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Easy Houseplants for Dorms 

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Author: Madison Dougan

I remember moving to college and the very foreign feeling I was overwhelmed with for the first couple of months. The feeling was very similar to anxiety but with a breath of fresh air. Now I am not a psychologist, but I think this feeling was a  bowl full of excitement for a new beginning with a dash of being homesick. I remember coming home to the silence of a stranger rather than my dog eagerly awaiting my arrival and the bombardment of kisses. I remember constant dishes piling up and my mother nowhere in sight to yell at us to clean them up, or even better, making my little sister do them. At this point in the semester, I’m sure the exhaustion has set in, and you’re trying to keep up with how many more absences you have left in each class. Or possibly, which teachers you’ve already used your grandma as an excuse for your absence. Your dorm room is never going to be like your home, but it is your home now. I’ve always found, for myself, that the presence of nature can transform a very unfamiliar space into a place of comfort. I know what you’re thinking: “Whatever the opposite of a green thumb is, that’s what I have!” And I have been there before! Becoming a plant mom has been one of the most rewarding things but simultaneously one of the most frustrating. There is no amount of water, sunlight, or fertilization that can help when you are not good at gardening. To avoid this learning curve, I have done some research for low-maintenance house plants. I actually have some of these plants in my home myself and would love to share my personal experience to make the process more straightforward. 

 

Now, to introduce the plants:

 

Pothos 

Demography

Temperature: This plant enjoys warmer conditions; a suggestion would be at  60-85ºF.

Lighting: This plant enjoys partial shade; a suggestion would be in a corner that gets direct sunlight for about two hours a day.

Watering: Only water when the first quarter inch of soil begins to feel dry to the touch; this should be about twice a week.

Fertilization: Fertilization is only required if the plant’s quality is poor

 

I have five pothos I cohabitate currently, and I absolutely adore these plants. They trickle down beautifully and are perfect for a shelf, desk, or even a centerpiece. Personally, one of my favorite things about these plants is their variety. I own silver, pearl, and jade, golden, neon, and marble queen pothos. I have had my golden pothos for about four years and recommend this plant to anyone newer to the plant game. My experience with mine is that it has been very “vocal.” I know that seems like a weird term, but it is the truth! When it needs water, it droops down, and as soon as you water, within minutes, it’s perked back up. In addition to this, if you ever begin to over water, it will develop yellow leaves that are easy to remove. On the opposite end, if you are underwater, it will shrivel up and become a brown color. These plants are also perfect for propagating and giving as gifts!

Heptapleurum Arboricolum (Umbrella Plant)

Demography:

Temperature: This plant enjoys warmer temperatures; a suggestion would be at 60-75°F.

Lighting: This plant likes partial sunlight; a suggestion would be a corner with the sun for about two hours a day.

Watering: Water when soil is dry.

Fertilization: Use a diluted fertilizer once a month from spring to fall

I have had my umbrella plant for about six years now, and the tactic I have used has been the “hands-off” approach, and it has LOVED it. I have always put this plant close enough to the window but not too close. As far as watering, I MAYBE water this guy once a week. Even when I had forgotten about it and went away for the weekend, old faithful was just fine. Like the pothos, when it is overwatered, it develops tiny yellow leaves that are easy to remove. I think in total, I have repotted and given fresh soil to this plant only once. I would recommend this plant on your desk or maybe a nightstand that is not right up against the window. 

 

Aloe Vera

Demography:

Temperature: This plant enjoys warm temperature; a suggestion would be 70°F.

Lighting: This plant enjoys bright light; a suggestion would be by a window.

Watering: Soil should be kept moist but not soggy/ water scarcely during colder months.

Fertilization: No fertilization required.

Now I might be biased, but everyone should have a little aloe vera plant in their home. I think that they are so cute and can be useful for burns. I currently live in Charleston, SC, where sunburns happen quite a bit. After a long day at the beach and my cheeks look a little red, I trim off a piece and squeeze the aloe onto my skin to soothe it. I am a huge fan of owning plants that can be used for more than just aesthetics, and this is one of them. My experience with them is that they do not require a lot of work. Mine is placed on my window in my living room, and it seems to have enjoyed its time there. This plant is on my rotation with some other plants that get watered every 2-3 days, which seems to be perfect. 

