Skidmore College
EN-1: Student Educators Program

The Sustainability Representatives (S-Reps) are Skidmore’s peer-to-peer education team. The S-Reps develop and implement sustainability education campaigns, host campus activities, and organize annual events like Skidmore Unplugged, the Big Green Scream, and Sustainable Service Day. The team consists of six students, each working about six hours per week during the entire academic year.

The S-Reps organize a variety of campus events including community dialogues, keynote lectures, film screenings, and community-building activities to expand our community's awareness, understanding, and engagement in sustainability. They also assist Resident Assistants to develop and implement sustainability-focused residence hall programming.

Each fall, the S-Reps organize Skidmore Unplugged, our annual three-week electricity conservation competition designed to promote energy-conscious behavior through education. Throughout the competition, S-Reps speak with community members about energy use, renewable energy vs. fossil fuel-based electricity production, and engage in thoughtful dialogue about energy production and environmental justice challenges. Ultimately, the S-Reps aim to equip students with the skills, knowledge, and tools to reduce their personal energy consumption and adopt more sustainable habits.

Each Spring, the S-Reps create a semester-long education campaign of their choice. The team chooses a sustainability theme or topic that they believe is important and timely, and then research the topic to become more well-informed. Then, the S-Reps design an education campaign to engage our community. The S-Reps have consistently focused on waste issues and set out to improve the College's diversion rate while also engaging the community in conversations and activities about waste.

In addition to the semester-long education campaign, S-Reps also plan activities for the Big Green Scream (Skidmore's annual sustainability-themed basketball doubleheader), Sustainable Service Day, and support the College's end of the year move-out program called Give+Go.

Training:
S-Reps attend an afternoon organizer training session lead by a Skidmore Alum and community organizer within the first month of classes. Through interactive sessions, the team learns and discusses how to identify stakeholders and generate effective and inclusive partnerships. We offer campus sustainability tours to ensure our students are fluent in campus projects and can be knowledgable spokespeople on behalf of the Sustainability Office. Semi-annual full-student-staff meetings in which our Sustainability Office staff debrief the team on administrative level projects, Sustainability Plan reports, and team partnerships are helpful to re-orient the team. These events are open and encouraged for all student staff.

http://www.skidmore.edu/sustainability/reps/index.php

The S-Rep's primary target audience is the student body. The program organizes engagement and education programming for students living in our residence hall and on-campus apartments. Many events engage student's living off-campus, and all events are open to the entire student body.

While students are the primary target audience, the S-Reps strive to offer programming that is accessible to the entire campus community, including faculty and staff. The S-Reps collaborate with many clubs and offices to develop unique and thought-provoking activities that illustrate the deep connections that exist within sustainability. These collaborative efforts allow the S-Reps to engage with a broader audience and develop lasting relationships.

The Skidmore Compost program is a student-run composting and waste education program that serves our Northwoods and Sussman Apartment Villages. Student managers coordinate food scrap collection in all 22 apartment buildings, using bicycles and trailers, and collect coffee grounds from our dining facilities. The material is composted on campus, and finished compost is used in the Skidmore Community Garden. The student managers also organize events to highlight the connection between food waste and global food insecurity, climate change, and more. Skidmore Compost has organized events including film screenings, lectures, compost demonstrations, and community dinners where College chefs teach participants knife skills and proper food preparation and storage methods to minimize food waste.

Skidmore's compost program expanded to an off-campus site. This larger-scale site composts manure from our horse stables, groundskeeping debris, and coffee grounds. Student compost managers are responsible for maintaining this site, but they do receive support from the Sustainability Office and Facilities Services. The compost will be used on campus grounds and in landscaped beds.

Training:
At the start of the fall semester, Sustainability Office staff train the compost managers to deploy the residential compost program by distributing compost bins and educational materials to each of the 212 on-campus apartments. The student team also receive hands-on training directing volunteer days, apartment compost collection, and compost pile maintenance of the small-scale static compost piles. Compost managers are also invited to attend the organizer training and all-staff meetings.

Managers attend a 3-hour classroom and 2-hour behind-the-wheel tractor safety training with a certified instructor from the local Boards of Cooperative Educational Services of New York (BOCES). After training completion, they are permitted to operate the tractor at the off-campus compost site under office staff supervision.

http://www.skidmore.edu/sustainability/programs/compost.php

The compost manager's primary target audience is the student body living in our on-campus apartments.

The North Woods Steward program provides two students with experiential learning in land conservation and leadership opportunities as they coordinate peer and community education programs. The Stewards complete several projects that help maintain the health, diversity, and accessibility of the North Woods. Each student is responsible for removing invasive plant species, maintaining our trail system, leading educational tours, and completing an independent project. Summer projects include installing new trail signage, submitting proposals to eradicate specific invasive species from the developed portions of campus, creating educational videos about the North Woods, building and improving trail infrastructure, and more. The Stewards also maintain the North Woods social media pages as a way to share their experience and encourage visitors to explore the area. One Steward continues working into the academic year to plan service days and maintain the trail system.

Over the years, the Stewards have completed several projects with lasting campus impacts. For instance, in 2013, the College committed to removing all burning bush and Japanese barberry from the developed portions of campus, due in part to work completed by North Woods Stewards. The North Woods Stewards have also collaborated with Facilities Services, an Environmental Sociology class, and the Skidmore Student Conservation Corps to build boardwalks on the Red Trail and Blue Trail to minimize soil erosion and improve trail accessibility.

Training:
Our Summer North Woods Stewards attend two tours to ensure they are familiar with the history of the land and plant identification. A local historian familiarizes the students on points of interest and emphasizes the glacial and 17th-20th Century history of the woods. A botanist trains the students to identify various species, including New York State protected species and plant species with unique features and cultural histories. The stewards receive on-the-job training for trail maintenance, boardwalk building, and water bar installation.

The North Woods Stewards for the academic year receive a historical tour to help them identify various archaeological and historically significant sites. They receive on-the-job training for trail maintenance, boardwalk building, and water bar installation.

The North Woods primary target audience is our campus community, including faculty, staff, and students. The stewards also target the Saratoga Springs community as we encourage the pubic to use and care for our woodlands.

Skidmore Community Garden- The Skidmore Community Garden is a student-run campus garden that grows and sells food, grown using organic practices, to Skidmore's dining hall. It facilitates a connection to, and appreciation for, the food that we eat, and offers hands-on learning opportunities to the Skidmore community. The program is open to the entire Skidmore community. The Sustainability Office recruits students through email lists, campus announcements, and during class presentations and tours. The Garden Manager salary is supported by the Sustainability Office, however, other expenses are covered by the funds that the garden receives from its fundraising events and sales.

Low-Impact Dining Managers: Skidmore's Low-Impact Dining team oversees Low-Impact Wednesdays, a weekly dining initiative that aims to reduce meat proteins in our dining hall menu, educate the campus community about sustainable food systems, and promote and spotlight sustainably- and ethically-sourced foods that are integrated into the College's purchasing practices.

BikeMore: In addition to managing the campus bike share, Skidmore's Bikemore team hosts events to bring awareness to the importance of sustainable transportation. They promote and encourage the campus community to sue our city transit system, lead bike rides to introduce the campus to safe biking routes, and offer bike maintenance events to help repair and teach students bike maintenance skills.