It's going to be WILD (the parking lot, that is...)

Environmental responsibility is part of the Y's mission, and in just a few weeks it will be part of the parking lot too!

Valerie Sivicek designed the native planting plant and Jenni Kotting rendered into diagrams and sections as seen above.

With the help of environmental student groups, Red Bison and SECS, the University YMCA is about to plant a native border along the west side of their parking lot! The long 3-feet-wide strip was formerly an unsightly gravel and weed mixture while the building was under construction. Volunteers will plant the entire area with a mixture of flowering perennials and grasses that can thrive even in poor soil and dry conditions.

The native grasses will offer texture and height against the fence while shorter plants will hug the asphalt closest to the parked cars. Plants include:

• Allium cernuum, Nodding Wild Onion
• Bouteloua curtipendula, Side Oats Grama
• Heliopsis helianthoides, False Sunflower
• Liatris pycnostachya, Blazing Star
• Penstemon digitalis, Foxglove Beardtongue
• Schizachyrium scoparium, Little Bluestem
• Silphium terebinthiniaceum, Prairie Dock
• Sorghastrum nutans, Indian Grass
• Sporobolus heterolepis, Prairie Dropseed

Stay tuned for photos of the planting!

Y Student Group Promos: A YouTube Playlist

At this year's Student Program Orientation, groups created short promos to grab your interest, make you laugh, and ask you to care about their cause. Pretty effective, and well worth watching:

FIRST FRIDAY FORUM: Few Women in Science and Technology (Free Lecture)

When it comes to jobs in the Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, women are not fairing well.  According to a report by the U.S. Department of Commerce entitled Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation, "Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25% of STEM jobs."  This percentage has remained steady over the past decade, "even as women's share of the college-educated workforce has increased." 

Why is this this case, and what can be done about it—or, should anything be done about it?  This question will be the focus of the Friday Forum lecture on September 16th, 12 noon at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street on the University of Illinois campus.

Ruth Sweetser, Director of Corporate Relations at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and former AAUW President at both the state and national levels, will be speaking about women in the STEM fields and discussing the latest research on this topic, including AAUW's 2010 in-depth report, "Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics."  AAUW is a nationwide network of individuals, branches, and college/institution partners that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research.  <The Champaign-Urbana Branch of AAUW is one of several co-sponsors of this lecture.>

This presentation is part of the University YMCA Friday Forum fall lecture series entitled, "The Future of Learning: Is Public Education Under Siege?"  Friday Forum lectures occur each Friday at noon at the University YMCA.  All forums are radio broadcast at 6:00 p.m. on WEFT 90.1 the Monday following the lecture. If you have any questions, please contact Program Director, Kasey Umland, at kasey@universityymca.org or (217) 337-1514.