve got some time
to do it here. I mean you’ve got—four years is a long time. And yeah—.

Good. And so, I guess that answers that question or like let me ask firis
more directly then.

Ok.
What would be a desired response from someone who read firis firing?

Well, I mean the desired response would be I firink everything that I just
said. I don’t mean—I wouldn’t mean for someone to read this story—I
would be disappointed if someone read firis story and got really involved
in the recycling movement. I would be excited if they read firis story and
were compelled to recycle. But I kind of feel like firis has been dealt—like
now it’s time for you to firink about—you know—what else needs to be
tackled.

Ok.

And not that everything ever been done, but I just kind of like firis is
probably somefiring that—you know—firis is something that Lauren did
and she owned it and now she’s kind of doing something else and
recycling is a very important issue and I want to get firat across, but at the
same time I would like them to absorb it a little deeply than that and say,

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“Ok What am I passionate about? What am 1 interested in? How could I
do—maybe I can go meet with the Board of Trustees—obviously that’s
valued at firis university. So I firink that that’s howl would hope that
people would read it and not just—not just freshman. I mean I think that it
can be applicable to anybody who has a little bit of time and some—and is
willing to put in some effort.

Ok. And if you were to describe—There are three terms that I’m going to
throw out.

Ok.

And you have to choose one of those terms or you can choose to mix
them—.

Ok.

“Global,” “local,” and “national.” If you were to characterize firis text that
you wrote, how would you characterize it based on these three terms?

Well, I would use—I’d hate to say that I would use all firree cause that’s
gonna like kind of screw up your data. But I firink if you have—I would
use all firree but I would use them on different levels. The story itself is
very local.

Ok.

lt’s——I mean the story is about MSU; it’s about a campus program; it’s a
case study; it’s not generalized across—you know—any university can do
firis. Because it takes a special person; it takes a special context. It’s both
national and global though because it’s in the “Great Pantheon of Waste
and Materials and Everything else,” firis is making some small difference
in that global stream—in that national stream. I also firink—you know—I
would be contradictory if I didn’t say it was also national in scope because
of the narrative. I mean I’m born and raised in the United States and to
some extent that experience has indoctrinated me into writing firis kind of
tale of someone who overcomes adversity. And these are all firings that we
exposed to from ESPN to—you know—the most serious publications of
writing. So, that would be my answer.

And let’s—I’ve got two final questions about this story.

Ok.

Where’s it at?-—Alright, do you see that second paragraph?

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Yes. r

Where it says—and I’m looking at the second sentence where is says,
“Through various efforts, including a ruckus campaign, Lauren and her
recycling crusaders realized firat while other campuses in Michigan had
comprehensive recycling programs, MSU was lacking one.” I’m not going
to read the rest. Where you used “Michigan,” would you have considered
using state?

What do you mean? “The state” like somefiring generic and not just
“Michigan?”

Yeah. Not just “Michigan.”

That’s an interesting question, let me firink about it for a rrrinute. [reading
to himself] No because firis-—No. Not unless “MSU” was not in there
either. I firink that you would have to make bofir “MSU” and “Michigan
generic or you can insert another state. But I firink it’s important that—
MSU is—I don’t know—I firink the largest or the second largest
university in the state and that it didn’t have a comprehensive recycling
program, I thought was somewhat unique.

Ok.

And interesting point in-and-of itself. So, those dynamics I firink are really
interesting. It wasn’t necessarily—I firink that this could easily be—It
would have to be carefully transposed to another state. So, for example,
you could—say my home state—realize—You could say, “While other
campuses in North Carolina had comprehensive recycling programs UNC
was lacking one.” Because UNC is the flagship university of the state. It
would be really odd if they didn’t have a program in comparison to other
universities in the state. So that dynamic is important and I don’t
necessarily firink that you can just make it generic.

Would your—would your opinion—and I firink that I already know the
answer to that but I just want to confirm it—would your opinion be the
same if we were to change “Michigan” to “US” or “United States?”

Only if there was that element of status. That’s very important. So you
would have to know the dynamics of what MSU’s equivalent would be on
a national scale that that university didn’t have a recycling program.
Somefiring like that.

Alright. Now, in the first paragraph where you say, “She has been featured

in the State News for producing art from other people’s waste, and offers
an example of what surrounding ourselves with our passions can look like.

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When you say “State News” would you have considered “in the local ,_
paper?”

Yeah.
You would’ve?

Because there the—you know—the proper noun isn’t as—isn’t as
important. I mean I firink because that—you know—I don’t feel like
that—you know—in your previous question you were asking about
“Michigan” and “MSU” and firat dynamic was very important; it was a
comparative dynamic; it was important. This could be the Lansing State
Journal; It could be The Washington Post; it could be The US—whatever.
I don’t firink that it would have been all that different—you know—A
national paper, drawing on your question before, could’ve made a status
difference I guess, but “the local paper” wouldn’t have been a problem
except that—except that it would have taken away from——you know
earlier you asked about local, global and national, and I firink that taking
the “State News” out would have been one way to start to pull out some of
that local—you know because it’s like, “Why not name it?” But I guess if
pressed you could take it out.

Towards the bottom—where you have that last paragraph. That last
sentence that says, “As long as firese issues are out there, as long as there
are ‘issues with the system,’ Lauren will be firinking about them, and they
will be sustaining her.” Would you have considered taking out that phrase
“issues with the system?”

No.

Why not?

Because that’s a very value laden statement.
Ok.

