News Release
April 16, 2003
            
Media Contact:
Mike Andrei
Director-College Relations
(716) 839-8472
            
Event Information:
Daemen Conference Office
(716) 839-8253

Josh Gallagher
            
            


"Imbalance: Corporate Greed vs. Human Need" to Explore Importance of Community, Environmental Justice
"Imbalance: Corporate Greed vs. Human Need" will explore the relationships between the importance of community, activism, and environmental justice. The event, to be held 4 - 7 p.m., April 30, 2003, in Wick Center on the Daemen College campus, will be free and open to the public

"Imbalance: Corporate Greed vs. Human Need," is sponsored by the Daemen College Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement, the Daemen Department of History and Government's pre-Law Association and the History and Government Club. Another partner is Students Under Nature for a Greener Environmental Dynamic. The event will feature a panel discussion beginning at 4:00 p.m., and offer a question-and-answer session, as well as live music and refreshments and an information bazaar.

Panel speakers will include David Hahn-Baker, a 1981 political science graduate of Princeton University, who will offer an introduction to environmental justice, and a summary of pending New York Department of Environmental Conservation environmental justice regulations. Hahn-Baker has worked in Washington, D.C. for a number of national environmental organizations, including the National Clean Air Coalition (field organizer); senior lobbyist for the League of Women Voters; and political director of Friends of the Earth. After moving to Buffalo in 1989, he became an active volunteer and organizer in several local organizations, including the Buffalo Environmental Task Force, an ad hoc coalition of Western New York environmental groups and activists. Hahn-Baker also chairs the Buffalo Pest Management Advisory Board, is a member of the Buffalo Environmental Management Commission, and is a board member of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy. Additionally, he was appointed by Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello to the Brownfields Task Force and is a board member of the Erie County Environmental Education Institute.

Dr. Richard S. Knaub, director of the Daemen College Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement, will speak on the importance of community and community involvement. Most recently, Daemen College has established a Center for Community Excellence in Buffalo's Seneca Babcock neighborhood. The Center is the result of a working partnership between Daemen College and the Seneca Babcock Boys' and Girls' Clubs; Teen Haven; and the Seneca Street Methodist Church. Developed over the past two years, more than 100 Daemen College students and faculty provide needed services to neighborhood residents, including health care screenings, tutoring, reading programs, and introductory computer skills. The center is under the direction of Dr. Knaub.

Q&A: What is Sustainability?
  • Sustainability is a big concept - development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
  • It's designed to assist communities so that they will be thriving in 25 years. But it can be implemented one-on-one, and have significant influence on individual lives.
  • Something as personal as counseling a teenager to avoid pregnancy can prevent a multi-generational cycle of individual - and family - poverty before it begins.
  • On a broader scale, moving to address environmental issues can have a significant impact on an entire community - Daemen College students and faculty have worked with the Seneca Babcock Community Center in Buffalo, in helping organize residents who opposed a stone-crushing operation proposed for their neighborhood.
Mike Schade, Western New York Director for Citizens Environmental Coalition (CEC), also a member of the panel discussion for "Imbalance: Corporate Greed vs. Human Need," will present an audience primer for taking action. Schade has extensive experience as a community organizer working on environmental, labor, and social justice issues. He has conducted public education, organizing, and media activities for environmental, economic and social justice groups in Western New York for the past six years. Schade currently serves on the Board of Directors of the WNY Peace Center and the Nickel City Housing Cooperative. He has a BS in Environmental Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo.