Penn State is always in the process of renovating and upgrading buildings around campus. Within the 2019-2020 year alone Penn State was doing some degree of construction on ten residence halls across all five residence areas. Penn State is currently doing either renovations or reconstruction of three teaching spaces. The newest completed project on campus is the 193,000 square foot chemical and biomedical engineering, with a budget of 144 million one would think this lab space would be an environmentally conscious structure. From an environmental perspective, this building maximises its heating efficiency within the space but has minimal retrofitting for sourcing renewable energy or minimising energy usage. The designs are done up for all of Penn State’s construction for the next three years, but one thing is certain, Penn State construction will never stop. Penn State’s next round of construction needs to include the construction of buildings that are more environmentally friendly. It is both economically and environmentally beneficial for Penn State to build and renovate buildings with their environmental affect in mind.
I took part in the Standardised Testing Reform Deliberation and a deliberation discussing Political Correctness and Cancel Culture. These deliberations were both dramatically different in tone and approach. Both deliberations were met with similar problems, the stakeholders represented were fairly homogenous. In the Standardised Testing Deliberation, the audience and facilitators were exclusively younger Penn State Students. In the Political Correctness Deliberation, the cluster of students was exclusively Penn State Students as well. This deliberation also could play into one political ideology and I believe the room here was fairly vocal in its left-leaning disposition. Because in both these deliberations only one style of stakeholder was represented, I feel it impaired our ability to address criterion #5, Make the best decision possible. In both situations, we made the best decision possible for the stakeholders present as opposed to taking into account all the stakeholders.
A strength of both Deliberations was definitely on the front of the Social Processes involved. Neither Deliberation took a nasty turn and an air of respect and acknowledgment was present in both. The Political Correctness Deliberation was a much larger group, fifty-plus probably, and yet it was still held in a manner that adequately distributed speaking opportunities. I believe this was possible because the room was large enough to allow everyone to sit in a circle and moderators were placed sporadically throughout the ring. Mutual Comprehension and respect for participants were strengths of both deliberations as well, I think this aided by the moderators coming out in the beginning and establishing ground rules that instilled respect. The Political Correctness Deliberation and Standardised Testing Deliberation represented a limited range of key values which more or less listed or named instead of prioritized. The Standardised Testing Deliberation liked the ideas of independence and best representing the student above all else, approaches that appealed to this were prioritized. The Standardised Testing Deliberation appealed to the value of respect above free speech. It is hard to prioritise multiple or conflicting values when you have room for similar stakeholders. In conclusion, both these deliberations were interesting experiments and were overall successfully moderated conversations on important issues but were plagued by like-minded consensus.
Shifting to renewable energy is no longer a premium pricing out option, but instead a necessity. Renewable energy is both infinite and not a greenhouse gas distributor, ensuring longevity in support. Renewable energy is the most affordable it has ever been and the price to yield ratio across the board has begun seeing diminishing returns for cost efficiency. This suggests that renewable energy, barring any major breakthroughs, renewable energy sources aren’t expected to get any cheaper in the short-term. We don’t have time to wait for the long term, perfectly optimised renewable energy given our current climate situation. More people jumping on the renewable energy bandwagon would promote investment in this field potentially increasing its efficiency despite predictions. Many architecture firms are proposing their projects to stakeholders with a Net-0 or energy positive alternative while still arriving at the same budget, this is occurring at the moment for Farmington, CT’s new high school.
Audience
Everyone is a stakeholder because we are about to have a very intimate encounter with climate change. The primary audience this shift is addressed to would-be middle to upper-class global citizens. This is because it is still cheaper from a monetary perspective, not an environmental perspective, to rely on nonrenewable fossil fuels. With this in mind it is unrealistic to ask everyone to partake in this shift at this time. Climate Change poses a strong collective action problem that can only be solved through global cooperation and coordination.
