Events
Events
Throughout the year, various events and programs bring the Loyola community together to discuss critical sustainability challenges, explore solutions, and celebrate our successes. Here are some highlights from the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
Climate Change Conference
Author and journalism professor Amanda Little delivered the keynote address at the 2024 Climate Change Conference.
Climate change poses a growing threat to global food security. Loyola’s 2024 Climate Change Conference convened experts from multiple disciplines to explore how climate change impacts global food security. Speakers discussed strategies for developing equitable, resilient, and sustainable food systems. The event drew more than 350 in-person participants, while nearly 400 viewed a live stream of the keynote presentation.
This annual conference, organized by the School of Environmental Sustain-ability, draws inspiration from Loyola’s enduring Jesuit values of social justice, service to humanity, and care for our world. The event aims to advance our understanding of the climate crisis, foster discussion around practical solutions, and inspire action for a more just and sustainable world. The two-day 2024 event included a keynote presentation, panel discussions, a poster session, and an exhibitor hall.
Amanda Little delivered the keynote presentation on March 14, offering a broad view of potential strategies for improving food security in the face of climate change. Little is a columnist for Bloomberg, a professor of journalism and science writing at Vanderbilt University, and author of the bestseller The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World.
On March 15, participants heard from diverse experts in three panels. The first panel explored critical questions about how climate change will impact global food production, including how extreme weather events related to climate change could impact traditional agricultural practices. The second panel focused on how climate change could affect food production in the Great Lakes states and the Midwest. Panelists discuss strategies for developing a more resilient and sustainable food system, exploring approaches such as climate-smart agriculture and regenerative land management. The day’s final panel addressed the need to build local and equitable food systems that ensure everyone can access and grow healthy, sustainably produced food. Panelists discuss what communities, organizations, and individuals are doing to address these issues in the Chicagoland region.
Throughout the day on Thursday, an exhibit hall offered opportunities to interact with representatives of local organizations and student groups focused on climate change, environmental sustainability, sustainable food, and food security. The conference concluded with a reception and poster session. Researchers from Loyola and institutions nationwide and abroad shared posters presenting work on environmental sustainability, climate change, and sustainable food systems.
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Al Eastman, Jasmine Gurneau, Ella Doyle, and Brandon Folson spoke at the 2023 Indigenous Peoples' Day event.
On October 11, 2023, Loyola University Chicago and the School of Environmental Sustainability hosted an event to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day and unveil new signage displaying the university’s Land Acknowledgment Statement. Nearly 100 people gathered to hear from a panel of local Indigenous leaders and view the signs, which feature illustrations by Native American artist Buffalo Gouge.
The unveiling was the culmination of a process that started five years earlier when a group of faculty, students, and staff convened to discuss what Loyola can do to welcome and support Indigenous people—a population that remains underrepresented in higher education.
Michael Schuck, PhD, a professor in the Theology Department and SES, played a central role in organizing stakeholders who created Loyola’s Land Acknowledgment Statement. He introduced the panelists, starting with Brandon Folson, a Loyola student and an enrolled member of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Counsel Fire) from the Ihanktonwan Nakota Oyate (Yankton Sioux Tribe) and the Tetonwan, Oglala Lakota Tiospaye (Oglala Sioux Tribe), of South Dakota. Folson was instrumental in organizing the American Indian Student Circle at Loyola.
The audience also heard from Ella Doyle, a 2023 Loyola alum who is a dual citizen of the Cherokee Nation. During her undergraduate career, she served on the Loyola Land Acknowledgment Statement Committee and wrote the Resolution to Recognize Indigenous People’s Day, which the student government passed. Panelist Jasmine Gurneau, director of Native American and Indigenous Affairs at Northwestern University, spoke about her experience as a person of Onida and Menominee ancestry growing up in Chicago.
