September 3, 1999

Loyola University Center for Environmental Communications: Opening dialogues

By Trish Moser, A'93, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and Public Affairs

The Loyola University Center for Environmental Communications (LUCEC) is celebrating its first official year under the leadership of Robert A. Thomas, Ph.D., Loyola Chair in Environmental Communications. The groundwork for LUCEC began shortly after Thomas arrived at Loyola in 1996. LUCEC was created in response to a growing community need to have a better understanding of the environmental issues facing Louisiana and to promote environmental policy intervention by bringing together disagreeing groups to pursue constructive discussion.

"Louisiana has 40 percent of the nation's coastal wetlands and more than 80 percent of Louisiana's coastal zone is governed by entities outside of the state. These factors put Louisiana in a unique position," Thomas says. When one also looks at the impact of coastal and offshore oil and gas production, the presence of the nation's largest petrochemical corridor, coastal erosion, and the fact that Louisiana has become an epicenter of environmental justice issues, Thomas responds, "nowhere else in the country are so many conservation and environmental issues so constantly present in the lives of the population. This is why LUCEC is so important."

With over 24 years of environmental academic experience, Thomas also understands the importance of environmental communications in higher education. LUCEC is one of only a handful of communications programs in the country that focuses on environmental issues. Loyola is the only university in the south with a program like this.

Under Thomas' organization, LUCEC has developed four different areas of concentration: increasing communication between industry, communities, and the media; providing workshops as a resource for environmental journalists, scientists, and environmental professionals; teaching student journalists to cover environmental issues; and the hallmark of the center, the Institute for Environmental Communications.

Communicating the issues

LUCEC is dedicated to helping the media and lay citizens understand environmental news coverage and issues that, in turn, help individuals make informed decisions. To do this, the center discusses issues in newspaper interviews, is developing a program for TV and radio commentary, submits articles for publication, and trains grassroots groups to better communicate with their audiences.

Since 1996, Thomas has presented talks on environmental communications across six states and in five countries; assisted not-for-profit organizations with communications; and conducted interviews for CNN, National Public Radio, Macedonian National Radio, Hungary National Radio, local television and radio stations, The Times-Picayune, Baton Rouge's The Advocate, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other local newspapers. He was also the facilitator of a Common Sense Initiative Project for the Environmental Protection Agency in Norco, Louisiana.

Workshops for professionals

The center helps environmental journalists, scientists, and other environmental professionals by offering workshops that offer in-depth training on a variety of issues. An upcoming workshop will bring environmental journalists from all over the country to learn about the oil and gas industries. LUCEC will offer workshops to train scientists and other professionals how to effectively communicate with the media. In association with the Environmental Research Consortium of Louisiana (ERCLA), LUCEC has developed the ERCLA Media Guide, a listing of scientists (cross-referenced by their fields) who are available to answer questions about environmental issues.

Training student journalists

Working with members of Loyola's faculty, the center is educating communications students to cover the environmental beat better by understanding the issues. LUCEC also is working with science majors to develop communication skills to enable them to effectively deliver their message. Student activities include: high school writers' workshops, a collegiate academic program, Covering the Planet seminars, and tropical environmental communications projects. Recently students from Loyola produced a documentary on Trinidadian conservation ethics as well as a public relations package for the Toledo Ecotourism Association (a group of Mayan villages in Belize).

When speaking about his students, Thomas says, "We have a variety of students in the programmost students enter through the communications or the biology departments, but some students are studying other disciplines at Loyola. This mixture of students from academic backgrounds brings a lot of diversity to the program."

Institute for Environmental Communications

The hallmark of the center is a community project called the Institute for Environmental Communications (IEC) which began August 26. It is modeled after the highly-regarded Institute of Politics that Loyola has offered for 30 years. The purpose of the institute is to improve communication about environmental issues on a national and a regional level. The IEC brings together a diverse group of people ranging from environmentalists to scientists, educators, industrialist, and journalists for approximately 14 sessions. Each session will feature a different speaker from an environmentally-related profession. Targeted areas are the law, the sciences, risk management, and urban issues. Discussions are lead by the region's environmental leaders. IEC is the only university-based program of its kind specializing in environmental communications.

When speaking about the institute, Thomas states, "We are not attempting to change the way people think, but people don't disagree as much as they think they do. We feel that by opening lines of communication, more common ground will be revealed. The IEC will lead to new, more effective alliances in the environmental movement." In summing up LUCEC and IEC, Thomas says, "We are just trying to make environmental communications better."

For more information on LUCEC or IEC, contact the center at ext. 3797.