The Urban Coast Institute has awarded two spring Faculty Enrichment Grants for projects that will expand green teams in New Jersey schools and create art inspired by utopian societies that once existed in Jersey Shore communities.
The UCI offers these grants on a competitive basis to Monmouth University faculty to support individual or collaborative projects for the enhancement of existing curriculum, new curriculum development, research and scholarship and team-teaching opportunities. Funding is available through the Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe Scholars program for faculty and student researchers of all disciplines whose work advances core elements of Monmouth’s Strategic Plan and supports the UCI’s mission. The following projects were approved for the spring round.
Going Green across the Garden State: Fostering the Formation of Green Teams in New Jersey School Districts
Faculty researchers: Michelle Schpakow, Ed.D., Department of Curriculum and Instruction; School of Education Dean John Henning, Ph.D.; Kyle Seiverd, Ed.D., School of Science
Roughly half of New Jersey school districts have formed green teams comprised of teachers, administrators, students, parents and other community members to promote sustainable practices. This project will determine factors that promote green team development and share these strategies with the larger New Jersey community through a webinar; facilitate the development of new green teams at three New Jersey schools by establishing mentorships with three established green teams; and pilot discussions in focus group sessions that determine how the process of forming green teams affects participants’ perspectives regarding sustainability.
Ruin/Regeneration: A Sculptural Installation
Faculty researcher: Susan Meyer, MFA, Department of Art & Design
This grant will support the creation of a sculptural installation inspired by the cyclical states of ruin and regeneration in coastal areas along the New Jersey shoreline. Professor Meyer and student assistants will conduct research on coastal ecosystems in Sandy Hook and utopian societies that once existed in Ocean Grove and at the historic North American Phalanx in Colts Neck to inform the project. The artwork will be publicly exhibited at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, through the summer.
Apply Now for Funding
The UCI is currently seeking proposals for student summer research grants, Faculty Enrichment Grants for the summer and fall, and endowed scholarships for the 2022-23 school year. Click here to learn more.
These opportunities have been made possible through the generous support of many private and corporate donors. If you would like to make a tax-deductible gift to the Urban Coast Institute, please visit our online contribution form.
The Urban Coast Institute (UCI) is seeking proposals from Monmouth University students and faculty members of all disciplines for grants to support summer research through its Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe Scholars program. Endowed scholarships for the 2022-23 school year are also available for Monmouth students with a demonstrated financial need and interest in coastal, marine, and environmental studies.
Summer research projects may be proposed by students with the support of a faculty mentor or proposed by a faculty member with the support of students who will work under their supervision. Students will have the opportunity present their work at the 
UCI Faculty Enrichment Grants support full-time faculty of any rank for individual or collaborative projects for the enhancement of existing curriculum, new curriculum development, research and scholarship, and team-teaching opportunities. Although all proposals relevant to the goals and objectives of the UCI will be accepted, the UCI is particularly interested in funding collaborative, multidisciplinary projects that address aspects of the climate crisis and advance diversity, equity, inclusion and justice.
This presentation compares Inuit and commercial hunting activities, highlighting the differences between the purpose, practices, and scale of these hunts. With the distinctions between the two practices made clear, it explores the historic and ongoing ways in which the commercial sealing industry and federal government have perpetuated the conflation of the two. By failing to acknowledge the differences between Inuit and commercial sealing practices, special interest groups have been complicit in perpetuating this conflation as well, although several of these groups have recently worked to clarify the distinction between the two. As a result of the muddied dialogue on commercial and Inuit sealing, both food security and the survival of culture and livelihoods has been compromised in Inuit communities. Despite these ramifications, some Inuit support the commercial hunt because of how anti-sealing campaigns have adversely affected Inuit hunters. At the same time, other Inuit believe that the industry constitutes a wrongful appropriation of their sacred cultural practice, and are seeking to reclaim the practice as their uniquely protected right.
Sarah Levy is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, where she is conducting research on the laws surrounding Canadian sealing activities. In her doctoral project, she is exploring the conflation of Inuit sealing practices and the commercial sealing industry, with a focus on the intersections of animal, environmental, and Indigenous rights in this context. Sarah has been called to the Bar of Ontario and held positions at the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks at the Government of Ontario and Animal Justice Canada. She holds a B.A. (Hons) from Trinity College, University of Toronto in Ethics, Society, and Law and Environmental Studies, and a J.D. and Master of Environmental Studies from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. She completed her master’s research on the topic of direct-action and international marine wildlife conservation laws, in which she explored the ways in which nongovernmental organizations fill the gap between law and enforcement where nation states fail to institutionalize conservation.
