I completely concur with Rich and Mic. Even if you get administration support
it is not always the case. I had my class do an environmental assessment of the
campus nearly 4 years ago. The students chose seven areas to examine (hazardous
waste, solid waste and recycling, water usage, energy usage, new construction,
food and mold problems) on campus. They divided into groups and each researched
their area and contributed to a full report.
While we got buy in from the adminstration at the get-go, they were less than
forthcoming in providing the necessary information we needed and making
themselves available for student interviews.
When the final report was completed, we presented it to the College Senate and
adminstration for action on our recommendations. Since we weren't mandated by
the school to do this, they responded that they didn't have to respond to a
student report or student recommendations. The report lingered in the College
Senate and the various commisssions for nearly 18 months when they finally
decided that they didn't have to respond. Thecollege president was particularly
difficult and refused to even let the report be called an environmental audit
but insisted that it was an assessment.
Some of the students worked hard, but when the semester ended, no one really
wanted to follow through on the Senate and administration side and try to see
anything implemented. This is another problem with projects such as this.
Unless you have a committed group of students and a good number of supportive
faculty (a club or something) where the students will continue to fight for
change, nothing will happen. Unfortunately, environmental apathy is alive and
well on my campus.
The other issue is that this is much too big to undertake in a single semester
by undergraduates. Some of the students worked really hard and were very
pro-active and others treated it just like another class.
I'm sorry to sound so negative, but I felt that I put a lot of time into this
for very little in the way of results. I'm sure there are some real success
stories out there, but it helps if the administration is in favor of making the
campus more sustainable.
I'm more than happy to share with you the materials that we used and how we set
up the report, along with the final report, if you are interested.
Pam
Pamela Chasek, PhD
Executive Editor, Earth Negotiations Bulletin
IISD Reporting Service
Fulbright Senior Scholar
School of Government
Victoria University of Wellington
19 Highbury Road, Highbury, Wellington 6012 New Zealand
+64-4-475-3078 (home)
+64-21-0246-0480 (mobile)
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
www.iisd.org http://www.iisd.org/
IISD Reporting Services - Earth Negotiations Bulletin
www.iisd.ca http://www.iisd.ca/
Subscribe for free to our publications
http://www.iisd.ca/email/subscribe.htm http://www.iisd.ca/email/subscribe.htm
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wallace, Richard
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 3:41 PM
To: Robert Darst
Cc: GEP-Ed
Subject: RE: Campus Sustainability Course
Hi Rob,
I teach the environmental studies senior seminar at Ursinus as a project
course, and the last two years it has been devoted to campus sustainability
issues. Last year the students wrote a campus sustainability master plan, and
this year they are writing management plans for two large-scale and long-term
campus projects (our organic garden and a constructed wetland). I think the
course description for last year's effort might be helpful, and attach it here.
In addition to the description of the course, the attachment includes links and
cites for a number of resources that you might find useful.
I fully concur with Mic Jackson's assessment of how it will run, and in fact
would say that it probably can't be done (except as a purely academic exercise)
without the involvement of the administration and facilities or physical plant
leadership and staff. This was certainly true in our case. Our sustainability
master planning process has been a fully cooperative process done with the
blessing of the president, VP for finance, dean, and director of our Facilities
Services Office. A dozen students collaborated on the plan. Two of the students
are currently editing the plan into final shape, and all of them worked
especially closely with the facilities director throughout. The students in the
senior seminar made their final presentation of the draft master plan to the
president last spring, and the entire process of writing the plan will have
taken about a year. The time commitment aspect of this is important to
recognize. While completing a sustainability master plan - or an!
y campus sustainability project - is a valuable goal for getting students
involved in and more aware of campus operations, it has required a long-term
