Talking Stick - May/June 2013 - 48

florida aTlanTic
UniversiTy
icare
Boca raton, florida University
The iCare program at Florida Atlantic
University in Boca Raton enlivens
the typical first-year experience by
incorporating standard résumé and
career building but also focuses on
personal branding, campus marketing,
and analyzing social inequities and
injustice. Artie Jamison, associate
director of housing and residential
life, and Angel Nevin, coordinator for
academic support services, started the
course that bridges two LLCs, using
media to facilitate projects and themes
throughout the year. Students must
use current multimedia, from videos
to Groupons, to create advertising for
the campus library and their own LLC.
Overall, the program pushes first-year
students to interact with diversity and
draw upon modern technology for group
projects. Students also develop criticalthinking skills while sharing reflections
and participating in Samoan circle
debates.
On a smaller scale, students start this
experience within their LLC group where
an urban student might be shocked to
find out that another student from a
small town didn’t have computers in
his school. Viewing films like “Higher
Learning” and “The Whistleblower”
sparks discussion on deeper issues like
sex trafficking. Jamison encourages her
students to understand that what they
are participating in connects them to
something bigger, which helps tackle
the resistance to engage. “The biggest
challenge is that some students are just
going to be resistant to what you do,”
Jamison admits. Jamison runs the iCare
program for the PEACE (Promoting
Education Action and Change
Everywhere) living-learning community
at Florida Atlantic, which is made up
of about 25 students. Overall, she says
iCare’s unique quality is its adaptability
for any program willing to incorporate
multimedia while exploring personal and
global issues.

48

Talking STick

UniTy college
Terrahaus
Unity, Maine
A residence hall that can be heated with a hair dryer, the TerraHaus at
Unity College is the first residence hall in the United States to meet
Passivhaus standards. This UK standard dictates that the house must have
“an excellent thermal performance [and] exceptional airtightness with
mechanical ventilation.” Ten students live in the hall, working together to
promote sustainability in their lifestyles and on campus. Solar panels on
the roof collect hot water, eliminating the need for oil, and Unity gets all
power from wind turbines and green energy instead of purchasing it from
the coal power plant. TerraHaus is heated by sunlight through four large
panels of glass on the front façade. The concrete floors retain the heat, and
the roof and walls are well insulated with thick Styrofoam. The students
also help heat the house with their movements and interactions. During
the summer the sun is higher on the horizon, and a protruding overhang
shading the glass wall panels keeps the house cool. Everyone in the hall
works together to save and reuse energy.
No personal refrigerators or televisions are allowed in the rooms,
which stimulates more interactions in the common living room. “We
all have to share everything,” says Matthew Dyer, TerraHaus resident
assistant. “It’s a great social experiment.” They have also implemented
the only compost bin in a residence hall on campus. Focusing on building
energy performance, sustainability education, and public engagement, the
students of TerraHaus are the environmental leaders on campus.
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