Student Researcher: Michelle Etienne
Beach badges were first introduced by the town of Bradley Beach in 1929 for the sole purpose of limiting beach access to only town residents and visitors in town hotels. But it quickly was recognized as a revenue-generating method and many beach towns followed suit. In 1972, in the landmark case of Borough of Neptune v. Avon-by-the-Sea, Avon-by-the-Sea attempted to charge less for badges for town residents and more for out-of-town residents to access its beaches. The court held that municipalities may not discriminate against nonresidents with badge fees. Although this case established that there may not be any discrimination in pricing, badge fees still restrict some people from being able to go to the beach. These fees also have no limit to how much they can be increased each year. In Avon-by-the-Sea alone, daily badge fees went up by $3 in just two years and a regular adult season badge increased by $10. Although these badge fees are the same for everyone, these fees are becoming more expensive, ultimately making it less affordable for some New Jersians to access the beach. This reality undermines the goals of the public trust doctrine and the duty that state and local governments have to ensure adequate access to public trust lands.
Student Researcher: Samantha Pawlik
Mitigating these risks through technology and policy reforms is key to implementing such a large-scale project in a safe manner. Cutting-edge technology has been a crucial component in the construction of offshore wind farms. My project discussed suction bucket and gravity-based foundations, which are new technologies that can be used in place of monopile foundations as a quieter and less disruptive alternative during construction. Collaboration between agencies to provide efficient documentation of progress and findings, transparency of information with shore towns and public education on the projects, and continued research efforts are all key to attenuate the threats posed by offshore wind farms. Duke University recently received a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to assess the risks that offshore wind energy development along the East Coast may pose to birds, bats, and marine mammals. This type of research will help inform decisions and identify steps that can be taken to reduce harmful impacts on marine wildlife as offshore wind deployment increases.
Urban Coast Institute Director Tony MacDonald has been named a member of the Law and Policy Task Force for the Metuchen, New Jersey-based Citizens Campaign. Founded in 1997 by government law and policy expert Harry Pozycki, the mission of the Citizens Campaign is to educate all Americans to the fullness of their political power and to introduce them to the shared experience of public service performed by participating in “No-Blame Problem Solving” of public issues.
Randall Abate is the inaugural Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute endowed chair in marine and environmental law and policy and a tenured full professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology. He teaches courses in domestic and international environmental law, constitutional law, and animal law. Professor Abate joined Monmouth in 2018 with 24 years of full-time teaching experience at six U.S. law schools, most recently from Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando, where he also served as associate dean for academic affairs. Professor Abate has published five books and more than 30 law journal articles and book chapters on environmental and animal law topics, with a recent emphasis on climate change law and justice. Early in his career, Professor Abate handled environmental law matters at two law firms in Manhattan.
Steven Bachrach became the dean of the School of Science at Monmouth University in 2016. Previously, he was the Dr. D. R. Semmes distinguished professor of chemistry at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He also served terms as the assistant vice president for special projects, and Department of Chemistry chair. He began his academic career at Northern Illinois University where he earned the rank of full professor. Bachrach was an American Council on Education (ACE) fellow at the University of Redlands during the 2014-15 academic year. He maintains an active research program in computational organic chemistry, having published with dozens of undergraduate students. Dr. Bachrach has authored more than 150 publications, including his book Computational Organic Chemistry, and served as editor-in-chief of the Internet Journal of Chemistry. His latest book, Thinking Like a Physical Organic Chemist, is scheduled to be published next year with Oxford University Press. Bachrach is the recipient of more than $2 million in grant funding, most notably from the National Science Foundation, American Chemical Society, and the Welch Foundation.
Tony MacDonald is director of the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI). He was previously the executive director of the Coastal States Organization (CSO) from 1998-2005. CSO, based in Washington, D.C., represents the interests of the governors of the nation’s 35 coastal states and territories on coastal and ocean policy matters. Prior to joining CSO, Tony was the special counsel and director of environmental affairs at the American Association of Port Authorities, where he represented the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) at the International Maritime Organization on negotiations on the London Convention. Tony has also practiced law with a private firm in Washington, DC, working on environmental and legislative issues, and served as the Washington, DC, environmental legislative representative for the mayor of the City of New York.