Sterling College (VT)
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

Sterling College's Strategic plan includes the years 2013-2018. A brief description from the current plan is listed below. This strategic plan is presented in three sections: People & Program, Resouces, and Facilities & Infrastructure. Each section begins with an overview of what we aspire to acieive during this five-year period, followed by goals, objectives, and implementation steps. The goals represent our core vision for Sterling and are not always directly measurable. Objectives are the directions in which we wish to move to meet the goals and are typically measurable. Implementation steps are the incremental choices we make to reach the goals in a specified period of time. All of the above information is included in the strategic plan.

A campus master plan is available upon request. It covers facilities and renovations, including the planned sustainable renovations for the buildings Paradise Hall and Simpson Hall.

Objective B: Investigate adding new major areas of study, consistent with the mission of environmental stewardship. (Strategic Plan)

Assess the impact of Senior Applied Research Project advising to ensure that faculty has the time and support necessary to aid students in the development of their research. (Strategic Plan)

Objective A: Improve upon and increase the number of opportunities for students to participate in leadership roles in the community. (Strategic Plan)

Objective A: Create liaisons with neighboring facilities to offer students opportunities for Nordic skiing, mountain biking, alpine skiing, orienteering, rowing, etc (Strategic Plan)

Implementation 1: Establish solar and non-fossil fuel sources of energy as the means of lighting and heating our campus, and invest in relations that place efficiency as a top priority. (Strategic Plan)

Objective C: Make our worst facilities our best and most efficient facilities first, and thereby lift the whole campus. (Strategic Plan)

Implementation 3: Develop a three-year plan for college-wide equipment and fixtures, including the purchasing of new vehicles for community transportation and trucks for maintenance and the farm and other equipment, including outdoor education equipment necessary for the program of study. Objective D include Paradise Hall Renovation, Kane & Dunbar Hall Renovation, and Simpson Hall Renovations Implementation 1: In 2016, 10 additional solar trackers will be installed on site, making near 100% of our electricity to come from on-campus solar energy. (Strategic Plan)

Dunbar & Kane Hall Renovation: Improve the kitchen to meet modern professional culinary standards, and improve our ability to use it as an instructional space. Improve the dining hall with natural lighting, better acoustics, and easier flow of people. (Strategic Plan)

Sterling College will have well-maintained facilities appropriate to the aspirations of our community, our curriculum, and our values including environmental stewardship. To sustain such a campus will require that the College develop adequate funds to maintain and repair its facilities, equipment, tools, and other physical resources. The campus will be integrated into the community of Craftsbury Common and will present an appealing appearance to our neighbors with whom we will seek to share our resources. Specifically, the College will endeavor to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and will commit to increasingly live by its commitment to environmental stewardship. c) Objective: Make our worst facilities our best and most efficient facilities first, and thereby lift the whole campus. d) Objective: Adapt our relationship to automobiles and where we park them. i) Implementation: A five-year campus master plan will be developed to include both the current campus footprint and potential purchased properties. (1 through 5) (i) Establish solar and non-fossil fuel sources of energy as the means of lighting and heating our campus, and invest in renovations that place efficiency as a top priority. (ii) Paradise Hall Renovation 1. Create improved space for the visual arts, including woodworking, fiber arts, ceramics, public presentation space, and space for the Environmental Humanities curricular area. (iii) Dunbar & Kane Hall Renovation 1. Develop new space for student activities/social activities and improved faculty and staff offices. 2. Improve the kitchen to meet modern professional culinary standards, and improve our ability to use it as an instructional space. 3. Improve the dining hall with natural lighting, better acoustics, and easier flow of people. (iv) Simpson Hall Renovation 1. Create a new and/or renovated chemistry laboratory, and improve all teaching spaces. 2. Improve Simpson III as a public space and large classroom. (v) Build a new Ecology resource center that offers an appropriate and appealing teaching space and location for coursework and natural history collections. (vi) Build a new Outdoor Education facility, including a yurt and a new indoor climbing facility. (vii) Develop an agriculture center, including potential purchase of additional land, addition of power system and hot water, a new draft horse and other facilities, and the renovation of the current barns. (viii) Add additional new structures to serve as maintenance and storage facilities. (ix) Add on-campus housing for faculty and students with partners and/or families. (x) Renovate Madison Hall and Houston Hall and add better and roughly equivalent social spaces for students in each hall. (xi) Provide access to Sterling’s Bear Swamp preservation land in Wolcott, Vermont. (xii) Reorganize and potentially reduce automobile parking on campus. (Strategic Plan)

Develop a three-year plan for college-wide equipment and fixtures, including the purchasing of new vehicles for community transportation and trucks for maintenance and the farm and other equipment, including outdoor education equipment necessary for the program of study (Strategic Plan)

Develop a three-year plan for college-wide equipment and fixtures, including the purchasing of new vehicles for community transportation and trucks for maintenance and the farm and other equipment, including outdoor education equipment necessary for the program of study.