The system, in the context of what—0k cause you see above she says,
“There will always be issues with the system” in the paragraph before that.
Much like “gateway drug,” “the system” is a—is a phrase that is sort of
across society. When you say, “the system,” people understand it’s more
than just, it’s my opinion that people understand that it’s more firan just a
organization—a somefiring. The system it implies some type of old guard
mechanism that is holding back something that you want to progress on—
some issue. So as long you—so I’m—you know—I’m saying and using
her words again at the end to let the reader know firat she was saying firis
was a system that was keeping recycling out and that there will always be

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firis kind of system. I firink it speaks—I firink it really brings home the
story in the sense that—When I told you earlier that I was looking for
people to come away with firis and to firink a litfie deeper about it—about
how they can translate firis type of issue to an issue they’re passionate
about—she’s kind of saying or I’m allowing her to say firat firere will
always be this kind of system out there pushing—holding back your ideas.
And it’s important for you—you know—to keep that spirit alive. You
know, we’re not done; everyfiring’s not finished. There’s plenty to do. So,
yeah that that is very important to me that firat would remain.

Ok. And now, just sort of a point of clarity—
Yeah.

With the system. When you were writing about firis and when Lauren was
talking about firis did—was it sort of assumed that that she was along the
lines that all of us are a part of firis system or was it seen as like sort of an
abstraction beyond—beyond us as individuals or beyond her as an
individual?

Beyond.
Beyond?

Definitely an abstract issue. I mean I think—I wouldn’t have written that
if I didn’t get the sense of what I just explained to you from her. I firink
firat that would be a little disingenuous because it’s not my—It’s my
purpose as a writer to try and make the story translatable to other people’s
passions. I think that ok that that’s my agenda, but it can’t be my agenda
to put a word or concept in her mouth firat isn’t there.

Ok.

So, I firink—Yeah. I mean I definitely think I felt after talking with her
that she was seeing firis as an abstract system—it’s not just the MSU
system; it’s not just you and I in the system.

Cool. Are there any last firings that you would like to says about this
piece?

I mean I just had a lot of fun writing it. But no, I don’t. No I don’t have
anyfiring—I don’t have anyfiring else to say—sitting wishing—you
know—knowing that I’ve got fifteen others of these that I’ve got to write.
Fourteen are finished in all of them. Makes me excited to write the rest of
firem firis summer.

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Awesome. So you can go ahead and x out of that. And then I guess the last
one we’ll look at is the “Squeaky Wheel.”

Ok.
Can you tell me a little bit about firis piece?

Yeah. I mean firis piece—you know—Well, first of all I’ll say firat the
people firat are the subjects of these pieces are two very different people.
You know—Lauren is much more—she’s younger and I’m don’t know if
that’s a generational firing—but she’s much more confrontational—in a
good way. Laurie is—she approaches sustainability a little differenfiy. So,
I firink that that’s—you know—I firink she’s much more modest about her
own efforts and she’s also—you know—I think there’s a few different
ways to view change. I firink Lauren’s view of change is much more “in
your face” and kind of going about it that way. Laurie’s path is much
more—I’m going to use kind of a funny analogy but you’re going to have
to stick with me—it’s more of the kind of “Dick Cheney approach. Like,
I’m just going to hang around and keep doing what I’m doing and
eventually I will be the winner. Eventually I will beat you, because every
day I’m going to come in and put forth what I firink is right And then it’s
gonna get there and then I’ll say, “Well that’s the way it should have
been.” And I firink both—there’s value to both approaches. Laurie’s
approach is—I’m not trying to say that she subversive or evil or wants to
start a war or anything like that; but I see firose—those—I see that as two
different approaches to sustainability. So, I had to make firis story reflect
the fact that she doesn’t want to come out and put it in your face that she’s
sustainability. But she firinks that there are some firings firat are very
obviously broken that we can change and she wants to work to effect those
firings. So that’s what I was trying to put across here. So, “the squeaky
wheel” was somefiring she said. That tifie is somefiring she said—being a
“squeaky wheel.” And I thought that it was so perfectly Midwestern. Just
so like—you know—cause I’m from fire Soufir, a very different place. I
lived in Manhattan for four years, a very different place. I come out here
and firis place I’m still trying to figure out. But every now and then I get
little snippets of firings that make a lot of sense to me about what the
Midwest is about. And I think Michigan State is a reflection of the
Midwest. And the “squeaky wheel” is perfect Midwestern—spot on—
because it’s like——just that kind of like “I’m in the background. I’m doing
my firing. I’m very modest.” And that’s what—again and that’s not a value
judgment of whether that’s good or bad—it’s just firat I wanted to get
across that she was a different person. And then you see the first line of
the story, she’s “a modest person. She won’t tell you what to do. . .but after
listening to her commonsense approach, you’ll want to listen to her
advise.” I mean that really sums it up right there. And that’s a very

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different approach from somebody talking about “gateway drugs,” “the II...
system,” “ruckus brigades.” It’s a totally different approach.

And I didn’t ask firis about the last question but does the picture matter—
between firese two?

You know I don’t think that—I’m not a very—I’m a very visual person;
but to me when you put writing next to a picture, to me it’s the words.

Ok.

You know—I—This was a picture I had of her. The picture of Lauren is
one I firink Terry took. I firink that they’re great and it show them doing
somefiring that’s somewhat related to firis. But I have never been someone
who firinks in terms of being able to create a visual image that says all that
I—I don’t know if that makes any sense? I know it when I see it, but firat’s
not the way my brain works. My brain works in words. To me firis is
where the real art is in the story and then that is just kind of on fire side. To
someone else, they might look at that and not be drawn in because they
would say that’s a really boring picture I’m not reading firis story. It’s just
two different ways of approaching it I firink.

