EN-3 Student Life (Examples)
The New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences located at Arizona State University’s
West campus has chosen food as its sustainability-related theme for the 2009-2010 academic year. Over the summer, all new freshmen have read Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food,” and during Welcome Week they participated in small group discussions of this book, led by faculty.
That discussion kicked off a yearlong series of films, lectures, panels and demonstrations on food, entitled “Much Ado About Food.” This series is engaging the campus to think about this important topic to which multiple disciplines —science, public policy, economics, psychology, religion, culture— bring significant insights.
Throughout the year, the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University sponsors, hosts, or endorses sustainability-related events, lectures, and conferences locally, nationally, and around the globe. Among the many events are two signature lecture series. The prestigious
Wrigley Lecture Series brings world renowned thinkers from academia, business, and government engage the community in dialogues to address sustainability challenges. The
Sustainability Series includes discussions on a range of environmental, social, and economic topics.
The First-Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP) offers incoming Boston University students a unique opportunity to get settled in their new community by performing a week of community service before classes begin. A focus on the environment is one of the service options available to applicants of the program. sustainability@BU currently promotes the outreach campaign “Join the Challenge” through carbonrally.com. Each month is paired with a sustainable initiative to encourage students to compete within their school or college to reduce their carbon footprint. Past initiatives have included: “Bring your own mug”, “Think before you print”, “Turn off the lights”, etc. Each month’s winning team is presented with a sustainable reward for their efforts in reducing their carbon footprint.
Throughout the year BU hosts many sustainable events on campus; these include guest speakers discussing issues ranging from plastics in the environment and renewable energy to global climate change. The annual sustainability@BU Festival and Earth Day celebrations showcase organizations of the Sustainable Student Network and other groups that are actively promoting a broad range of sustainable activities. The following is a list of some of the events held on campus that engage the Boston University community:

Earth Week


Earth Day

Net Impact Cup Swap
 Bill McKibben Lecture
 Commonwealth Avenue Fair
 Recyclemania
 sustainability@BU Festival (Charles River Campus)
PSU has a year-long, interdisciplinary, first-year experience course called Freshman Inquiry.
Sustainability is currently 1 of 8 themes that freshmen can choose among to fulfill this portion of their general education requirement. Sustainability is also a learning outcome for all undergraduate students.
In 2008, PSU received a $25 million challenge grant, the largest gift ever given to the university.
The administration chose to put that funding toward sustainability research and education. This is a good example of how integrated sustainability is to the university. A themed year might be redundant.
Every semester at UB has a sustainability theme. First year students are greeted at orientation with our sustainability values in full practice, and within the first three weeks of class, students are presented with the annual Greener Shade of Blue & You expo that showcases how students can be more sustainable. Throughout the semester, courses and research highlight sustainability on campus. In the spring, UB's Sustainability Round Table brings together student groups to plan sustainability expos and Earth Day events beginning as early as April.
Sustainability is part of who we are--every semester, and every year.
The Common Reading Experience book selection for the 2011-2012 academic year was No
Impact Man by Colin Beaven. The University of Kentucky's Common Reading Experience is a collaborative effort between New Student and Parent Programs/Student Affairs and Academic
Affairs designed to introduce new students to academic life at the University. The goal is twofold: first, to bring new students together for a common reading experience and introduce them to academic discourse prior to the start of classes; and second, to engage the entire UK community in a common intellectual experience through year-long programming.