Educating the Gettysburg College Campus Community

Gettysburg College is home to a few thousand students and faculty. These students and faculty rely on Gettysburg College’s administration to support them and help them grow in knowledge and experience. In a time where we are failing the Earth, our greater home, it is important to receive the proper education and materials to learn how to combat this. By inspecting the ways that other schools in the United States enforce this amongst their campus community through AASHE (the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), Gettysburg College can properly enhance their green education system.

Colby College (Maine)

On November 5, 2018, Colby College received a 20.75/21 rating on AASHE’s STARS Report for Campus Engagement. The students at Colby College are very active in promoting a green campus. There are five main green student groups on campus: EcoReps, the Environmental Coalition (EnviroCo), Colby Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (COFGA), Colby Beekeepers, and Colby Alliance for Renewable Energy (C.A.R.E.). All of these groups focus on different aspects of sustainability and are strongly involved in the campus community. Additionally, the Environmental Studies Department at Colby College puts together (almost) weekly sustainability oriented lunch talks given by people from all over the world, of different professions, and on various topics (AASHE).

Stanford University (California)

Stanford University received a 20.75/21 rating on AASHE’s STARS Report for Campus Engagement on February 22, 2019. Stanford University requires incoming freshmen to read three books over the summer, one of which is typically sustainability-themed. This gets incoming students involved in the campus’ sustainable practices before they even arrive at the school. There is also My Cardinal Green, a portal created by the Office of Sustainability at Stanford University available to all students. This year-round offered portal educates and engages students in practicing sustainable lifestyles. Students can even earn points by pursuing certain actions in the portal, and when certain amounts of points are earned, there are prizes and incentives.

Stanford University gets their staff involved in sustainable practices during their full-day faculty orientation. At this orientation, a time slot is dedicated to educating the faculty about important sustainable practices like carpooling, purchasing environmentally conscious products, saving electricity, and more (AASHE).

Dickinson College (Pennsylvania)

Dickinson College was given a rating of 20.75/21 for Campus Engagement on AASHE’s STARS Report on March 1, 2018. At Dickinson College, sustainability has a unique definition; “How do we improve the human condition equitably in this and future generations, while conserving environmental systems necessary to support healthy and vibrant societies?” EcoReps, one of more than ten sustainability-oriented clubs at Dickinson, have co-hosted a variety of sustainability based events and projects with the Center for Sustainability Education since 2011. These include rebuilt green bikes for students to check out for the semester, an information table about sustainability at Dickinson, a sustainability-related gift for all first-year students, and a “green move-in”, which are all-day stations during the move-in period each semester that assists students with separating waste and recyclables (AASHE).

To learn more about how these school’s educate their community on sustainability, click below.