Central Michigan University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Central Sustainability is a distinct student-led higher education sustainability office. Led by six paid student workers, the platform works to educate the campus community, and address local issues associated with waste, water, energy, food, transportation, and resiliency.

Central Sustainability Sustainability Coordinators are trained at biweekly meetings for the duration of the academic year, and attempt to engage all campus community members in education and outreach.

Each residential hall community Council will have a student representative elected the Sustainability Advocate. This person will be tasked with; assisting and or promoting hall programs involving sustainability, attend student group sustainability leadership committee meetings, be active in community council, and meet with Hall Director periodically to clarify and or share sustainability ideas. Additionally, these students run green teams in their residence halls. They teach other residence how to properly recycle and go around and collect and sort recycling on a regular basis. Administratively, this position is monitored through campus residence life, and funded through the University. These advocates are also trained by student workers at Central Sustainability, which functions as the office of sustainability. Information about this program can be found at the below link, and by downloading the Constitution/Bylaws in the provided link, and scrolling to the Sustainability Advocate position.

The Sustainability Advocate of each residence hall is responsible for informing and educating the residents living in their assigned residence hall about sustainable practices such as reducing waste, recycling properly, and creating an inclusive community. Sustainability advocates present weekly to other student residents to update them on sustainable events and programs on campus as well as educating their council on a variety of sustainability topics. They also work directly with their fellow residents while hosting weekly green teams. Through these methods, all students receive environmental sustainability education in a community-based setting. Through this program, every student at CMU receives some sustainability outreach. All students are required to live on campus for their first year, and are therefore educated on a weekly basis by their community's sustainability advocate. Information about this program can be found at the below link, and by downloading the Constitution/Bylaws in the provided link, and scrolling to the Sustainability Advocate position.

The Sustainability Leadership Committee is open to all students interested in planning sustainability efforts on campus or learning about sustainability on campus. The monthly meetings consist of leaders in sustainability across campus including student workers, registered student organization representatives, and residence hall community council representatives. During the monthly meetings, students organize events, plan initiatives, combine efforts, and share ideas. The committee also coordinates earth month activities on campus and with the surrounding community. The goal of the Sustainability Leadership Committee is to centralize sustainability efforts on campus and allow for communication between people with the same goals.

This program targets everyone on CMU's campus, with the primary target being students. Students, faculty, staff, and sometimes members of the surrounding community can participate in the Sustainability Leadership Committee's programs. The Sustainability Leadership Committee is primarily organized by Central Sustainability (functioning as CMU's office of sustainability) student workers. The student workers are paid to plan and attend these meetings and are trained by coworkers who have led this committee in previous years. Beyond Central Sustainability workers, members of the committee are volunteers (unpaid), bringing in any training they have from the groups they represent. There is little to no formal training for volunteers other than presentations given by Central Sustainability student workers to some of the members of the committee.

The Central Michigan University Alternative Breaks Program supports cultural, social, and environmental sustainability education through peer to peer meetings, and day, weekend, and week-long volunteer experiences. Over 40 breaks are offered annually, which involve approximately 300 students in total. For each break, 8 hours worth of educational meetings occur prior to the trip, followed by a sustainability-focused volunteer trip to a community partner in need. Participating students are led on these volunteer trips by one or two alternative break coordinators, who are students that have been trained and educated on issues. In the meetings prior to the trip, these trained students coordinate educational discussions, share informational resources, and promote further research into sustainability issues and solutions.

For the sustainability advocates program, this information is not published anywhere online without the need to download further information. Proof of this position can be found by following the link, scrolling to the bottom of the webpage and downloading the Constitution/Bylaws, and scrolling to the Sustainability Advocate position.

The amount of students impacted by peer to peer sustainability training is so high because several of these programs often host informational tables and poster presentations to students passing through the Library or University Center. These are informal, but it is estimated that nearly all students are impacted by one of these presentations or informational training sessions annually.