On Sept. 1, UW-Oshkosh professor of biology Michael Lizotte was named Oshkosh’s interim director of campus sustainability.
When former Director Almut Beringer resigned unexpectedly in July, University officials wanted to recruit an interim director as soon as possible so that the position would not be vacant during the time it would take to conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement, according to Steve Arndt, director of Facilities Management.
Lizotte was chosen for the one-year position by the administration after the Campus Sustainability Council gave suggestions and made recommendations.
He was the director of the Aquatic Research Laboratory and was among the many individuals who helped formalize the sustainability movement on campus. He and Arndt were co-captains of the 26-person campus sustainability team officially created in the fall of 2007.
He was also a member of the Campus Sustainability Council and one of four co-authors of the Campus Sustainability Plan, which was unveiled by Chancellor Richard Wells on Earth Day 2008.
Accepting this position was not an easy decision for Lizotte. His personal ecological research will be put on hold. He will also miss teaching and working with students. Lizotte said that he left Oshkosh to take a full-time oceanographic research position, but returned three years later.
“Personally, a large part of it was that I truly missed teaching and being around college-aged students,” he said. “The optimism of it.”
Lizotte feels that Oshkosh is an easy place to be the sustainability director.
“I don’t think the administration has been acknowledged enough,” Lizotte said.
Lizotte has many responsibilities, but he is also available to encourage, help and support faculty, students, staff and contractors in their efforts to make the campus more sustainable.
After two weeks, he said he’s enjoying it.
“It’s a bit of a whirlwind,” he said. “You have to do a lot of networking … I’ve been associated with the University for a dozen years and you think you know a lot of people, but when you take a new position suddenly there’s a whole lot of new people you need to know.”
And those people are glad to have him.
“It’s good having him here to keep our attention as a campus focused in the right direction,” Arndt said.
Be the first to comment on this article!