All participants of the Better Buildings Initiative gather on the Navy Steps of the White House campus, including Department of Energy staffers and representatives from manufacturing, retail, housing, education, and government.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Allegheny College for achieving its energy savings goal as a partner in the Better Buildings Challenge. The event was hosted by the White House and attended by Kelly Boulton, Director of Sustainability.
Allegheny College is one of only four higher education institutions recognized as Better Buildings Challenge 2023 goal-achievers and among only 21 higher education institutions that have committed to the challenge.
Boulton attended a summit at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) where she was joined by sustainability leaders from around the country, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, and White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. Better Buildings is a DOE initiative designed to drive leadership in energy innovation.
Allegheny was recognized for achieving energy savings of 22 percent in 10 years by making greater efficiency accomplishments across its building portfolio. The College was the only liberal arts college invited to participate in the kickoff of the Better Buildings Challenge by the Obama administration in 2011.
Lead writing consultant Becky Pechmann ’24 presented at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW) in Pittsburgh on Saturday, November 4. Her attendance at the conference was supported by the Carol Darnell Freund, Class of 1954 Fund.
Pechmann shared the preliminary results of a study that she and writing consultant Katie Wagner ’24 are co-researching, titled “The Impact Of Pre-existing Relationships On Outcome Quality In Allegheny College’s Writing Center.”
Brian Miller, Assistant Professor of History, co-organized the October 2023 GLCA Routes and Roots of the Global Migration Crisis Symposium held at Oberlin College. Brian also presented a paper titled, “A Retelling of Somali-Bantu History,” in a panel discussion on refugee and migrant solidarity, coalition, and resettlement.
Samantha Minor ’24 and Alexander Henne ’24 attended and participated in the symposium. The symposium website can be found here.
Kaitlyn Royal ’24 and Katie Brozell ’23 using a diamond-tipped soil corer to extract soil samples at Bousson.
Richard Bowden, Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability, along with Nathalie Paz Saucedo ’25’, Jackie DiGiacomo ’26, and Katie Brozell ’23 coauthored the presentation “Long-term Controls on Soil Carbon in a Temperate Forest: 30 years in the DIRT” at the North American Forest Soils Conference.
The presentation discussed controls on soil carbon using the Detrital Input and Removal Treatment (DIRT) Project at Allegheny’s Bousson Environmental Research Reserve.
The work showed how roots and leaves contribute to soil carbon storage. Forests are globally important in storing and removing carbon from the atmosphere, reducing this global warming pollutant.
Professor of Business & Economics, Steve Onyeiwu, published “Technological Capability, Inclusive Growth and Structural Transformation in Africa,” in The Journal of the Middle East and Africa.
Onyeiwu also participated in the 15th annual conference of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) in Washington D.C., November 4–6, where he presented a report on Harnessing Gender Potential for Productive Capacities Development: A Comparative Study of Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania.
The report was commissioned by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Associate Professor of History, Guo Wu, presented a paper titled “Tiger Encounters in Ming-Qing Chinese Fiction and Real-life” to the panel of “Strings, Stories, and Stages: Diverse Echoes of Chinese Heritage” at the 52nd Southwest Conference on Asian Studies, hosted by the University of Houston, November 3–4.
Lauren R. Paulson, Associate Professor of Psychology, Michael Williams, Director of Community Engaged Learning, Isabella James ’24, Rebecca Pechmann ’24, and Lainee Swanson ’24 recently presented a 60-minute workshop at the annual IUPUI Assessment Institute conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The conference is renowned as the nation’s oldest and largest event dedicated to assessing and enhancing higher education.
During their workshop, “Development, Delivery, and Assessment of Collective Impact at a Rural Liberal Arts College,” they explained Allegheny’s collective impact team model, which brings together staff, faculty, students, and community partners to coordinate efforts in addressing critical needs in a rural community.
They led a discussion and activities about the benefits and implementation of collective impact.
Mike Crowley, who teaches in the Department of Communication, Media, and Performance and serves as adviser to The Campus, Allegheny’s student-run newspaper, was selected as print journalist of the year by the northwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Read more about the achievement here.
