| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 57.84 |
| Liaison | Paul Edlund |
| Submission Date | Feb. 19, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Montana State University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Mathew
Bain Intern Office of Sustainability |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Air & Climate
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Air & Climate:
ETME-327 Commercial Building Energy Assessment Lab is an energy assessment course that uses the campus buildings, heat plant and energy systems as a living laboratory. Students participate in and learn from studies of utility use, systems and building operations including control systems, interviews with maintenance and engineering personnel and in class discussions.
Buildings
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Buildings:
ETME-327 Commercial Building Energy Assessment Lab is an energy assessment course that uses the campus buildings, heat plant and energy systems as a living laboratory. Students participate in and learn from studies of utility use, systems and building operations including control systems, interviews with maintenance and engineering personnel and in class discussions.
In the Fall semester of 2015, MSU's Civil Engineering Capstone course (ECIV-489/499) researched and developed designs for a green roof on the new Norm Asbjornson Hall. The objective of the project was to utilize precipitation to increase green space on campus, reduce the heat-island effects of the building, and create a learning laboratory for engineering, landscape design, and other students.
Energy
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Energy:
ETME-327 Commercial Building Energy Assessment Lab is an energy assessment course that uses the campus buildings, heat plant and energy systems as a living laboratory. Students participate in and learn from studies of utility use, systems and building operations including control systems, interviews with maintenance and engineering personnel and in class discussions.
ETME-491 Wind Energy Engineering Campus incorporates campus wind turbines to provide experience with wind energy technologies, resource assessment, aerodynamics, turbine mechanics and dynamics, structural response, materials & components, design and testing.
Food & Dining
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Food & Dining:
MSU's Agriculture Marketing class (AGBE-321) focuses on issues in marketing agricultural products and the economic principles that assist in analysis of these issues, factors affecting market prices, and topics associated with methods of marketing are considered, with an emphasis on Montana products. This course has worked with MSU's Farm to Campus program to market sustainable dinners centered around local agriculture. In particular, this dinner featured grown by MSU students on MSU agricultural lands as a part of the "Steer-A-Year" program.
MSU's Department of Animal and Range Sciences manages the "Steer-A-Year" program. Steer-A-Year students sell the steers directly to MSU’s Culinary Services. In 2017, students sold 30 steers to the program, and the College of Agriculture and MSU's Farm to Campus program in Culinary Services hosted a Montana Steer-A-Year beef dinner for the public in the Miller Dining Commons. The steers live at MSU’s Bozeman Agricultural Research and Teaching, or BART, Farm, and students are responsible for everything from feeding the animals to health checks and vaccinations.The focus the relationship between these two programs is to provide hands on experience to students, while tightening the gap between producers and consumers in MSU's dining halls.
Grounds
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Grounds:
Students in Planting Design (HORT 331) use campus as a living laboratory in several projects throughout the course. These projects focus on developing and improving current landscape plans for campus focused on pollinator habitat, xeriscaping, community planting design, minimizing herbicides and pesticides, edible gardens, rain gardens, and integration with storm water infrastructure. Students present their conceptual designs to MSU's grounds manager at the end of the course.
Purchasing
No
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Purchasing:
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Transportation
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Transportation:
MSU's Civil Engineering Capstone course (ECIV-489/499) has utilized campus as a tool to study potential transportation management strategies in and around campus. The most recent example comes from ECIV-499 Fall 2017 semester. Students in this capstone course studied and designed solutions for a long-term redevelopment of the south campus district - including ways to improve vehicular and pedestrian transportation infrastructure. These students made presented to a board of MSU planners an their concepts are being incorporated into current planning efforts.
Waste
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Waste:
HONR-494 Design Thinking for Our Community is an upper division seminar course, that explores the process of design thinking using a multidisciplinary approach to solve real world problems in our community and on campus. Examples of past projects include re-designing Move-In day on campus to reduce waste and increase efficiency and studying the potential for composting in MSU's dining halls. Both of these projects have resulted in tangible changes in campus operations - including the development of a full scale composting operation at all dining halls on campus.
Water
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Water:
In the Spring 2016 semester, MSU's Civil Engineering Capstone course (ECIV-489/499) researched and developed designs for waste water treatment wetlands built into the new Norm Asbjornson Hall. Students were challenged to develop a rooftop wetland area that could serve as a functional waste water treatment unit that reduces building water consumption, as well as an educational tool for students and researchers.
Coordination & Planning
No
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Coordination & Planning:
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Diversity & Affordability
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Diversity & Affordability:
Graduate student thesis "Discourse of Diversity: Transforming Organizational Culture" explored MSU administrator's understanding and support for diversity on campus. The purpose of this research was to understand how MSU, a predominately white (and male)
institution, navigates pressures to become more diverse and inclusive. More specifically, this research asks:
1. How do administrators grapple with and conceive of diversity and inclusion in a largely visibly homogenous population? How does this contribute to the organizational culture?
2. How can the work of Lacan provide insight into understanding the complexities of
organizational change?
Investment & Finance
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Investment & Finance:
MSU's Office of Sustainability has employed student interns to work on developing socially responsible investment (SRI) standards for MSU's endowment - managed by the MSU Alumni Foundation. These students compiled research from universities and organizations that support the financial security of moving toward SRI investing, and highlight the sustainable benefits of such practices. These students lobbied the Associated Students of MSU to pass a resolution in support of SRI investing at MSU and develoepd a framework for a Committee on Investor Responsibility. Their internship culminated in a final report containing the compiled research, the successfully passed ASMSU resolution, and other resources and guiding documents that students could use to keep the project moving forward via a student club or project. These students received credit for their work through MSU's Political Science Department.
Public Engagement
Yes
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Public Engagement:
The Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU) and the Office of Student Engagement both manage student interns from various departments on campus to work on a wide range of public engagement activities including promoting student civic engagement and organizing community service opportunities.
Wellbeing & Work
No
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to Wellbeing & Work:
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Other Impact Areas
No
A brief description of the student/faculty projects and how they contribute to understanding campus sustainability challenges or advancing sustainability on campus in relation to other areas:
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Optional Fields
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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