 

Final thoughts:

Biophilia is the phenomenon that human interaction with nature can increase our positive effect. In my experience, I 100% believe the truth to this. When we do not have the time to completely immerse ourselves into nature as we would like, our houseplants are there! With all the stress of school and being away from home, everything is never permanent, except my golden pothos. Kind regards.

 

References:

For the love of House plants. House Plants Guide And Tips – Houseplantsexpert.Com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.houseplantsexpert.com/. 

Greiner, K., & Weber, A. (2007). Houseplants from A to Z. Barron’s. 

Hoobler, D., & Hoobler, T. (1975). House plants. Grosset & Dunlap. 

Kamran, M., Kwong, B., Oshimi, Y., van der Velde, N., & Yao, S. J. (2018, April 5). Plants Promoting Happiness : The Affective Influences of Plants on Human Emotion [R]. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0374279

 

About the author:

Madison is a current student at the College of Charleston studying Communication and Environmental Sustainability. She is a fun-loving individual and finds herself most at home amongst the people she loves. She is always planning her next adventure and finding new ways to challenge herself. She enjoys connecting with nature as well as the people experiencing it with her.

899 - CofC Vegan Club

Earthaven Ecovillage

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Author: Kate Liseo

Over fall break, I took a journey to Earthaven Ecovillage near Asheville, North Carolina, with my honors Spiritual Activism and the Climate Crisis course led by Dr. Todd LeVasseur. This intentional community spans over 300 acres and currently has about 115 residents. Their power is entirely off-grid, coming from hydroelectric and solar. Additionally, they have greywater and humanure compost systems, emphasizing the importance of recycling valuable resources back into use rather than labeling them as waste. Their intimate relationship with their environment and each other gave me a new breath of hope for a sustainable future, along with a playful and loving connection to the new friends I made on our journey there.

While one might think an eco-village meets all the marks of a sustainable utopia, Earthaven leaders acknowledge that they are not impervious to the complications of human communities as well as capitalism. NikiAnne, our loving guide for the week, talked with us about multiple areas Earthaven is working on, such as diversity and intergenerational communication, and she mentioned how Earthaven is an experimental microcosm of the macrocosm. For example, the land is still taxed, and many villagers have jobs outside of the village to support themselves. Sometimes their houses must be built with materials not found in the land, and the land does not provide 100% of their food. 

But this fact did not leave me hopeless: in fact, the opposite. Knowing that this community that seems so far removed from the “real world” still faces the challenges that come with being human gives me hope that we can work from within the system and do not have to be entirely removed from every single subfactor of patriarchal capitalist society to make change. Nor do we have to be perfect people because those don’t exist either. We can start where we are and come together to move forward. 

One key aspect of working on oneself found in the village is the importance they place on grief and gratitude. Bottling up grief and suppressing it the way society tells us to only divides us further from each other and the world around us. How can we be prepared to take care of others or the wicked problem of climate change if we aren’t taking care of ourselves? And how can we care for the world if we don’t process and truly feel our gratitude for it? Working with and through our grief and expressing our gratitudes establishes a foundation to take on the hardships of climate work, which we all know takes a village. 

I am so grateful to have been welcomed into such a beautiful place, and I take with me a new sense of love for tears and vulnerability, as well as the importance of creating space for others to do the same. If Earthaven interests you, they have campgrounds that you are allowed to stay at (for a fee). Check out this site for more information: https://www.earthaven.org/.

Cover photo by Kate Liseo.

About the author:

Kate Liseo is a senior majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology and Environmental and Sustainability Studies. After taking a Psychology course with a foundation in Environmental Studies freshman year, she became interested in looking at sustainability through a psychological lens with questions like “what aspects of the human condition brought us to this point?” or “how can we consciously allow this to continue?” With these questions, she hopes to continue exploring the most effective ways to change perspectives on our current mode of operation. Aside from interning with the Center, she is the president of the Vegan Club and a member of Alliance for Planet Earth and CofC Climate Coalition. Outside of school, she loves to cook, rollerblade, and forage for mushrooms.

