OOS 70-4
Infusing sustainability principles and developing "green" community partnerships from the first year university experience onward
The confluence of curriculum revision, environmental initiatives of students and faculty, doubling the campus landholdings, and enhancing the University’s Catholic, Marianist identity and legacy of community building and service have synergistically birthed initiatives engaging our urban river campus and greater Dayton community in food, water, land and energy issues. The challenge has been how to use existing campus centers (Fitz Center for Leadership in Community and Social Concern) and UD’s long tradition of community engagement in the urban concerns surrounding campus. And secondly how to best apply what we have learned to the ethos of our own campus environment with the inherent complexity of the often-siloed university dimensions of academics, administration, facilities, student development and campus ministry. The Rivers Institute and the new Hanley Sustainability Institute are catalysts for conversations on how we can best integrate our assets with the broader community needs through research, scholarship and conferences.
Results/Conclusions
A developmental approach through academics and co-curricular events is taken in partnership with Student Development - including a Sustainability, Energy Environment (SEE) themed Living-Learning Community that cohorts first years in residence halls and humanities classes, field trips and guest speakers and encourages leadership. Sophomores lead first year events and begin SEE minor courses that are taught by faculty teams from different disciplines. Juniors and seniors deepen and integrate earlier experiences with concepts of ecoliteracy and sustainability and applying it to solving real-world problems. Through weeklong and summer breakouts, internships, community-engaged research and project-based courses, students explore career paths and vocational aspirations towards a just and sustainable world and how to live these after graduation.
An exemplary three-year interdisciplinary program intensely accomplishes this through the local rivers and water resources. The River Stewards (RS) (rivers.udayton.edu) engages students, faculty/staff and community partners through scholarship, community engagement and leadership development. Following a “Learn, Lead, Serve” model, RS develop real-world experiences through capstone projects and interactions with community leaders, public officials and water resource professionals. RS develop understanding of the importance of rivers and water in economic, aesthetic, ecological and communal vitality, from locally to globally. They graduate as river leaders, understanding the broader connections communities have within a watershed, who transfer this mindset to their future careers and locales.
As facilitators of these interwoven initiatives, administrators who have ecology backgrounds and auxiliary skills in leadership and community building, are instrumental in bridge-building between the on-campus silos and environmentally-based community partners.