The final panelist was Al Eastman from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota). Eastman is an environmental activist and works as a treatment plant operator at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD). He was instrumental in ratifying the Land Acknowledgment Statement at the MWRD and advised the committee that developed Loyola’s statement. Following the panel discussion and questions from the audience, event participants enjoyed Indigenous foods from Native American-owned catering company Foxway Catering.
Climate change poses a growing threat to global food security. Loyola’s 2024 Climate Change Conference convened experts from multiple disciplines to explore how climate change impacts global food security. Speakers discussed strategies for developing equitable, resilient, and sustainable food systems. The event drew more than 350 in-person participants, while nearly 400 viewed a live stream of the keynote presentation.
This annual conference, organized by the School of Environmental Sustain-ability, draws inspiration from Loyola’s enduring Jesuit values of social justice, service to humanity, and care for our world. The event aims to advance our understanding of the climate crisis, foster discussion around practical solutions, and inspire action for a more just and sustainable world. The two-day 2024 event included a keynote presentation, panel discussions, a poster session, and an exhibitor hall.
Amanda Little delivered the keynote presentation on March 14, offering a broad view of potential strategies for improving food security in the face of climate change. Little is a columnist for Bloomberg, a professor of journalism and science writing at Vanderbilt University, and author of the bestseller The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World.
On March 15, participants heard from diverse experts in three panels. The first panel explored critical questions about how climate change will impact global food production, including how extreme weather events related to climate change could impact traditional agricultural practices. The second panel focused on how climate change could affect food production in the Great Lakes states and the Midwest. Panelists discuss strategies for developing a more resilient and sustainable food system, exploring approaches such as climate-smart agriculture and regenerative land management. The day’s final panel addressed the need to build local and equitable food systems that ensure everyone can access and grow healthy, sustainably produced food. Panelists discuss what communities, organizations, and individuals are doing to address these issues in the Chicagoland region.
Throughout the day on Thursday, an exhibit hall offered opportunities to interact with representatives of local organizations and student groups focused on climate change, environmental sustainability, sustainable food, and food security. The conference concluded with a reception and poster session. Researchers from Loyola and institutions nationwide and abroad shared posters presenting work on environmental sustainability, climate change, and sustainable food systems.
On October 11, 2023, Loyola University Chicago and the School of Environmental Sustainability hosted an event to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day and unveil new signage displaying the university’s Land Acknowledgment Statement. Nearly 100 people gathered to hear from a panel of local Indigenous leaders and view the signs, which feature illustrations by Native American artist Buffalo Gouge.
The unveiling was the culmination of a process that started five years earlier when a group of faculty, students, and staff convened to discuss what Loyola can do to welcome and support Indigenous people—a population that remains underrepresented in higher education.
Michael Schuck, PhD, a professor in the Theology Department and SES, played a central role in organizing stakeholders who created Loyola’s Land Acknowledgment Statement. He introduced the panelists, starting with Brandon Folson, a Loyola student and an enrolled member of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Counsel Fire) from the Ihanktonwan Nakota Oyate (Yankton Sioux Tribe) and the Tetonwan, Oglala Lakota Tiospaye (Oglala Sioux Tribe), of South Dakota. Folson was instrumental in organizing the American Indian Student Circle at Loyola.
The audience also heard from Ella Doyle, a 2023 Loyola alum who is a dual citizen of the Cherokee Nation. During her undergraduate career, she served on the Loyola Land Acknowledgment Statement Committee and wrote the Resolution to Recognize Indigenous People’s Day, which the student government passed. Panelist Jasmine Gurneau, director of Native American and Indigenous Affairs at Northwestern University, spoke about her experience as a person of Onida and Menominee ancestry growing up in Chicago.
The final panelist was Al Eastman from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota). Eastman is an environmental activist and works as a treatment plant operator at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD). He was instrumental in ratifying the Land Acknowledgment Statement at the MWRD and advised the committee that developed Loyola’s statement. Following the panel discussion and questions from the audience, event participants enjoyed Indigenous foods from Native American-owned catering company Foxway Catering.