March 21-24, 2004
Course Directors: Paul Barkley, Kurt Peters, and Dwaine
Plaza
Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Ethnic
Studies, and Sociology
This spring break, instead of road tripping with friends or running
up huge bar bills, I opted to expand my learning experience and take a
week-long, 3-credit class offered though Oregon State University. Before
the class started, I had no idea what to expect or what I had gotten myself
into, but I soon found out. The class started on Sunday when we traveled
to Newport, to listen to several different stakeholders concerning Oregon's
fishing stocks and other natural resources. Part of our stay here included
visiting the Hatfield Marine Center where we were able to view some of
the natural diversity of Oregon's coast. As the class quickly progressed,
the learning objectives became clearer. We were to work together as a group,
formulating questions, designing an outline, identifying facilitators and
recorders, and being respectful listeners to each stakeholder. At the end
of the day, we then worked together again, debriefing the key points that
we had heard the stakeholders' say. This helped make sure that all the
key issues of the stakeholder were represented. This showed the advantage
of a team, because it was common for members of the group to miss one or
two of the stakeholder’s thoughts, but with this process that was not the
case. Listening and working together as a team really gave us an opportunity
to put together thoughtful questions, and to make sure the stake holder’s
needs, wants, goals, and concerns were clearly heard. All of these planning’s
and events took place in our work day; which started at eight in the morning
and typically got over at nine or ten at night. By the end of the week
though, we were becoming more familiar of the process and with that increased
effectiveness. On Thursday, our last day of class, we categorized what
we thought the key points of our stakeholders had been, and presented them
at a dinner, with the stakeholders as our guests. I think this helped show
that the first part of solving these environmental injustices starts with
listening and identifying to the stakeholders. Hopefully we were able to
portray their views accurately. This class really helped me to learn in
a group environment to formulate questions, facilitate meeting, and debrief
key points of stakeholders. It was also neat to look at Environmental Issues
through a social viewpoint. My major is Natural Resources which deals primarily
with land management decisions, but the incorporation of society and environment
on a large scale is needed to provoke awareness for environmental conservation
and sustainability. Even though the hours were long and at times stressful,
I thought this to be a good learning experience with gained skills in many
different aspects.
~Joshua J. Williams
Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth.
The Dhammapada