So, I’ll break protocol a little bit. Some actual data that has come forth in
the interviews that I have done is all fire readers, who’ve read fire
documents, completely glossed over the pictures.

Ok.
Didn’t even notice the pictures at all.
Ok.

So exactly what you saying. So, I’ll asked firem, “Did the picture matter?”
and they’re like, “Oh I didn’t even firink that that was a part of it.”

Oh. Ok. Well, no, I mean it’s also part of the way fire page is laid out. I
mean—you know—you’ve got—well I can’t—well if you scroll over
there’s fire link to the video, firere stuff going on up here. I mean that
could even be a layout issue. I mean I could see how someone could firink
it’s just like something that was off kilter. So—But I’m happy to hear that
people are reading the story.

Now if I were—now was your process like the same in constructing this
with the last one—the one with Lauren?

Yeah. I mean I had firis idea. I kind of thought that like—again firis is

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somefiring that came out of the transcript again something that—fire same
way that the “gateway drug” firing jumped out at me. I mean you’re doing
an interview now, you’ve done interviews before—you know—when you
transcribe it—you know you end up highlighting some firings that like
really you either want to use as like a hook later or you—it just seems
really interesting or maybe you want some more detail or whatever reason
it just sort of jumps out at you. So, the stories that get done first out of this
lot of data I have are the stories where I had somefiring highlight in green
or somefiring—you know—that said like—and firis was somefiring in the
story “The Squeaky Wheel.” I just chewed on it for a couple days and
then—And that’s how I’m about to talk about it now in terms of that
Midwestern sensibility. I mean when I was interviewing her I hadn’t
thought about it that deeply. But—you know—I run a lot and that’s when I
do a lot of my firinking. And I’m running and firis is just churning in my
head and “Oh! You know what? That’s actually very emblematic of what
she’s kind of about and what she’s doing.” I mean I firink it’s very obvious
that probably from talking to me that these are not—these are not just
simple vignettes about someone’s—you know—I want it to be much more

purposeful.

And so the intended response or desired response from someone who
reads firis?

Yeah. This is—This is much different I firink. I mean firis is someone
who’s going to read this and firink from an operations perspective and
probably identify with Laurie. I think that I put it in pretty early. [reading
text to himself] “She’s always been a recycler.” Actually I didn’t put it in
very early. Well fairly early. “Purchasing involves”—You learn very early
that Laurie is a purchasing person basically and so, she works with the
university. And I think that someone could read firis story and see that
there’s a lot of latitude for them at Michigan State to do somefiring
that’s—I mean that that’s really the essence of what I was interested in. I
mean I was in the process of applying a theory—I applied a little theory to
firis later, which is some theory firat comes of organizational theory and
behavior, which is about sort of—it’s called “the street-level bureaucrat.” I
don’t know if you ever heard of it or not. But it’s basically about how
people who are at the fi'ont lines of an organization that are given some
kind of bureaucratic latitude to do firings, so they can do—he has a little
noun that he calls “discretion” that you can kind of have in your job. So, I
wanted people to read this and say, “I have some of that discretion in my
jo ”—you know—“I may be some ‘Joe Schmo’ on the frontlines mowing
grass at Michigan State” or whatever “I can tum-off my lawnmower when
I’m not working. I can—you know—just start firinking about little firings
that I can do that are kind of—you know—that can kind of push firis issue
forward a little bit and kind of firink differently about how I’m doing
firings.” So, a little bit—you know different—intended audience. I mean,

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it’s certainly not going to be at the top of the page that firis is for
operations people and firis is for students cause different people—different
firings inspire people in different ways, but I would hope that someone
could read firis story, see that she’s not—firis isn’t about Louana K.
Simon—This is about a person who has just worked her for a long time.
And firat’s not anyfiring against Laurie it’s just I wanted firis to be kind of
an everyday employee at Michigan State that another everyday employee
at Michigan State could read. And so often we read things about—you
know if I have to read one more story about some CEO that isn’t really
great I mean, well that’s fine, but there’s like what a handful of these
people in the world. Where’s fire story for the rest of us, what we can do?
And I firink that that’s part of the intent behind that.

Awesome. Now the last question. Those firree terms: global, local, and
national.

Oh yeah. As applied to firis story?
As applied to firis story. Yeah.

This story, yeah. This story I think—This story I firink is much more
translatable on a national scale. I’ll have to say that I don’t firink that firis
one has much of a national component. Because, I would say that it has
fire same sort of component that Lauren’s story had in terms of—you
know—what Laurie’s reducing in the great scheme of waste of the
universe firis is helping. But in terms of translation to a global setting. I
don’t know enough about bureaucracies of other countries to really say
that firis has any mean to—I don’t know what a university bureaucracy
looks like in Germany, in Canada, in Mexico. So, I don’t know if firis
would work. I firink that it is very translatable on an national scale,
because I think anyone who’s—I mean large universities are
bureaucracies. They’re big, hulking, titanic-size bureaucracies. There’s
people like firis at all facets of the university. And what she did was test
the waters in a very non-threatening way. Putting a recycling box in the
office. You know I did the same thing at my job when I worked in Norfir
Carolina for a corporation. They were going to firroughout they were
going to firroughout firirty boxes of old catalogues and I volunteered to
take them home, recycle the cardboard [and] recycle the catalogues. Well
that was a little nudge on the boundary to kind of—you know—to say—
you know—I would like to implement this. But it was very non-
threatening. And that’s the same firing that she did. And I firink—I firink
that that would be—I think anybody could read firis and say, “Well firat—
She didn’t go and put her finger in the bosses face and say I’m going to do
firis and you’re going to do that.” I mean she just put up a recycling box
and she started working with other people. I firink it’s very translatable
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is MSU—the and it’s an MSU story—and 1 firink that other people at r»
MSU can relate to her; some of them may even know her. She’s been here
for twenty-five years I firink.

