Ithaca College
EN-3: Student Life

- Ithaca College Environmental Society (ICE) promotes environmental awareness and responsibility on our campus through education, activism, and stewardship, while reaching out both within our campus and the community of Ithaca. - The IC undergraduate chapter of Net Impact represents the School of Business' objective to "foster sustainable enterprises." The program promotes the study and practice of sustainability in corporate enterprises and encourages a sense of ethical, social, and public responsibilities. http://www.ithaca.edu/business/clubs/netimpact/ - S.W.I.F.T. (Stop Wasting Ithaca's Food Today) works with Dining Services to repackage and deliver leftover, unserved food to local food pantries. - IC Organic Growers developed and maintains the campus organic garden and the Permaculture garden. - IC Progressives is an organization supporting grass-roots activists, environmentalists, advocates for social justice, non-violent resisters, and regular citizens who have had enough of corporate-dominated politics and want to change society. -Resource and Environmental Management Program (REMP) works to create a more sustainable living and learning experience on campus. The group to promote awareness of environmental concerns, educate the College community about how we can safeguard the earth's life-support system, implements new programs that encourage resource management, recycling, and conservation, manages the College's waste stream in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner.

Ithaca College Community Gardens, located on the lower portion of the IC campus and off of Farm Pond Road, are student-run gardens. We experiment with many aspects of sustainable gardening and farming including permaculture design, crop rotation, companion planting, four-season food production, and heirloom seed saving. We all help to organize classroom tours, assist with student research, and host harvest dinners and other special events for volunteers and community members. The IC Organic Garden is also currently working with Ithaca College’s permaculture garden and rooftop garden on Terrace 2.

South Hill Forest Products is a student-run business dedicated to providing high quality, all natural non-timber forest products (NTFP) grown and/or harvested on campus-owned property. Each spring semester, Professor Jason Hamilton, associate professor of Environmental Studies, leads an NTFP class that is comprised of students eager to learn. The class is based around an experiential type of education, that allows the students to interact with the subjects they learn. Once the students leave the class, they are well equipped to: - Integrate: connect academic knowledge, theory, and skills to the experiential learning context - Problem Solve: identify challenges and opportunities that arise in the experiential learning environment, and respond constructively to them - Communicate: develop written, verbal, and non‐verbal competencies to effectively communicate with diverse audiences - Practice Professionalism: understand their roles and responsibilities within the experiential learning context, and act appropriately Throughout the semester, students learn how to keep bees, farm mushrooms, and make maple syrup. While Jason and his TAs provide a knowledge base, the majority of the work is done by the students. Students in the South Hill Forest Products group pick and pack mushrooms, harvest and process honey, and tap maple trees and boil sap to produce maple syrup. We sell our products and organize an open house at the sugar bush. South Hill Forest Products brand maple syrup is also available for sale at the Campus Store.

The School of Business has a yearly Sustainability Forum Series that brings in experts in various fields of sustainability, as well as being an expo for sustainability related student work. There was also a campus-wide forum led by Dr. Sandra Steingraber and other professors that discussed climate change and the COP21 in Paris.

There is a program in one of the residence halls called the Outdoor Adventure Learning Community. This community organizes trips such as hiking, backpacking or kayaking. There are also several hundred acres of natural lands on campus that have posted Leave No Trace policies, which are used as outdoor classrooms.

The institution began offering a sustainability themed first year experience. Before the start of the school year, incoming freshman are invited to participate in a Jumpstart Program. One of the programs is the Green Tour that takes students on a bio-regional bus tour around Cayuga Lake with a sustainability guide. The students also partake in activities that foster a better sense of the regional community and environment, like visiting the S.H.A.R.E. farm, run by the Haudenosaunee native tribe and the Ithaca Farmers Market. In addition, in Fall 2013, Ithaca instituted the First Year Residential Experience linked to the Integrative Core Curriculum with residents selecting academic themes, one of which is "A Quest for a Sustainable Future." This theme includes courses that ask: What does it mean to live sustainably? Is sustainability an attainable and meaningful goal? How do we tell stories—in literature, in film, in media new and old—about consumerism, economic inequality and affluence, environmental change and degradation, and more? In what ways will the quest for sustainability define the coming century? How have values systems in different times and places shaped our economic, social, and ecological behavior? What are some meaningful metrics for assessing sustainability? To what extent is sustainability a scientific problem versus a social issue?

Student group Resource and Environmental Management Program (REMP) held Student Leadership Institute (SLI) workshops on how to choose an apartment based on energy efficiency and best practices to reduce energy consumption.

Resource and Environmental Management Program (REMP) works to create a more sustainable living and learning experience on campus. The group to promote awareness of environmental concerns, educate the College community about how we can safeguard the earth's life-support system, implements new programs that encourage resource management, recycling, and conservation, manages the College's waste stream in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner. The program employs 9 students each semester, as well as offer one or two paid or for credit internships.