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Investing in Women

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Author: Isabel Crews

March is Women’s History Month, and it is a time when we should reflect on women’s contributions throughout history. Data points are clear that empowering women is critical to achieving sustainability goals in social, environmental, and economic systems, helping to answer the question, “Why should we invest in women?”  An important follow-up question, though, is how do we do that while also dismantling structural inequalities that unfairly and disproportionately impact women and genderqueer people? In this article, I look at possible answers and begin by interviewing Dr. Kris De Welde, the Director and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the College of Charleston. CofC’s WGS program is an interdisciplinary program with faculty across campus teaching various WGS courses.

 

How are women affected by environmental sustainability? 

 

When I asked Dr. De Welde about women’s relationship with sustainability, she said we should first consider the basics of environmental sustainability. She stated that “Women are the first to deal with the impacts of environmental change and climate change.” Climate change disproportionately affects women, and Dr. De Welde pointed out that this includes reproductive health. As the climate and environment become more toxic, women, and more specifically people who menstruate and people who can be pregnant, are the first to experience the direct effects. 

 

How are issues for women, girls, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and non-binary folx related to sustainability?

Dr. De Welde said that “The concerns related to justice and injustice for these populations are intimately tied to issues of sustainability.” She pointed out how the vast majority of farmers in the world are women. The self-sufficiency of women and families is economically dependent and relies on sustainable economies and development. She also emphasized the importance of taking “an intersectional lens when thinking about not just gender, but how gender interacts with race and racism, and sexuality, and homophobia, and transphobia.” Dr. De Welde mentioned our local Fresh Future Farms as just one example of Black women in agriculture who are creating sustainable solutions. 

 

Why should we invest in women? 

Understandably, when I asked this question, Dr. De Welde let out a sigh of frustration. After all, why should we still have to continuously explain why people should invest in women, and more importantly, women of all races, ethnicities, sexualities, and abilities? Dr. De Welde said that one of the main reasons we should invest in women is because research has shown that “when women are in leadership roles, whether that is for a particular organization or a company, the financial outcomes are often better and the working conditions are often more equitable.” 

 

However, during our conversation, she described the glass cliff phenomenon. The glass cliff phenomenon is when women are put into leadership roles during crises, setting them up for failure. Despite this, Dr. De Welde argues that women are still thriving in leadership roles. For example, in research groups diverse in race and nationality, she states that they “produce research that has a bigger impact on the field, and we know this from the increased citations, patents, and references to this research.” During our conversation, she stressed that there is a lot of evidence for why women in leadership can benefit everyone because of their/our lived experiences. 

 

I want to end this section with Dr. De Welde’s final comments on why we should invest in women. She states that “Women in leadership roles and women being invested in results in more sustainable communities, more sustainable business practices, in more equitable and just working conditions. And all of that makes for stronger families, healthier families, and all of the things we in the United States profess to care about.” Following this statement, we also discussed how women do not always act in solidarity with the people they share identities with, so their orientation to social justice and equity is equally important to note when talking about women in leadership roles being beneficial for everyone. 

 

“Sustainability in the COVID Context” 

Dr. De Welde lamented that during the pandemic, it is evident that “we cannot have sustainable cities and communities if you can’t sustain yourself.” She also commented on how COVID-19 is making the cracks in our healthcare, education, food systems, and labor conditions even more apparent. Dr. De Welde says that COVID-19 points out the glaring issues that need to be addressed to build sustainable families, communities, and cities. Again, she brings it back to women. She says that women are “bearing the brunt” of these cracks, and COVID may erase women’s gains in the workforce over the past thirty years. 

 

The message is clear:

  • We should invest in women.
  • We need to look through an intersectional lens when discussing issues of sustainability.
  • We must seek solutions.
  • We can be resilient despite the 21st-century sustainability challenges we are facing, and empowering women is central to solving these challenges.

