I am concerned about the suspension of the Applied Technology Major [1] at Cal Poly Humboldt and the loss of the technical facilities there. I have been thinking about President Obama's overtures made with regards to funding of programs which teach technical skills needed for green jobs and believe that the suspension of this major is not in keeping with such farsighted planning. My personal interest in this stems from the challenges faced trying to get custom parts fabricated for the appropriate technology class projects I have initiated and mentored with engineering 305 and 114 students as a volunteer over the last 20 years. Many finished projects were/are displayed at CCAT and featured on the front page of the Times Standard and San Francisco Chronicle. The latest project was the pedal powered flat screen DVD player [2] designed and built for CCAT by myself and the engineering 305 students John Hackett and Thorin Somers who constructed the mobile wooden pedestle for the display in wood-shop.
I have long wished that the university would establish an Appropriate Technology major with shop facilities for fabrication of A.T. prototypes ranging from anaerobic digesters to whatever the letter z may yet hold in store for the world. Is there a chance that federal backing for the establishment of a Department of Applied-Appropriate Technology at HSU could save the A.T. department and raise the institutions of the HSU appropriate technology community such as CCAT to a level of self-governance that could best champion its cause (a fair trade for the loss of 25 years of effort building appropriate technology demonstration projects following the dismantling, relocation
and renovation of CCAT in 2003 to facilitate the construction of the Behavioral/Social Science Building).
The Department of Labor has been allocated 500 billion for grants designed to fund green job training facilities via The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) [3].
Bart Orlando
Projects With Bart