Cal Poly Humboldt
EN-2: Student Orientation

The mission of the Humboldt Orientation Program (HOP) is to communicate what it means to be a member of the HSU community, to prepare students to be socially and environmentally responsible members of diverse societies, and to teach students to use their education to make a positive difference in the world. Prior to the start of each fall semester, HOP coordinates a multi-day new freshmen orientation, required for all new undergraduate students. Sustainability has been prominently included into HOP through the following:
• Mandatory attendance for all new freshmen at the Zero Waste workshop, which includes:
o Green Pledge station: new freshmen pledge to take into account the social and environmental consequences of their decisions during their time at HSU and beyond, and to minimize their impact. New students write their pledge on a re-used index card and hang it on the Pledge Tree.
o Seed planting station: participants learn about composting at HSU and then plant seeds in a compostable pot, in compost made at HSU.
o Zero waste relay: students learn about waste minimization at HSU. They are divided into teams that race each other to properly put a bagful of items in recycling, compost, and landfill bins.
o Repurposed card-making station: Students learn about the Reusable Office Supply Exchange (ROSE) depot on campus and make repurposed greeting cards.
o Shirt-2-Tote station: students make re-usable bags from donated tshirts
• Zero waste lunch hosted for all new freshmen and their families/friends. The Sustainability Office works with HOP and Dining Services to put together a lunch that will generate no landfill waste. Approximately 2,100 attendees at this event use the portable water bar and compost bins hosted by Facilities staff and students from the Waste Reduction & Resource Awareness Program (WRRAP). Student Waste Ambassadors talk to new students and their families about waste reduction at HSU.
• Integration of campus sustainability attributes and features into orientation tours
• Sustainability training of HOP staff
• Prominent sections on campus sustainability in the online orientation programs (HOOP and ROOTS) for transfer students and returning students. Students must correctly answer two quiz questions related to sustainability before they can complete the online orientation.
• Sustainability kit provided to all new freshmen. The Sustainability kit includes a re-usable steel canteen, a printed sustainability guide to resources on campus, and a re-usable grocery bag.
• During Housing’s Opening Day student groups such as (WRRAP), Green Campus, and Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) host information tables next to registration tables. Facilities Management provides free clothes hangers and three-ring binders to new students, which had been collected during move-out the previous semester.

The Humboldt Orientation Website is http://www2.humboldt.edu/orientation/. First time undergraduate, new post-baccalaureate and new transfer student numbers were gathered from HSU Institutional Effectiveness, http://www2.humboldt.edu/irp/. The fall 2016 semester started with 1,295 new freshmen and 857 new transfer undergraduate students. Graduate Students, recorded as 280 new post-baccalaureate students, may attend a one-hour long, non-mandatory orientation through the Graduate Dean's Office but this event has not traditionally incorporated sustainability information. It is anticipated that sustainability will be added to this Graduate Orientation event during Fall 2017.