 

About the author:

Isabel Crews is studying International Studies, French, and Communication at the College. Her endeavors with Zero Waste at her high school and her passion for sustainability led her to the Center for Sustainable Development. She volunteered as a Bonner Leader Assistant and later took the Editorial Content Intern role during the Summer of 2020. As the current Editorial Content Intern, she hopes to continue learning about sustainability and coordinating events to educate and engage the greater campus community. She also hopes to inspire others to live sustainably and get involved in the campus and the Charleston community. Outside of her involvement at the Center for Sustainable Development, Isabel spends her time volunteering with Bonner, discussing social justice, writing articles for Her Campus, exploring Charleston with her friends, and biking throughout the city. 

Cover photo by mentatdgt from Pexels.

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Women are the Key to Sustainable Development

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Author: Jayne Pa

Today, we face the challenges of climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, social injustices, and economic inequalities. Women in Sustainability are at the forefront of these challenges and have a vital role in creating a sustainable future. In Honor of International Women’s Day, we celebrate and acknowledge the women in our communities committed to sustainable initiatives. 

Activist Greta Thunberg has focused the world’s attention on environmental injustices and tackling climate change. She sparked a global movement by skipping school and protesting in front of the Swedish parliament. Her commitment and courage have inspired millions of people across the globe to join climate demonstrations. She was named Time magazine’s person of the year in 2019. 

When Isatou Ceesay walked through her village of N’jar in Gambia, she saw her community was facing a growing problem of waste and plastic. She initiated a recycling project called One Plastic Bag in 1998 and since then has trained over 11,000 people on the dangers of plastic and the importance of upcycling waste. There are now more women leaders in her country and opportunities to create a healthier environment. 

Christiana Figueres is internationally recognized for her leadership and commitment to global climate change. She is at the forefront of sustainable development and climate change negotiations with national governments, corporations, financial institutions, think tanks, NGOs, and parliamentarians. She directed the successful Conferences of the Parties in Cancun 2010, Durban 2011, Doha 2012, Warsaw 2013, and Lima 2014, and the Paris Agreement of 2015. If you aspire to be a part of growing change through thought and actions, look to these women. 

Photo by Saph Photography from Pexels

 

About the Author:

Jayne is a senior at the College of Charleston. She will be earning a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology while pursuing a second major in Dance and a Certification in Cultural Sustainability. Last semester, she worked as the Social Justice Coffee House intern for the Center for Sustainable Development. This semester, she will be continuing with the Center as the Student Engagement intern. When Jayne is not on campus, she enjoys running, exploring the outdoors, and hiking.

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Sustainable Valentines

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Author: Isabel Crews

Cheers to all of you for being able to get through a tough time. Take this week and this Valentine’s Day to give yourself some love and to let the people you care about know you are thinking about them. 

 

Are you trying to find ways to celebrate this holiday safely and sustainably? Look no further! Here are 5 ways to stay safe and celebrate sustainably this Valentine’s Day.

 

1

Save the bees! Skip the regular roses that are out of season and usually come in plastic wrap, and opt for a bouquet of beautiful, locally made Palmetto Roses instead. Click here to find a local organization that sells them.

2

Stop by your local bookstore and grab a book from the “Blind Date with a Book” section or randomly choose one online. One bookstore that I’ve visited that does this is Buxton Books on King Street; they also limit the number of customers in-store, require masks, and have you sanitize upon entry. Some other places to buy physical copies are Blue Bicycle Books on King Street or CofC’s Barnes and Noble.

 

3

Use Scener to watch a movie with your partner, friends, or family! You can host a private or public watch party and it will sync the film you are watching on (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, etc).

4

Virtual Valentine’s! If you are running out of time or trying to skip paper cards, try using Canva or another application to create your own electronic cards. The card above was made with Canva!

 

5

Celebrate both Valentine’s Day and Black History Month by discovering and sharing work done by BIPOC artists such as: Audre Lorde, Le’Rita Clark, Crystal Valentine, and Heather Hill.