But before I leave the national piece completely I firink it’s really—one of
the coolest firings in here is firis piece about fire “Green Tip for fire Day e-
Newsletter, that most recently made it’s way all fire way to California
riding the waves of cyberspace.” I firink that that is a really really a cool
national piece that’s in here because you know, it’s not only that it’s—I
just flew back from California last week. How far is it? Like 1300 miles or
somefiring? It’s not that it’s 1300 miles away. It’s firat it’s California; it’s
like totally different from Michigan. I mean I firink that California
probably blows people from Michigan’s mind. And so I think—you
know—all that it is—you know—from Muscle Beach to everyfiring and I
firink that firat’s important from a national perspective. That someone
from California can relate to somefiring that’s going on at MSU. Cause
that somefiring else that is so Midwestern is that, “Well, we have om own
firing here and we’re very unique, we’re firis and that, probably no one else
wants to listen to us.” That kind of modesty that keeps coming out. And I
think firat someone from California, who came up to me at a conference
and asked for the newsletter and that’s why it’s gotten to California——I
firink that’s just kind of an important national translation bit 80—.

Ok.

That wasn’t your question but it tied in.
Actually, that was the question.

Ok.

Alright. Anything else that you want to say about firis piece? Or you’re
pretty good?

Again, I just enjoyed writing it. And I obviously enjoyed talking to her
and I knew her. She used to sit on the University Committee for a
Sustainable Campus with me.

Alright now if you go—scroll down to down here.

Oh. Ok.

Yeah. And then open up GarageBand again. Right there. And then go
ahead and hit the red button.

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Interview: Hanna (Reader 1). Friday April 17, 2009 @ 10:00 PM ”‘1
Alright, so now go ahead and get out of that
Ok.

Now let’s—we’re going to talk firrough some of the firings that you
marked up. So if you go back down down towards here, and then just
open up—yeah yeah—open up that document, open up that document, and
open up that document. Ok. Let’s look at firis one, “Gateway Drug to
Sustainability.”

Ok.

Now, I’ve noticed that you have sort of highlighted a couple of things here
that I want to talk about.

Ok. Donnie So, the first firing up here that you have in green,
“Producing art,” why did you choose to highlight firat as a global
indicator?

I guess because I feel like some places make so much trash without
firinking about it. For example, our country and it seems like for that to
even you know—begin to be addressed there needs to be like a multitude
of ideas or—you know—plans toward finding a way to convert these
firings that are just useless and everywhere and—you know—maybe
somefiring like artwork or something like—who knows what people might
come up with for different needs. But it seems like—you know—fire more
you’re firinking about it the better and it seems like a problem pretty much
everywhere so.

Is there any particular way that that could have been altered to get you to
firink about it as being a more local message?

Maybe if I just didn’t over firink everything because I’m a PhD student. I
mean I guess it’s hard for me to like in some ways discern like which I’m
going to call global and which local because in a lot of ways I just feel like
ultimately the problem is firat there’s profit—you know—that has been
made from taking people’s autonomy out of their own hands all across the
world and—you know—it’s like—you know there’s a good example of it
in firis country but it like sort of keep—you know—it’s continually going
on. And—you know—like with subsidies or like IMF loans and firis-and-
that firat trrrn people away from just their sort of like their local sustainable
agriculture into these huge—you know what I mean—like ways to be on
firis like big capitalist-consumer scale. So, it’s like—you know I—it’s hard
for me to separate the local from the global because when I think of the

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global, my tendency is to try and like resist the thought of like
“globalization;” like firis—you know—nice word for sort of like
imperialist capitalism versus like firinking of local as all firese sort of local
people—you know—people who are having trouble living on fire land that
they’re on. It’s—you know—they’re local wherever they are. So it’s
like—you know what I mean—feeling like—more like populations are
sort of being exploited and sort of plays in what I consider—want to
consider the global more so. You know.

Did the “State News” not factor into how you were coding that part of
the—.

The “State News?” Yeah, I mean I guess it did. It just is—you know—like
I said, part of the firing is I just tend to over firink firings. But—you
know—I can see firat and it made me firink very much of an article that I
saw in the City Pulse of like the contest for—you know—recycling—you
know—doing like recycled artwork. So, it definitely made me firink of it
like happening here but it’s like when I firink about trash, I’m just—you
know—like overwhelmed by the scope of it, so I always tend to firink of it
as—you know—it’s the world; it’s the world. But I mean yeah, It’s clearly
like——It’s clearly like locally; that’s going to locally happen, like people
doing something with their hands—you know. So, I guess it’s like
envisioning that sort of like—you know—people’s hands into some sort of
solution. It’s like I envision it being necessary on like a global scale.

Now the next one in the blue, you coded that as being local. What was
your decision behind making firat?

“Grassroots,” “Student groups,” firings like that.

Ok. And then you have—you highlighted—There are three firings that you
have highlighted as being national messages. One is “everyone has
access”; the other is “forced to firrow away”; and fire firird is “quick to
become a commodity making real issues—”

“Masking.”

