2 Progressive Employees (both working with LMC!) attended the AASHE 2008 Conference (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) this week. http://www.aashe.org/conf2008/.
We attended a few sessions that focused on some things that Community Colleges around the country are doing. The good news is that LMC is right where most Community Colleges are in terms of the President's Climate Commitment. We did, however, see many examples of institutions that have really accomplished quite a bit.
One of the issues Lee suggested to me is an issue at LMC is that a 2-year institution that primarily has underclass students has a hard time recruiting and developing student leaders to champion the cause with their peers. I asked a roomfull of CC Sustainability leaders, "What have you done to increase student involvement?" and got a number of interesting ideas.
One college has a "welcome to campus" reception and meal event. The only way to get a ticket to the free meal is to first fill out an on-line interest inventory survey: intramural sports, clubs, arts, and sustainability, etc., and only then can a student get a free ticket to the event. Professors and student organizations can then use that input to quickly recruit interested students.
Another college gave all incoming students their orientation materials electronically on a flash drive bracelet instead of as books, pamphlets, or binders. The bracelet included a description of the campus sustainability principles that led to using electronic data instead of print material, and a link to the student sustainability club. Students were then encouraged to continue to use the flash drive for submitting papers, assignments, etc., throughout their time at the college.
Several colleges had bike-sharing programs: a fleet of campus bikes that students can use to get from place to place and leave at the building they just arrived at for others to use. The bikes were marked with web links to campus sustainability initiatives and student clubs.
One of the issues Lee suggested to me is an issue at LMC is that a 2-year institution that primarily has underclass students has a hard time recruiting and developing student leaders to champion the cause with their peers. I asked a roomfull of CC Sustainability leaders, "What have you done to increase student involvement?" and got a number of interesting ideas.
One college has a "welcome to campus" reception and meal event. The only way to get a ticket to the free meal is to first fill out an on-line interest inventory survey: intramural sports, clubs, arts, and sustainability, etc., and only then can a student get a free ticket to the event. Professors and student organizations can then use that input to quickly recruit interested students.
Another college gave all incoming students their orientation materials electronically on a flash drive bracelet instead of as books, pamphlets, or binders. The bracelet included a description of the campus sustainability principles that led to using electronic data instead of print material, and a link to the student sustainability club. Students were then encouraged to continue to use the flash drive for submitting papers, assignments, etc., throughout their time at the college.
Several colleges had bike-sharing programs: a fleet of campus bikes that students can use to get from place to place and leave at the building they just arrived at for others to use. The bikes were marked with web links to campus sustainability initiatives and student clubs.
What else can be done?
More on AASHE will be forthcoming
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