Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 81.45
Liaison Lindsey Lyons
Submission Date March 1, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Dickinson College
EN-2: Student Orientation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Lindsey Lyons
Assistant Director
Center for Sustainability Education
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Are the following students provided an opportunity to participate in orientation activities and programming that prominently include sustainability?:
Yes or No
First-year students Yes
Transfer students Yes
Entering graduate students N/A - institution does not have graduate students

Percentage of all entering (i.e. new) students (including transfers and graduate students) that are provided an opportunity to participate in orientation activities and programming that prominently include sustainability (0-100):
100

A brief description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation (including how multiple dimensions of sustainability are addressed):

Sustainability has been a distinctive part of new student orientation since 2011. Every year the Center for Sustainability Education and Eco-Reps host an information table about sustainability at Dickinson, offer rebuilt green bikes for students to check out for the semester, provide a sustainability-related gift for all first year students, and staffed all-day stations to assist students with separating waste and recyclables for "green move-in". Our Green Devil sustainability mascot was also present throughout orientation. The primary sustainability-focused program is a required program designed to all first-year orientation groups to compete against each other in a campus-wide, sustainability scavenger hunt. This distinct offering is open to all new students, and provide our sustainability staff the opportunity to introduce themselves and important initiatives to the entire class.

In 2014-2017, Dickinson offered sustainability-focused pre-orientation programs. These optional 2-1/2 day intensive programs offer experiential education, team building, early involvement, and leadership adventures that introduce new students to Dickinson's distinctive characteristics such as sustainability. Approximately 225 first year students (approximately 42% of the class) were able to focus on sustainability through these intensive programs.

• Why Place Matters: A Sustainable Local Adventure
• Change the World: A Service & Leadership Training Experience
• Cuisine, Carlisle and Climbing (C3)
• Social Justice at Dickinson: Discovering Your Social Justice Story
• Food for Thought with the Dickinson College Farm
• Kick Start Dickinson (Sustainability Innovation)

WILD Programs (WILDERNESS INTRODUCTION TO LIFE AT DICKINSON)

WILD- DISCOVER ROCK CLIMBING IN PENNSYLVANIA
WILD- RAFTING AND HIKING
WILD- CANOEING ADVENTURE ON THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER TRAIL
WILD- WHERE IN THE NATURAL WORLD ARE WE? EXPLORE PA’S ECOLOGY AND HIKING TRAIL NETWORK
WILD- BACKPACKING IN THE SCENIC DELAWARE WATER GAP
WILD- BACKPACKING IN PENNSYLVANIA’S GRAND CANYON
WILD- BACKPACKING IN MONONGAHELA NATIONAL PARK
WILD- ROPES COURSE AND BIKING IN THE HEART OF PENNSYLVANIA
WILD- CLIMBING AND CANOEING IN SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK
WILD- SURFING AND KAYAKING AT ASSATEAGUE ISLAND

These programs help participants learn that sustainability is about more than recycling and the environment. Sustainability is about answering a fundamental question: How do we improve the human condition equitably in this and future generations, while conserving environmental systems necessary to support healthy and vibrant societies? This is Dickinson's working definition of sustainability.

Pre-orientation programs help first-year participants recognizes that the essential needs of vast numbers of people are not being met in the present, and that poverty and inequality are amplifiers of vulnerability to environmental and other hazards. The programs stress local resources, and help define ways that they can contribute to helping to build more sustainable communities through Dickinson programs and courses.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Dickinson's Orientation program for new students is designed to facilitate the integration into the unfamiliar academic and residential setting that is college life. Through Orientation students learn about the institutional values of Dickinson. Of which, sustainability is a major component. Information tables, green move-in programs, a first year class-wide sustainability scavenger hunt and sustainability-focused pre-orientation programs introduce a large percentage of Dickinson students to this from day one.

Our approach to sustainability is distinctive for making sustainability a part of every student’s education, infusing it across our liberal arts curriculum, drawing on our strengths in global education to explore and compare experiences of different cultures, and using active learning methods that empower students to connect their classroom studies with sustainable campus operations, resources such as the Dickinson Organic Farm, and engagement with the world beyond campus borders. We take very seriously the effort to make this part of every students orientation to life at Dickinson.


Dickinson's Orientation program for new students is designed to facilitate the integration into the unfamiliar academic and residential setting that is college life. Through Orientation students learn about the institutional values of Dickinson. Of which, sustainability is a major component. Information tables, green move-in programs, a first year class-wide sustainability scavenger hunt and sustainability-focused pre-orientation programs introduce a large percentage of Dickinson students to this from day one.

Our approach to sustainability is distinctive for making sustainability a part of every student’s education, infusing it across our liberal arts curriculum, drawing on our strengths in global education to explore and compare experiences of different cultures, and using active learning methods that empower students to connect their classroom studies with sustainable campus operations, resources such as the Dickinson Organic Farm, and engagement with the world beyond campus borders. We take very seriously the effort to make this part of every students orientation to life at Dickinson.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.