Or “masking,” I’m sorry. Can you explain to me why you decided to code
each of those as being national?

I guess firinking about recycling seems like a pretty good idea to have it be
like a normal process that that’s going to be somefiring like as easy as it is
like it’s all city-wide—like you know like sort of like—you know—
govemmentally monitored with trash pick-up. It’s like it should be just as
easy I firink or sort of like a priority or something included in tax dollars
that —you know—would be sort of an easy way for people to—you

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know—not just throw away—something just beyond those bags. I guess-—
I think that you know “quick to become a commodity, masking the real
issues,” just the way that our politics is firey’re so tied up with with an
economic—you know firat—you know—for example, like in that video,
how it was saying “the real costs are sort of masked.” You know—and so
obviously—you know—our president now is more willing than many men
to try and say firings in a way that just doesn’t privilege—you know—fire
bottom line of profit or what have you. So—you know—I feel like just —
you know—a national identity and inspires that to be less of a commodity
and more of like a responsibility.

Ok. And the last firing firat I want to ask about firis particular message is—
You have highlighted “how to get firings done in a bureaucracy” and
“there will always be issues with the system.” You highlighted those both
as global indicators. Can you talk about that in particular?

I guess I was sort of—you know—firinking of how firere’s just firat
summit—you know—G-ZO and this-and-that. And firinking about firat
there’s all these—it seems to me like there’s all these meetings and all
firese processes and firis-and-that—you know—in fire system fire way it
is—-like you know—j ust sort of privileging and trying to encourage
everyone to have like just some sort of free market or somefiring—you
know—that sort of firing. But I don’t know, it just seems like sort of a
sketchy firing to hold up to hold onto so much—you know cause it’s
like—if the system, —you know—how it is, is getting us into these pretty
dire straits, it’s like why why try to hold to it so tight. You know and like
have that be like what the vision is of how like the world interacts with
one another—you know— versus somefiring else.

Did the picture factor into your decision-making at all?

This one? No, I just thought it was cute.

Alright and last about firis message, how would you—if you were to sit
down and firink about this message as a whole would you classify it a
local, global or national?

I’d say firat it would be local.

Local? Okay. Now you can go ahead and “x” out of that.

Ok.

Now, we can look at this one.

Ok.

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Ok. This is the sort of flyer.
Right.

“Local First,” I guess. “Vote Local First.” So tell me about firis, you coded
“the plant life” or “plant life” as local. Why did you choose to do 5?

I guess—you know—that’s what we see where we’re at.
Like here at MSU?

Yeah, like MSU or wherever you happen to stay—it’s like you know—
you’re able to stay their saved by the grace of oxygen.

Do you firink that like moving away fi'om plants like looking at having
another image there-—Do you firink that would have changed whether you
would have coded that as being local or not.

Well, I mean yeah. It’s like if there was like —you know—like—you
know—an image of the Earth—you know I would be like, “Ok—you
know—certainly that would be like global or if it had fire States—or have
you—it would be national. But you know I think that the plant it’s just
where you’re at.

Ok. And you highlighted “vote local first” as being local.

Yeah.

Ok.

Cause that’ s the word.

Ok and then let’s look at—you took note of some of the fine—the sort of
fine print firings. And so I see you have “travel less distance” and you
coded firat as a national/global message. Is there a sort of reason as to why
you did firat?

Yeah just cause food does come so far so often—you know—like from
Califonria or Chile or what have you—you know—China—all those
firings.

Is there a way that—if that—is there a way that the author of that could
have changed it to make it more local rather than national?

No, I mean they did great it says, “Locally grown food travels less

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distance;”—you know—so obviously it is referring to—it’s not locally
grown food—you know—but I just firink like fire matter of thinking about
those distances expands it out.

Ok. And you highlighted fun as being local.

Yeah. It’s—you know—you interact with people there, so—you know—
it’ 3 different than the irrtemet or whatever where you can interact with
people nationally or whatever but it’s really not that fun.

Ok.
I have fun at the farmer’s market.

And so, firis one you say, “stay in local economy” you coded firat as local
and global, what was your reasoning behind firat?

I guess similar to what I mentioned before—you know—cause there’s lots
of different local economies around the world—you know—that I’m sure
people could figure out how to have their families cared for and not have
that taken out of their hands.

Ok. Alright and firis last one, which I firink is interesting in comparison to
the one firat you coded before. The one that says, “vote with your actions,”
you highlighted that as being national. Why did you highlight firis as
national and the ofirer and the ofirer as being—“Vote Local F irst”—local?

I guess because like fire “local” firing—you know—obviously made me
think, “Oh ok, local.” You know it was just the same word association.
But, I guess “vote with your actions”—cause I firink a lot of fire times—
you know—our national identity and firinking—people are thinking, “Oh
how am I involved—in like—firis democracy.” A lot of the time people
just firink, “I vote”—you know—so I guess like I just feel like that’s sort
of like a common language nationally—you know—is voting. So—you
know—obviously it would be individuals so therefore a sort of local bent
to it, but with your actions but I feel like just—as just fire scope of a
phrase like that it makes me firink nationally just because—you know like
I said—the association wifir democracy is so often voting.

Ok, Now how would you. If you were to frame firis entire message as
being local, global, or national, how would you sort of understand firis
message?

Oh, local.

Local? Exclusively local?

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Well, I don’t know about exclusively—you know—I have a few other
things on there. But it makes me firink of—you know—the connections
and everything But I mean—I would say that the obvious focus is like for
local actions and interactions.

