James Madison University
EN-2: Student Orientation

JMU Student Orientation has multiple components including The One Book, Orientation, and 1787 Weeks of Welcome.

Environmental stewardship, sustainable transportation, ethical reasoning, and engagement information are included in The One Book. The environmental stewardship section clearly states that environmental stewardship is an institutional goal and focuses on actions students can take to learn and participate. The One Book is presented as students' one-stop-shop that contains all the important steps, details and information needed to begin the transition to JMU. The One Book, and the companion website, guide new students (there is a version for first-year students and one for transfer students) through steps to complete in preparation for Orientation. https://www.jmu.edu/onebook/index.shtml

Ethical reasoning is embedded in Orientation programs. Ethical Reasoning in Action (ERiA), JMU’s innovative, research-based, campus-wide ethical reasoning program, prepares students, staff and faculty to recognize and respond to a wide range (economic, environmental, social and political) of sustainability issues. Practicing the strategy of habitually asking eight key questions (8KQ), that is, querying fairness, outcomes, responsibilities, character, liberty, empathy, authority and rights (FORCLEAR), draws attention to the critical concerns at the heart of sustainability efforts. Developing a campus culture with heightened sustainability consciousness happens as a beneficial byproduct of continually asking ethical questions.

A learning outcome of the ERiA 8KQ strategy is to prepare students to be enlightened citizens who apply ethical reasoning to personal, professional, and civic life. Routinely asking about fairness, outcomes, and responsibilities, for example, brings attention to inequitable resource consumption, long-term outcomes of discarding industrial and consumer byproducts, and responsibilities regarding climate change.

To achieve the 8KQ learning outcome, incoming first-year students led by approximately 150 trained faculty and staff facilitators use the 8KQ strategy in a 75-minute “It's Complicated" scenario workshop. Scenarios include macro issues such as responding to hurricane devastation, vaccine shortages for a deadly disease (modeled on Ebola), or responsibilities in using Narcan in opioid overdose situations. Students must interrogate the hypothetical situation using the 8KQ, discuss in small peer groups, and collaboratively move toward a group decision. The 8KQ strategy encourages bias exposure and critically examining ethical dimensions of situations before acting. Practice using the strategy continues in various courses and academic programs as well as student affairs activities on campus. JMU’s academic culture, by prioritizing ethical inquiry and interrogation, naturally identifies sustainability as an important, necessary goal.
See: https://www.jmu.edu/orientation/its-complicated/ ,
http://www.jmu.edu/ethicalreasoning/8-key-questions.shtml , and https://www.jmu.edu/ethicalreasoning/ .

During Orientation, Dining Services introduces a comprehensive Dining Program Guide, featuring an overview of key ongoing sustainability efforts. During Orientation for the 2020-21 school year, Dining Services offered incoming students a virtual briefing on dining sustainability, including the ‘Dukes Reuse’ program. Staff discussed with students the different reusable options on campus and how students could participate. Staff discussed the effects of reusing and how it can benefit the environment and campus. Another portion of the program focused on connecting with the local community, specifically through an on-campus farmers market. The goal is to influence behavior that will persist not only during their time at JMU, but through their lives.

Following the return from remote operations, the Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World (ISNW) hosted a table at the Resource Fair in Fall 2021. The ISNW promoted student participation and engagement in activities.

All undergraduate first-year and transfer students receive a version of The One Book and are invited to attend the Orientation Resource Fair. The estimated percentage of students reached is based on this. Graduate students made up the other approximately 7% of the student population, which was calculated using the entries in PRE-5.

Responsible party for Ethical Reasoning: William Hawk, Chair, Ethical Reasoning in Action. Updated by Christie-Joy Hartman, ISNW, October 28, 2021.

Responsible party for dining information: Benjamin Rosenberger, Sustainability Coordinator, Dining Services.