About the author:

Isabel Crews is studying International Studies, French, and Communication at the College. Her endeavors with Zero Waste at her high school and her passion for sustainability led her to the Center for Sustainable Development. She volunteered as a Bonner Leader Assistant and later took the Editorial Content Intern role during the Summer of 2020. As the current Editorial Content Intern, she hopes to continue learning about sustainability and coordinating events to educate and engage the greater campus community. She also hopes to inspire others to live sustainably and get involved in the campus and the Charleston community. Outside of her involvement at the Center for Sustainable Development, Isabel spends her time volunteering with Bonner, discussing social justice, writing articles for Her Campus, exploring Charleston with her friends, and biking throughout the city. 

Photo by the Post and Courier

Photo by Branches Flower Bar

Photo by Samson Katt from Pexels

Photo by Viktoria Slowikowska from Pexels

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Don’t Use A Trashy Cup

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Author: Isabel Crews

Art By Julia Messinger

BYOC is simple and sustainable: Bring your own cup!

Sustainability is a word we hear thrown around in CHS, but that’s because it’s important.

On the College of Charleston campus alone, we throw away hundreds of single-use cups in the landfill or contaminate the recycling by tossing them in there. While it’s okay to throw away RINSED single-use cups in recycling, most of the time, there is no place to rinse them, or they aren’t clean enough for the local recycling center. 

So what do we do? Bring our own cups. 

At most colleges and universities, students have water bottles, tumblers, and travel mugs hanging out in their dorms. Most backpacks also have two side pockets for these, so why not bring a water bottle and your other cup for coffee or other drinks? 

If you’ve been in a rush and bought a coffee and used their to-go cups, it’s okay; I’m not trying to shame you. Sustainability requires education and resources, and if you don’t have access to them, why should you be expected to be religiously observing sustainable habits. 



The point of this article is to educate you on one sustainable habit, bringing your own cup, and the benefits of it. By bringing your own cup, you reduce the amount of waste that leaves campus by limiting the contaminated recycling and compost that gets sent to the landfill. In addition, bringing cups for your cold drinks that typically come with straws helps the Skip the Straw Campaign so that they don’t end up in oceans where they could harm aquatic life or build up in the landfill. Changing this one habit might seem like a small impact, but the more people who start bringing their own cups, the bigger the difference it makes.  

What do you get from making this change? You get to say you’re making a difference locally and positively impacting the environment, and you get DISCOUNTS!



Here’s a list of local coffee shops and restaurants that give incentives for bringing your own cup:

Einsteins: $1.19 cup of coffee with a reusable cup

Starbucks: At Addlestone, it’s 56 cents for regular or iced coffee and 10 cents off other drinks

Panera: $1.19 travel refill for any size cup

Caviar & Bananas: 25¢ discount

Gnome Cafe: 10% discount 

The Rise: Cup and 10% student discount 

 

 

 

 

 

What about the places that aren’t giving discounts? What are they doing? 

HuriYali is having a conversation about sustainable practices for their cafe. 

The Daily is working on an incentive program and figuring out how to get people to bring their own cups. 

Second State is looking towards sustainable solutions and possibly creating a line of Second State mugs. 

The moral of the story is that the campus community and the greater Charleston community are recognizing the significance of bringing your own cups by giving discounts and recognition for people supporting BYOC. So why not bring yours? Be the change and grab your tumblers!

 

About the author:

Isabel Crews is studying International Studies, French, and Communication at the College. Her endeavors with Zero Waste at her high school and her passion for sustainability led her to the Center for Sustainable Development. She volunteered as a Bonner Leader Assistant and later took the Editorial Content Intern role during the Summer of 2020. As the current Editorial Content Intern, she hopes to continue learning about sustainability and coordinating events to educate and engage the greater campus community. She also hopes to inspire others to live sustainably and get involved in the campus and the Charleston community. Outside of her involvement at the Center for Sustainable Development, Isabel spends her time volunteering with Bonner, discussing social justice, writing articles for Her Campus, exploring Charleston with her friends, and biking throughout the city. 