Objective B: Sustain an annual enrollment-planning model that focuses equally on retention and recruitment. Implementation 3: Increase outreach to veterans, and provide student life support at the College. Implementation 4: Commit new resources to support the recruitment of an increasingly diverse student population. Implementation 7: Sustain commitment to meeting the needs of students with robust institutional support for financial aid at approximately 40-45% of tuition income.

iv) Implementation: Increase annual income from the endowment through careful investment • Institute Socially Responsible Investment Policy before campaign begins.

The value of a Sterling education to society is based in the quality of the educational experience of its students. Because the faculty and staff are critical to the fulfillment of the mission, the wellbeing of those who work at Sterling is an uppermost priority of this plan. The individuals who comprise our community are at the core of the mission, define the educational experience of our students, and ultimately govern what we are able to collectively achieve. How we organize our community is a reflection on our values and our capacity to work collectively and to express trust in our individual roles and contributions. 12) Goal: To retain and attract talented and passionate faculty who express their commitment to environmental stewardship through life experience, teaching, advising, advocacy, and research. a) Objective: Offer compensation and benefits appropriate to the resources of the College and increasingly consistent with the middle-50% percentile of our cohort. [Cohort includes: College of the Atlantic, Green Mountain College, Marlboro College, Northland College, Prescott College, and Unity College]. b) Objective: Strengthen faculty confidence in the commitment Sterling College makes to their professional life and future at the College. i) Implementation: Provide annual letters of appointment to faculty that clearly detail salary and benefits. (1 through 5) ii) Implementation: Develop a standardized and formal orientation program for all new faculty. (1) iii) Implementation: Implement annual one-on-one meetings with the Dean of the College & Faculty with each faculty member to discuss annual teaching goals and objectives. (1) iv) Implementation: Convene an advisory taskforce to study and report on faculty workload, compensation, benefits, and personal/professional leave, chaired by the President and including members of the faculty. (1 through 2) v) Implementation: Increase funding for faculty professional development and establish a formal process for requests for funding. (1 through 2) vi) Implementation: Launch a 5-year initiative to improve salaries and benefits for faculty. (1 through 5) Goal: To retain and attract talented and passionate administrative staff, who express commitment to environmental stewardship through their support of the students and the advancement of the College’s mission. a) Objective: Support an appropriate number of administrative staff to efficiently and effectively carry out the work of the College as enrollment grows. b) Objective: Offer compensation and benefits appropriate to the resources of the College and increasingly consistent with the middle-50% percentile of our cohort (cohort list above). c) Objective: Strengthen appropriate institutional communication about salaries and benefits for staff. d) Objective: Strengthen staff confidence in the commitment Sterling College makes to their professional lives and future at the College. i) Implementation: Increase the opportunities for the President to interact with the staff through establishing a monthly Staff Meeting. (1 through 5) ii) Implementation: Implement an institutional review of all staff job descriptions. (1) iii) Implementation: Institute an evaluation process that includes written and oral evaluation and an opportunity to set annual goals and receive regular feedback. (1) iv) Implementation: Provide letters of appointment in June that clearly detail salary and benefits. (1) v) Implementation: Develop a standardized and formal orientation program for new staff hires. (1) vi) Implementation: Increase funding for staff professional development and establish a formal process for requests for funding. (Fall 2014) vii) Implementation: Launch 5-year initiative to improve salaries and benefits for staff. (1 through 5)

Paradise Hall Renovation —Create improved space for the visual arts, including woodworking, fiber arts, ceramics, public presentation space, and space for the Environmental Humanities curricular area.

The Sterling College community combines structured academic study with experiential challenges and plain hard work to build responsible problem solvers who become stewards of the environment as they pursue productive lives.

Sustainability at Sterling goes well beyond conventional practices—the reality of living and learning on our rural Vermont campus cultivates a deep sense of community based on an intimate relationship with the natural world, making “sustainability” both a way of life and a path of study. The campus community has a shared vision for appropriately scaled and regionally suitable sustainable living practices—what we like to call “grassroots sustainability.”

A hard copy of the institution's strategic plan may available upon request.