Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 65.17
Liaison Lisa Mitten
Submission Date March 2, 2023

STARS v2.2

State University of New York at New Paltz
EN-2: Student Orientation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.67 / 2.00 Lisa Mitten
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Campus Sustainability
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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:
83.30

A brief description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation :
For new student orientation, all incoming undergraduate students, including both first-years and transfer students, attend a Jump Start Your Semester program during which all students learn about sustainability during a 10 to 15-minute long talk with Campus Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Mitten. The content of this talk includes case studies/role models of past student leaders, student-led sustainability achievements, individual outcomes of such leadership (including landing careers in sustainability), and the introduction of the concept of student change agents for sustainability, and finally inviting incoming students to become leaders in fostering a more sustainable community.

In addition, student Sustainability Ambassadors staff multiple zero waste stations at the student BBQ following their initial Convocation and formal welcome to the campus. The zero waste station includes landfill, compost, and recycling bins. We work in partnership with Dining Services to strive for a zero waste event such that no material from this even ends up in the landfill and that most of the material is composted.

At this same BBQ event following Convocation, student Sustainability Ambassadors staff a table showcasing all of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. They engage with incoming students about particular Global Goals that they are interested in and offer suggestions for courses, academic programs, student organizations, and regional organizations aligned with their Global Goal interests.

Optional Fields 

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:
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