What is this site?
A network for people responding to climate change at The College of New Jersey and in the surrounding communities of central New Jersey, green31.net provides a means of connecting people to organizations active on the issue.
We embrace the importance of responding to climate change but do not collectively endorse particular policies. Our purposes are to help people become educated and engaged and to cultivate community leaders on the issue. We are a network, not an organization. Green31.net is operated under the direction of Dr. William J. Ball.
But why are you doing this?
Three reasons. First, as a means of engaging the public with their communities around issues of public policy–building “social capital” if you will. Second, to get past the barriers between colleges and their surrounding communities by simply ignoring them. Third, to help enable community-wide involvement and leadership on responding to the pressing issue of climate change.
This is not just a research project–although we certainly intend to share what we learn with other civic engagement practitioners and scholars in a manner that respects people’s privacy and rights.
This is not an advocacy project in the traditional sense. We will not collectively endorse specific policies–although we will certainly encourage people to discuss them. We are advocates for more engagement by more people from our community on responding to climate change.
This is not an official TCNJ website. Everyone here represents themselves as individuals only. All statements are the personal views and opinions of their authors only.
What do you provide?
At the moment two things: this website and a series of networking events and public forums.
Where did this effort come from?
The project grew out of a Public Issues Summit on Responding to Global Warming, held at TCNJ on April 29th, 2008. It was clear from the feedback of the approximately 100 participants at the summit that most of them wanted to become more active on the issue but were having a hard time finding a place to start, that above all they needed guidance in becoming part of a network.
The summit was sponsored by The Leadership in Public Affairs program. See the “community forums” page for more information on the summit.
What is with the name?
“.net” is because we are a network, not an organization. “green31″ is in recognition of two things having to do with geography, beyond just representing sustainability in general. First, “green” recognizes that The College of New Jersey and part of the surrounding municipality of Ewing, NJ are built on the William Green farm (established about 1700). Second “31″ recognizes New Jersey state highway 31, which includes the main entrance to TCNJ and connects the college with the municipalities of Trenton, Ewing Twp., Hopewell Twp., Pennington Twp., and northward on into Hunterdon County. The name green31.net was selected to reflect our theme of networking together people at the college and in the surrounding communities on responding to the problem of climate change.
Google map of our location (opens in a new window).
What are your policies about the information I submit?
By submitting a post or comment you are giving us non-exclusive rights to publish it on this website only for as long as we like. This is a “real names” site and one that has standards for civility and topicality. We reserve the right to remove posts or comments that, in our judgement, do not show respect for the views or persons of others, or that we consider to be offensive or too far off the topic at hand. We require everyone to use their real name in registering to submit posts or comments. This is no place for anonymous pot shots.
When you provide your e-mail or other contact information it will be used only for the task you provide it for. For example, if you provide your e-mail to receive notification of new posts, it will be used only for that purpose. We will not provide e-mails or other contact information to any outside parties. We certainly do want people to network with each other–that is the purpose of this project. However it is up to you to decide when you share your contact information, not us.
Who, exactly, are you people?
The overall director of the project is Dr. William J. Ball, who is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. He can be reached at ball@tcnj.edu or 609 771 2747. He is doing this because he wants to learn how to create increased civic engagement using a deliberative model of democracy, to share that learning, to do some good for his community, and because he believes it is the right thing to do.
The project staff rotates, but consists of students working under the supervision of Dr. Ball. These have included: Jennifer Bennett, German Rozencranc, Leo Muchnik, and the students enrolled in Tutorial on Deliberative Democracy (Spring, 2008) and Politics of Community Change (Spring, 2009)