Potential Roles for Governors State University
in the Calumet Region

I asked all of the people I interviewed what roles they thought GSU could play in the Calumet region to help build momentum. The responses were as follows:

    1. Perhaps along with other universities, be a neutral convener around various aspects of revitalizing the Calumet region. The goal would be to allow people to compare what they are doing (knowing more about what is happening allows everyone to do their job better), identify intersections, explore possible linkages that help them move forward, create a broader context for specific projects, and figure out whether there are synergies from linking up projects. There should be meetings both across the state line and not. GSU should pull together and share findings of meetings, highlighting the points of intersection. It should hold the meetings on neutral ground in the region (such as at Mr. D's Villa in Southeast Chicago).

    2. Encourage universities to cooperate in a non-political, inclusive way to answer the question what can each institution do building from its knowledge and resource base to enhance the region. GSU could see if there was interest from the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant to support those institutions who don't have money to participate.

      Some of the themes of cooperation around the Calumet region include:

      • Develop a training consortium with other colleges and local businesses to retrain local employees, provide training techniques for managers, and help deal with regulatory compliance, pollution prevention, etc.. Along with Olive Harvey, Chicago State, and others develop industrial contacts/advisory boards (Peter Foote from Calumet Area Industrial Commission has talked to Mary Howell at GUS about a masters in environmental regulation/compliance.)
      • Create a virtual organization made up of universities and labs operating under an MOU to use the Calumet Region as a field lab and channel faculty and student interns into research projects and into using cutting edge technologies to create community jobs and environmental restoration.

    3. Create new joint environmental degrees focused on using the Calumet region as a field lab. Also courses on the Calumet region.

    4. If the first meetings under 1. above are successful and there is local support, consider bringing people together around some of the following topics:

      • A Professional Organizations Conference on the Lake Calumet Region to network and share information. Create a planning group from the region. Make the conference showy and snazzy. The goal would be to enhance community identity and allow others to see the richness of the area and become interested in it. Offer many parallel tracks for different interests, including pollution prevention, economic development, restoration and protection, economic development, infrastructure, community capacity, human capacity. Cross state lines. Hold a plenary session on the historical/cultural/economic development/ ecological/human assets of the region. Produce good proceedings. (Perhaps such a conference could influence the National Park Service study.)
      • A locally-driven development process for the Calumet region to articulate a broader strategy for the region rather than ad hoc projects in a redevelopment process that excites people, allows them to see the possibilities, and gives them a place in decisions about the future.
      • Meetings to discuss ways to improve the image of the region, develop a strategy to make "Gateways to the Region" inviting, deal with perceptions about crime and pollution, highlight assets, or, as in Northwest Indiana, bring together chambers of commerce and others in a planning group to reach out to schools, service clubs, civic organizations, government, etc. to come with a 1997 project to improve the image of the region. Top 10 projects would get recognition.
      • Convene people around the notion of Calumet Region waterway corridors that connect the States and joint projects around clean up of Grand Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers (Small focus groups first, then bigger meeting across state lines).

    5. Assist Public Education Efforts about the Environment (for example, a Blackbird banner for the region).

    6. Create an interactive web site on the Calumet region where people can post what they are doing, meetings, projects, etc. ask questions, etc. Have separate home pages for Southeast Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Have linkages to other relevant sites. Also post achievements large and small.

    7. Create a partnership to collect and centralize data on the region. Everyone has some of the pieces. No one has them all with overlays, etc. Include maps for the region, integrate economic and ecosystems studies, describe baseline characteristics of stocks of not beneficial substances, and inventory possible approaches to clean up and reuse.

    8. Prepare a rigorous study of the correlation between natural resource protection and economic prosperity.

    9. Find quick ways to strengthen connections between Southeast Chicago and Northwest Indiana:

      • Host a get-together of local, state, and federal economic development and environmental officials from Illinois and Northwest Indiana (DoTs, EPAs, aldermen, state reps, congressmen, economic development and environmental officials) to talk about what each is trying to do.
      • Collaborate with Northwest Indiana Forum on national board certification of teachers. (Symposium on education January 17th)
      • Partner with Indiana University Northwest on its Sustainable Development Round Tables to extend them into Illinois.
      • co-convene a1999 bi-state conference on natural areas to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Henry Chandler Cowles seminal ecological writings.
      • co-convene an economic forecast meeting for the Crescent corridor.

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