The USF Garden Project is currently seeking two garden research assistants for Summer 2010 (May 24- August 24)


Garden research assistants will be responsible for caring for all Garden Project gardens, including the campus garden and Booker T. Washington garden. Care includes: watering, mulching, weeding, seed saving, harvesting and distributing vegetables; tending to the orchard and fruit vines; managing compost; and hosting any visitors to the garden, which includes scheduling and overseeing a once a week garden workday. 10 hours a week will be split between the two assistants based on their schedules. Pay is based on USF student worker pay scale.


If interested please email David Silver (dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu) and/or Melinda Stone (stone [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu) stating your interest by April 26. Please provide either a narrative and/or resume that reflects your experience related to this position. Decisions will be made by April 30.

last friday, urban homesteader and author novella carpenter visited USF. she met with green media and garden project students who are two-thirds finished reading novella's book, farm city: the education of an urban farmer.

novella began the day with my green media class. she asked my students question and they gave answers, and then my students asked novella questions and she gave answers. we talked about farm city, about urban homesteading, about raising, killing, and eating rabbits, about pop up farming, about interacting with the media, and about the role of the internet in today's urban ag.


around noon, we walked out of the education building, across the parking lot, and into USF's organic garden. while green media students showed novella the veggie plot we planted last week, i rounded up a few garden project students to give novella a tour of our campus garden.

after the tour, we surrounded a table full of food that students cooked, baked, and prepared for lunch - two loaves of homemade bread, a delicious soup, a garden quiche, a fresh garden salad, and a tasty rhubarb pie baked with rhubarb from the garden. it was a delicious feast.



with loaded bowls and plates, we took a seat in a circle, ate our food, and talked about farm city, about making homemade cheese and salami, about raising ducks, and about today and tomorrow's directions in urban ag. as novella writes on her own blog, "it made my heart sing to see these good citizens fired up about growing food." indeed.




as a teacher, the best part of the day was when garden project students took novella and green media students on a tour of the garden (captured so well by kate greenspan). it was cool to watch the mostly freshmen garden project students teach novella about our garden, but it was even cooler to watch them teach the mostly seniors in green media. students teaching students.

last week in green media, the students and professor baked bread. although the assignment included some readings on bread-making, it included no hands-on instructions. "bake bread," i told my students, "and if you don't know how, learn."

in class on friday, we broke bread. we sampled each other's creations and shared tips and suggestions.




as usual, students were required to make and share their recipes. together, the students created an online cookbook. enjoy.

Marco Abellera's Making Bread: Focaccia
Daniele Dominguez's How to Make Sourdough Bread
Kate Greenspan & Sophia Lorenzi's Soph's Loaf of Chocolate Banana Bread
Christina Hammill's No-Knead Bread
Samuel Hernandez & Peter Thoene's rosemary rock salt focaccia
Michael Kao's Bread Noobie
Kelli McCloskey & Joseph Montana's Bread Making
Erin Venables' Rosemary Garlic Bread
Joel Weston's Mama D's Italian Bread

yer invited!


URBAN AGRICULTURE in the 21st CENTURY
Where art, commerce, education, politics and generosity meet to promote city-grown food

Please join USF's Environmental Studies 450 capstone students and their professor Melinda Stone, as they host what promises to be an engaging panel on the state of urban agriculture on Tuesday, March 2 from 2 – 4 PM in McClaren Hall 252.

Panelist include:

Mei Ling Hui, urban agriculture contact for San Francisco’s Department of the Environment. (sfenvironment.org)

Amy Franceschini, USF art/architecture professor and main instigator behind SF Victory Gardens 2009+ and founder of Future Farmers. (futurefarmers.com)

Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway, co-owners/farmers of Little City Gardens in the San Francisco Mission District. (littlecitygarden.com)

Blair Randall, executive director of Garden for the Environment, San Francisco’s premiere education garden. (gardenfortheenvironment.org)

Tree, founder of the Free Farm Stand on 23rd and Treat Ave. in San Francisco. (freefarmstand.org)

I am confident that we are of a size and nimbleness that allow us to capitalize on the positive underpinnings beneath an iceberg that most folks can only see the tip of. This is a time for vision, imagination, energy and action tempered by a prudence that capitalizes on latent opportunities without jeopardizing the enterprise or compromising our mission of educating leaders to fashion a more humane and just world.

Rev. Stephen A. Privett, S.J., USF Town Hall Meeting April 2009

With the goal of providing additional context to the ongoing crisis in higher education, Gleeson Library has collected a set of articles and other resources that discuss the current state of budgeting, enrollment management, endowments and other topics from institutions with budgeting challenges similar to the ones we face at USF. This list is just a start. If you have other articles you’d like to see on this page, please let us know in the comments below.