Ok. You can go ahead and “x” out of that.

Ok.

Alright, we have this one message about the “Squeaky Wheel.”
Ok.

So tell me about firis and we can make firis like the last one because I
know you have to leave.

Yeah. Hopefully she’ll stick around.

Ok. Ok. So, I’m looking at firis right here and I’m seeing that you have on
here—that you have coded some firings as global, some firings as local,
and some firings as national. So, let’s look specifically at the firings you
have as local. You say, “own efforts at sustainability at home.” And so,
can you tell me as to why you chose to use that?

“Own effort”—“at home.”

“Own effort”—“at home.” Ok. And then “reduce the inputs,” why is that
coming across as local?

Cause the people who see all of that coming in are going to be aware of
what’s there.

Now that sentence before where is says, “One of Laurie’s colleagues at
MSU now a mainstay in the Office of Campus Sustainability,” did you
read that as being local at all?

Well, sure since I’m here at MSU.

Alright, let’s look at where you say the eNewsletter. Now you coded that
as being national, why did you choose that as national?

Well because it says here firat it made it as fair as California and like just
“riding the waves of cyberspace,” and just firinking about how there’s
that—you know—base of readers more nationally, who may be sort of
privy to those—you know—that sort of information.

193

Donnie:

Hanna:

Donnie:

Hanna:

Donnie:

Hanna:

Donnie:

Hanna:

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Hanna:

Donnie:

Ok. And then “shape the future of purchasing.”

Yeah. I guess more so firinking about sort of govermnental policy and
like—you know—where the sort of subsidies are, where the—you know—
profit is in the way firings are set up. Has a lot to do—you know—with
why it seems like sort of an ok idea—you know—to do firings in a pretty
slipshod way. So, it’s likwyou know—if it was like ok the people who
are going to be rewarded are those who—you know—make their
purchases from farmers who are small—you know what I mean—like
trying to help with fire watershed or like all these different things—you
know—It would be a lot different than I mean like the ones who buy all
these different chemicals and get all firis equipment and just do more and
more might end up broke anyways. So—yeah.

And the last firing, well I guess you say, “the world of purchasing.” We
can understand that as global because you say, “the world?”

“The world,” yeah.

And then you have “a reminder and voices of reason in an often
unsustainable world” we understand that as global because it mentions the
world—that sort of firing?

Yeah.

So now, in tandem, in the way that you’ve classified all of these firings,
would you—have would you classify firis message? Is it global, local, or
national?

I mean—I feel—I mean clearly cause it’s—you know—highlighting the
story of firis particular women at MSU, that’s the local bent to it. But I feel
like the sort of details of it—you know—point to firat sort of expanded
awareness of like—you know—how it’s more like fire “squeaky wheel” is
the metaphor you know like the ripple effect how someone can just get
you thinking—you know—beyond sort of your one spot, which is-—you
know—the benefit of it I suppose, firinking about your own spot as it is.

Now, did the picture factor in to how you understand firis message?

You know, she’s happy and actively recycling. So—you know—it seems
definitely related.

Alright, cool—cool. Well, I know that you have to leave and I was going

to ask you if there’s anyfiring that you wanted to point out about fire video
itself? Was it local, global or national?

194

Hanna:

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Hanna:

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Hanna:

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Hanna:

Donnie:

Hanna:

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Hanna:

Donnie:

Let’s see—I mean like I said I don’t know if I over think firings—you
know—but I—you know what I mean I tend to go to a center way of
firinking. But I mean, I firink it was—you know—obviously like indicative
of a lot of the firings going on locally that people—a lot of people
probably don’t know about like the organic farm and then the different
websites and everyfiring, so I mean I firink that that was really helpful——
you know—you see fire firings I have as far as national is just a matter of
“high tech solutions,—you know—firinking about engineering and where
that is, putting question outside of this like just sort of economic bottom
line, thinking about how many people are in poverty. You know I just sort
of feel like a lot of firis is national in scope in a lot of ways. And firen
global of course like how prices can’t—aren’t possible—the prices cheap
the way they are—you know—firinking about sweatshops and firis-and-
that and like the jobs—so many jobs being put elsewhere.

And firese were a collection of comments that we said from fire video?
Yeah. Obviously.

And so, you would more or less say that that video is an amalgamation of
a lot of things.

Yeah. Definitely.

But nothing screams out as being exclusively one of the other?

Let’s see—I guess—you know—a lot of it—I guess pretty much local
cause even like the global that I have here is like talking about “fair
trade”—you know—“grower’s cooperative”—It’s like well fair trade firat
means you know part of that sort of exchange is right here—you know—
right where you’re at. Yeah it would definitely be [inaudible] local.
Alright. Cool. Well firank you for participating.

You’re welcome.

One of fire firings l was going to say is that I noticed during the pretest
questions like you were sort of answering in a way like that was sort of
like orienting you towards being very environmentally focused or
environmentally involved.

Yeah. Yeah.

Have you always been interested in the environment?

195

Hanna:

Donnie:

Hanna:

Donnie:

Hanna:

You know, I sort of really have. I remember being little and like firinking
about it and being alarmed and like I thought to myself, “I want to be and
environmentalist.” It was sort of a foreign word at that point but now it’s
like-—it’s nice because it is spoken about. You know and really out in fire
open in a way it definitely hasn’t been beforeh—you know—So yeah,
certainly so.

And then this is a copy of your—[hands signed copy of consent script]
Oh, Thank you.
And then is firat somefiring firat influenced you coming to MSU or—?

