Bike to Work Week (June 6-12)

The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin encourages you to discover a fitness and transportation solution with its spring “Bike to Work Week” event.

Visit the Federation Web site to view the Madison calendar of events where you can tune up that bike, snack, and socialize with fellow cyclists. The Federation also supplies brief resource articles at its site to “Bicycling 101” and “Commuting”.

The City of Madison also supplies bicycle commuting information at its, Bicycle Information page.

Class Integration: Go Big Read!

How will you participate in Go Big Read? Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin and steering committee have selected Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto as the first common book selection for the UW-Madison campus.

The Go Big Read Program is looking to identify instructors who currently use this title as part of their class curricula or who would like to use it during the coming fall and spring semesters.

Instructors can apply for free copies of the book, for use with their classes, by completing a request form. The deadline for a fall semester request will be July 1, 2009.

“Go Big Read 2009” will be UW-Madison’s first common book program where students, staff and the community are invited to read the same book, then participate in a variety of related programs in-and-out of the classroom.

For more information about the book, and a taste from its introduction, visit the author’s site for the book.

Campus Bus Route Detours

Now that the spring semester has come to a close and we are in the throes of high construction season, it will be important to note changes to Campus Bus Routes, 80 and 85.

As of Monday, May 18 (and through August), Bus 80 will observe a significant detour.

Do note that the bus stops on Observatory Drive between Park and Charter are closed. Riders can catch Route 80 buses on Langdon Street in front of the Memorial Union or on Linden Drive at Van Hise.

And due to construction, Randall Avenue is closed between University Avenue and Dayton with Route 85 detouring to Charter. The Route 85 detour is expected to last until the first week of June.

Both routes are observing recess hours. Plan your arrival by visiting the service charts for Bus 80 and Bus 85.

Visit the Transportation Services site for additional updates regarding construction zones and concerns to parking and navigation.

Community Gardening

Did you know that there are over thirty community gardens in Madison? If you are not familiar with community gardening, it is an excellent way to unite and beautify the community, conserve resources, and produce nutritious food. Although community gardening is by no means a new phenomenon, it has become quite prevalent in South Central Wisconsin over the past few years. The Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Inc, works with more than thirty-one community gardens in the Madison area, and, according to their website, those gardens produce more than a quarter million pounds of produce a year.

If you are interested in the history of community gardening in the U.S., you might want to visit the first floor of Steenbock Library and have a look at Laura Lawson’s work, City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America (or its electronic edition). For a another, practical take, you might want to borrow Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En’s work, Sharing the Harvest: A Guide to Community Supported Agriculture.

To find more titles about community gardening, you can do a MadCat catalog search (HINT: try using “community gardens” or “community gardening” as a search term). You can also learn more or find a community garden in your area by visiting the American Community Gardening Association’s website.

With thanks to Sam B for this blog post.

Recycling and Donation Sites for Residence Halls

The Division of Housing, in partnership with Facilities Planning’ We Conserve and St. Vincent de Paul, has named four sites where students can recycle certain products—such as metal and carpeting--and donate other, reusable items.

These recycling and donation sites are located at Tripp Circle (recycling only), Cole Beach (behind the residence hall), the Sellery Hall loading dock and the Witte Hall backyard.

For more information about moving out, dates, and tips from the Division of Housing, see its Moving In and Out site.