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In 1970, the first Earth Day was organized by a college student. Fifty years later, in recognition of Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC) is highlighting its Earth Edwardsville research project. 

“The project is a collaborative effort with the City of Edwardsville to measure attitudes toward, perceptions of, and motivations for pro-environmental behaviors and policies among Edwardsville residents,” said Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, SSCC faculty director and associate professor in the Department of Sociology. 

Earth Edwardsville is one of three projects that SIUE students are addressing as part of the City of Edwardsville and SSCC’s partnership year. Students in School of Business instructor Joel Petry’s Marketing 475 Consumer Behavior class helped construct the survey, along with support from Frey Spurlock’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) assistants. 

“The research is gaining momentum. We have classes working on identifying community assets and relevant stakeholders, as well as a class collecting data on community members’ attitudes,” said Frey Spurlock. “We have 100 responses so far and will be collecting data through the end of the semester.” 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person forum meetings and focus group work were conducted. Now, surveys can be found online, via SSCC’s and SIUE Sustainability’s Facebook pages. 

A sample of survey questions include:

• How satisfied are you with the current state of the environment in Edwardsville?
• How likely are you to support efforts to protect Edwardsville’s environment?
• What challenges, if any, do you face when trying to adopt environmentally-friendly practices? 

Based on what is learned from community feedback, research teams will develop a plan and present findings to the city for future implementation.  

“The project will help the City better understand what residents want in terms of an earth-friendly community, and benefit SIUE students by providing them with real-world experience that will couple with what they’re learning in the classroom,” noted Petry. 

Edwardsville residents interested in participating can also find the survey at siue.co1.qualtrics.com. 

For more information on Earth Edwardsville, contact Frey Spurlock at siue_sscc@siue.edu. 

Photo:
Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative faculty director and associate professor in the Department of Sociology.