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Students, faculty join forces to improve living conditions for American Indians By Amy Milgrub Marshall
A group of faculty members, students and alumni from Penn State and the University of Washington construct a literacy center, using bales of straw, on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. The service-learning project is part of a three-part Penn State course that explores sustainable building methods to improve living conditions on American Indian reservations. Photos by Scott Wing	A group of Penn State students, faculty and alumni worked with American Indians to construct buildings out of straw during an innovative service-learning project on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. The group spent several weeks on the reservation during the summer, helping the community to build a literacy center on the Chief Dull Knife Memorial Tribal College campus.   Led by School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture faculty members Scott Wing and Michael Rios and by Department of Architectural Engineering faculty member Dr. David Riley, the trip is a component of a three-part course that explores how sustainable building methods, including strawbale construction, can help improve the poor living conditions on American Indian reservations.   The course, titled Community-Built Sustainable Housing, is part of the American Indian Housing Initiative, which Riley started in 1999 while a faculty member at the University of Washington. When he came to Penn State in 2001, he decided to join forces between the two schools to further develop the initiative. University of Washington students and faculty are collaborating with Penn State students and faculty on architectural designs, and all participated in the building project.   One goal of the American Indian Housing Initiative is to help American Indians take advantage of their natural resources, such as straw. Strawbale construction uses bales of straw—normally a waste product of wheat production—to build a structure’s walls. Those walls are then plastered with stucco, creating a highly energy-efficient building that is more affordable than traditional wood-framed structures.   “Wood-framing and carpentry can be intimidating,” said Riley, an associate professor and Penn State graduate (’91 B.A.E., ’94 Ph.D., engineering). “Straw and stucco are easier to work with, so people feel more comfortable participating in the building process.”   The benefits of strawbale construction are one of the topics discussed during the first part of the 3-credit course. During the spring semester, the class met once a week to address other topics, such as American Indian culture, participatory design and cross-cultural interaction. Then the students and their instructors traveled to Montana for a two-week stay, working with the American Indians to build the literacy center. Penn State alumni also were invited to participate in the project through sponsorships for students, donations and hands-on involvement. During the fall, students will complete the final part of the course. They will make recommendations for future research on housing programs for American Indian tribes in the Northern Plains.   Although the actual building of the literacy center has been completed, the fall semester’s work is just as important, said Rios, assistant professor of architecture and landscape architecture and director of the Hamer Center for Community Design Assistance.   “Service learning often does not have a reflective component—students do the project and that’s it,” Rios said. “The fall semester will allow the students to reflect on what they’ve learned and accomplished.”   Collaboration—among the Northern Cheyenne Indians, the University of Washington and Penn State—is another important component of the course. Penn State’s Raymond A. Bowers Program for Excellence in the Design and Construction of the Built Environment, which provided start-up funds for the American Indian Housing Initiative at Penn State, was created in 1994 by architectural engineering alumnus Raymond Bowers to foster collaboration between faculty in the College of Engineering and College of Arts and Architecture. According to Wing, associate professor of architecture, the faculty members involved in the American Indian Housing Initiative believe strongly in collaboration. “In our professional lives, we’ve all seen how important it is,” he added.   According to Riley, the collaborative aspect of the project appeals to the American Indians, because it represents more than a Band-Aid solution to their housing problems.   “If we work together to build a community building, such as a literacy center, we can build a trusting relationship with the reservation community,” Riley explained. For the Penn State community, the goal is to raise awareness of service learning. “Our ultimate goal is for service learning to be recognized as an effective teaching tool.”   The American Indian Housing Initiative is supported by several Penn State partners, including The Schreyer Honors College, the Alumni Association, the Rock Ethics Institute, the Hamer Center for Community Design Assistance, the Kellogg Leadership for Institutional Change Initiative and the College of Engineering’s Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education. The Red Feather Development Group, a national nonprofit housing and community development organization, serves as the liaison between Penn State and the American Indians. An outreach program of the College of Arts and Architecture, College of Engineering, The Schreyer Honors College, Penn State Alumni Association, Rock Ethics Institute, Hamer Center for Community Design Assistance, Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education and Kellogg Leadership for Institutional Change
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu