Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 74.49
Liaison Krista Bailey
Submission Date Dec. 17, 2020

STARS v2.2

Pennsylvania State University
EN-2: Student Orientation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.74 / 2.00 Doug Goodstein
Assoc Director for Student Engagement
Sustainability Institute
"---" 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 No

Percentage of all entering students that are provided an opportunity to participate in orientation activities and programming that prominently include sustainability:
87

A brief description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation :

Personnel from Penn State's Sustainability Institute host a table at the New Student Orientation (NSO) Resource Fair for all 42 days of NSO, which is required of all first-year and transfer students. We have the opportunity to engage approximately 10,000 incoming and transfer undergraduate students and their parents at these events. Our table contains information on what sustainability is, how to get involved, learning opportunities, and leadership opportunities. Students can sign up to receive further information about sustainability-related opportunities via email throughout the school year.

In addition to NSO, Sustainability Institute staff are also engaged with first-year undergraduate orientation for the Honors College (SHOtime), hosting a keynote & sustainable lunch using the green2go (reusable to-go containers).

Currently, sustainability is not featured at the New Graduate Student Orientation, which is a much shorter half-day event. Some graduate students receive sustainability orientation through their academic programs - for example, new doctoral and masters students in programs administered by the Huck Institute of Life Sciences receive sustainability orientation.


Website URL where information about sustainability in student orientation is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

We assumed that the number of entering grad students is proportional to their percentage of the Penn State University Park student population = 13%. We subtracted this percentage from 100% to arrive at the percentage of undergrad and transfer students. Both of these latter groups do have sustainability in orientation activities.


We assumed that the number of entering grad students is proportional to their percentage of the Penn State University Park student population = 13%. We subtracted this percentage from 100% to arrive at the percentage of undergrad and transfer students. Both of these latter groups do have sustainability in orientation activities.

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