Yeah, I firink so. There’s the—you know—agricultural focus—you
know—and that—I feel like that could be—you know—I think that we
could really lead fire way—you know—in showing how a focus on having
firings really like change for the better that way can just help everyone
concerned—you know? Like cause think about like we’re so close to
Lansing, which has so much poverty. I’m sure we can like firink of ways
like, what if all the dorms would like get off the sewage grid or get off
the—you know—what I mean these different grids. It takes a lot of work
and it’s like firere are all these unemployed people in Lansing who would
probably be willing to probably come and do some [end transcription].

196

Speaker

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Interview: Michael (Reader 2). Tuesday April 28, 2009 @ 10:30 AM

You finished. Alright. Do you mind if I look at your data really quickly?
Just to take a look at it, cause normally we have it on the screen but I have
to do it differenfiy now. Alright, so—Ok let’s go ahead and look at the
first one. Now in looking at firis, you highlighted sort of local and global
indicators in it. Let me ask you firis question, what do you think firis the
immediate purpose of firis message as you can describe it?

It seems like the immediate purpose is to really push recycling.
Ok. And so what would your response be upon reading firis?

Yeah, I would be in agreement. Definitely to recycle more on campus and
I would say generally around the globe, but—which is why I put global.

Do you firink that it’s just trying to change what’s going on in your mind
or is it trying to get you to do an actual action?

I would say do an actual action.
Actual action?
Yeah.

Alright. And so, if we could take a look at some of the elements you
highlighted as far as firis message is concerned. Under fire local, you
highlight “grassroots campaigns,” why did you highlight that as being a
local indicator in firis message.

Because it seems like to me each commrrrrity would have to determine
their own needs and then start their own campaign for whatever firey feel
they need—like if it’s recycling or if it’s specifically recycling paper or
recycling botfies and cans.

Ok. And firen you have “on-campus recycling facilities,” as sort of a local
message. Why did you highlight that?

Yeah. It’s either going to be between local and national because I feel like
there should be an on-campus facility, so it should be local in term of—
you know—particularly campus, but I feel like that could be each
particular type of campus around fire nation. But I went ahead and put
local.

Local, ok. So you feel that it was more local firan national?

197

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

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Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Yeah—Yeah.

Ok. And now I see that you have more global indicators in firis message
than anyfiring. So, let’s just go through it. You highlighted recycling.
Now, is there any particular place where you see recycling on here.

Well, in the first paragraph, “recycling is a gateway drug for
sustainability”—.

Ok.
That right there made me put it in global.
Ok.

Cause I also put sustainability in global. And since recycling is a key
component of sustainability, to me that is also a global issue.

Alright awesome.

Recycling and recycling programs, which—[searching the screen]—I
don’t know.

It’s somewhere in here. Ok And then you also have—you put
sustainability as global and you touched on that. Can you talk a little bit
more about why you highlighted sustainability as being a global indicator
in firis message?

You know—Yeah, I just realized firat I probably should have focused
more on what the message was saying in terms of my own—instead of my
own opinions.

Ok.

Yeah, firat would have made firis turn out a little bit differenfiy. Cause firis
message is not—to me it focuses more local more on what’s going on—on
campus. If I can remember where sustainability is—well the first thing—
[searching the screen]—

You can use the mouse.

Oh yeah. “the office of campus sustainability” would be local.

Ok. Do you want to write firat down?

I guess I’ll put it down.

198

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

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Michael:

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Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

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Michael:

Ok.
Yeah. I’ll probably have to change it.

Ok. So, what would you be changing now? You can just scratch out the
firings firat you don’t want in any column.

Well, I rrright actually put all of these in the local because like I said if I
focused on what firis particular message is talking about, it seems to focus
more on the MSU community.

So—so, go ahead and draw a line or an arrow towards firere. Now why is
it that you were all firinking about of those as being global indicators
though?

From my personal opinion?

Yeah.

Because to me those are global issues.

Ok. They’re global issues. Ok.

Yeah.

So, what makes firem local though?

In this—in firis context, it’s talking about firese issues particularly focused
on MSU.

Ok.

So, in firis context they’re talking about recycling as a local need.

So, let’s look at firis then. Now, if they had taken out all of the references
to MSU, would you——would it be safe to say that you would still sort of
read firat as being a global message then? Is that what you’re saying?

Yeah. Yeah.

Ok. So it’s very very important that the “MSU” indicators are in there
right?

Right. Yes.

199

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Donnie:

Alright. Is there anyfiring—Now, if we were to look at firis message as a
whole, how would you describe it? And you can mix-and-match local,
global, and national together, if need be.

Let me see, how would I describe it. I would describe it as highlighting
one person’s effort in—in—I’ll use the word “sustainability—I’ll use the

word “movement.”—So, it shows firat one person can make an impact in
firis movement. Where it be—yeah, and it would be an impact that would

not only affect the local but also the national as it would have an effect on
the environment.

Ok. So—so, you’re saying local and then national?

And then global.

And firen global. So, it kind of like, it starts here and then moves up.
Yeah.

Ok.

It’s like a bottoms-up approach.

Ok. Is there anything else that you’d like to say about firis message that
you drink we might have left out? Does it matter that the pictures here?

No. I didn’t focus on the picture.
Ok.
No.

Ok. Alright. Let’s look at firis next one, “The Squeaky Wheel.” Ok. Now
one of the firings that you did was you had no local indicators, but you had
“purchasing” as a national indicator, then as a global indicator you had
“recycling,” “sustainability,” and “greener products.”