Conscious Corner Episode 6 – Art For Social Change

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In this episode of Conscious Corner, Camela Guevara is the featured guest. Camela is the Media Manager and Lead Designer for the College of Charleston Office of Sustainability and is a 2010 graduate of the College of Charleston. From 2017-2018 she also served as the Artist in Residence for the City of North Charleston. The discussion was how Guevara’s art is reflective of social change and linked to sustainability. Camela explains how the impetus of her artwork is largely focused on fiber arts and the undervalued labor that comes of weaving and sewing. Guevara’s art ranges from visual arts through painting with watercolors to up-cycling items intended for obsolescence in her fiber art for purposes of personal sustainability and perseverance through peace and transformative thinking around objects with artistic potential.

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Conscious Corner Episode 5 – Navigating Life as a Transgender Individual in the Era of Trump

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In this episode of Conscious Corner, Vanity chooses to relate the content of the episode specifically to her existence as a transgender woman of color. She notes that within the LGBTQ community, transgender women of color disproportionately face more violence than others in the community and the alarming homicide rates of these women prove that statement. From the rising rates of hate crimes and hate group activities tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center to the Trump Transgender Military Ban to the murders of transgender women of color, Vanity highlights the nature of repeating violence. In honor of June being pride month, and acknowledging that Pride was the result of resistance of brutality by Transgender women of color, she recognizes the transgender women who had their lives stripped away in the United States in 2018 and 2019. Check out this Human Rights Campaign link to get descriptions on the individuals lost at the hands of violence. Also, be sure to Check out the Southern Poverty Law Center for more hate crime statistics:

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2019/02/19/hate-groups-reach-record-high

https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2018

https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2019

 

Conscious Corner Episode 4 – Vanity Reflects on her time at the Women’s March D.C. and the Annual AIDS United Conference

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In this episode, host Vanity talks about two social justice demonstrations that she took part in. The first was the Women’s March in the nation’s capital in January of 2019. Vanity attended the first Women’s March in 2017 in Philadelphia, PA and was enamored with the amount of civic engagement she saw illustrated by the over 200,000 people in attendance as a result to the newly elected President Trump. In 2018, Vanity spoke at the Women’s March South Carolina and felt compelled to take up space at the march in 2019. Vanity speaks about encounters with a group of “Pro-Life Feminists” and relates that experience to the recent policy changes regarding women’s rights and access to abortions across many states of the U.S. The second demonstration was the AIDS United annual AIDSWatch conference, sponsored by the Elizabeth Taylor Foundation. Vanity first became interested in HIV/ AIDS policy after attending the 2017 Creating Change conference in Philadelphia, PA, sponsored by the National LGBTQ Taskforce. After attending a seminar on Disease Criminalization as it pertains to a communicable disease like HIV/ AIDS, she decided to research deeper into the effects of stigmatization of HIV on public policy. In the Spring of 2018 at the Office of Sustainability, she hosted a Social Justice Coffee Hour on Public Policy and Criminalization of HIV. After receiving a Student Leadership Award Research Travel Grant she headed to the AIDSWatch conference to soak up as much information as she could. Check out the article of her as one of the recipients of the Race and Social Justice Initiative Grant and learn about the intent of her research. Also, check out the episode for more details on her experiences at the conference. 

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Conscious Corner Episode 3 – Sustainability vs. Environmentalism: What Does Sustainability Look Like in Your Life?

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In this episode, we speak with student-activist Tanner Crunelle about the underlying connections of Sustainability to social issues on campus and discerning the umbrella of Sustainability from the core pillar of Environmentalism. Tanner is one of the many student activists on campus and is recognized as an esteemed Ketner Emerging Leaders Scholar. Tanner is also a student at the College of Charleston’s Honors College. This past year Tanner spearheaded an oratorical competition on campus named after alumnus Frank Sturcken, ‘51. This oratorical competition was in honor of the 50 years since formal desegregation at the College of Charleston. See the links below to find out what kind of work Tanner focuses on:

https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cofc.edu/dist/a/903/files/2018/12/Ketner-Updates-doc-18-19-2fi3dj2.pdf

http://studentaffairs.cofc.edu/sturcken/index.php

https://today.cofc.edu/2018/09/21/alums-1951-speech-on-desegregation-inspires-new-oratorical-competition/

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