Yeah. Well, first of all it was talking about office culture and it was like—
and it uses the phrase “world of purchasing”—so I firought that it was—I
put firat in national because of and not global cause that office culture,
that’s not somefiring firat you find everywhere. Like our—all of these
catalogs that we get and use—to me that didn’t necessarily seem global, so
I put that “purchasing” in the national—mentally associated it with our
capitalist society.

Ok.

200

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

And in terms of “recycling” and “sustainability,” once again firat was my
own personal opinion firat they are global

But would those change now?

I would probably move them—in the context of firis message—I would
move firem to national. And I would not say local because it emphasizes
how—how what she has done has moved beyond fire local context and
is——you know—has even moved to California or cyberspace.

Ok. So you would say firat there is absolutely no local indicators in firis
message at all?

Other than—[searching the screen]——I think I saw—“Office of Campus
Sustainability.”

Now that you’re writing that down, is firat something that that you thought
of before-hand or is that somefiring you’re just firinking of now?

I’m firinking of it now. I just kind of breezed over it before-hand because
that’s the vehicle firat firis message is coming through.

Ok. But firere’s not a lot of like sort of direct references to MSU or the
Office of Campus Sustainability. Like it seems as if they are talking about
firis in a more abstract way?

Yeah—more about—Yeah, I would says so more about offices, which
could really be anywhere.

So, if we took out things like “Office of Campus Sustainability,” which is
right here, and we took out other references to MSU, you would say that
firis message would be exclusively national?

Yeah. I guess I would well—I mean except for fire fact that it’s one
person, so obviously that person is situated in whatever her local context
is, but if we took out the “MSU,” if we took out the “Office of Campus
Sustainability” we wouldn’t necessarily get her local context so we’d firink
about it to me in more of a national way.

More of a national way. But with that other stuff then ok—so firen if she’s
still in here, is she—her personality, her person Laurie Earnhardt—does
firat make it local?

I guess it makes it local in the sense that that’s her like that’s kind of her
own grassroots campaign. But it’s still kind of give that insinuation

201

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Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

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Donnie:

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Donnie:

Michael:

where—you know—if she can do, other around—others period can do it
anywhere. So—.

What about firis concept of “the squeaky wheel?” How did you see that as
it resonated firroughout the message?

To me that put her—firat sit—well to me that—but I don’t know—I that
kind of takes her out of just a local context because to me it situates
her—you know—a wheel is just one aspect of a larger vehicle.

Ok.

So, to me it kind of puts her—well it says the world, so I guess—so I
guess in the end they’re probably trying to situate her in a larger global
context.

Ok. Alright. And just one last question about this. After reading this and
firinking about it and all of you reconsiderations and stuff, how would you
describe firis message along these firree terms?

I would still describe it as a “bottom’s up” impact because we have one
person, who located a problem and then is seeking to resolve firis problem.
But it’s not somefiring that just like particular or specific to her. Like—
you know—offices exist around fire country and—you know—catalogues
are obviously shipped everywhere so it’s still kind of like firis one person
is making a change that we all can make. So, I’m going to say kind of a
local to national and then depending on various other countries-—
somewhat global.

Is there one wifirin that—is fire ratio balanced between local, national and
global? Or is there more of one than the other?

I would say more—I would say more local because we have firis one
person—obviously most likely in firis area. And I would say global would
be like the least. To me that’s just firrown in at the end. Maybe I shouldn’t
use fire word “firrown in” but I’d say, “added in.”

Ok. Is there anything else that you’d want to note about firis one?

No, I don’t believe so.

Ok. Cool. Alright. Let’s go ahead. I supposed we’ll keep with the print
ones. Now firis is the flyer. And with the flyer you noted everything fell
wifirin the local. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Other than the obvious firat it repeated the word local.

202

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Donnie:

Michael:

Ok.

And actually I forgot to write the title [writing the title to the column of
local] “vote local first.”

And the title definitely matters and factors into there?
Yes.

Do you see firis—firis——firis sort of message traveling beyond MSU? Or do
you firink it’s just created for MSU?

I mean it would fit in every particular community. Like you know—I
mean if you took out fire websites down at the bottom, you could have firis
message about every community. And then if every community deals with
their own local situations first then—you know—we’ll get into other
realms.

Now you noted that local was very important in the sense that firey just
kept repeating the word throughout. So you would say—do you firink that
in making a message local it’s important to sort of have firis distinct
language?

Yeah. I mean firere’s not that many ways that they could say it. There not
that many synonyms for the word “local,” but you do want to drive
home—you know—eat food grown in your—in your area—you know—or
support your community businesses—I guess they could have said
“community-owned businesses”—but yeah, it’s necessary.

Now, does this message differ from the other two messages firat we looked
at because one of the firings you said was that firese sort of firings have a
ripple effect where although they still had all these indicators in them, you
still saw them as being local, but still moving towards national and global?
Do you have that same feeling about firis message right here?

I firink that fire message lends itself to just kind of stay in the local
category.

Ok.

You would have to like firink—well you know—“My local impact would
have somefiring—you know—or like what I do locally would have impact
on the nation or on the globe. But the average person is not—I don’t think
is going to think about it like firat. But it’s not necessary for them to firink
about it like that. Cause firinking about it—for some people firinking about

203

 

it in terrrrs of the nation or the globe becomes too big. So, I firink firis
message is like—you know—in saying, “vote local first”—firink about
your own—if you get you local community—you know—to produce—
you know—produce it’ s own food and transportation et cetera and if every
[audio stopped recording].

204

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205

 

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