| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 45.57 |
| Liaison | Steven Sypniewski |
| Submission Date | Jan. 24, 2025 |
SUNY Buffalo State
EN-5: Civic Engagement
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 8.00 |
Sarah
Reid Campus Planner Campus Planning |
5.1 Percentage of students that participate in civic engagement programs
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s civic engagement programs for students:
Buffalo State’s Civic and Community Engagement Office coordinates and leads Buffalo State’s civic engagement initiatives. In 2023-2024, the CCE involved students in academic community-engaged learning/service-learning, volunteerism, community outreach, AmeriCorps national service, and voter engagement programming.
Percentage of students that participate in community service and/or other civic engagement programs:
Approach used to determine the percentage of students that participate in civic engagement programs:
Narrative outlining how student participation in civic engagement programs was determined:
Buffalo State’s Civic and Community Engagement Office directly tracks participants in CCE programs and engaged 1,397 (24.2%) students in civic engagement efforts through academic and co-curricular activities during the 2023-2024 academic year. In 2023-2024, fifty-five faculty members integrated academic community-engaged learning, civic engagement, and community service into 114 courses, involving 1,017 students in collaboration with 92 community partners. Students in these courses are directly tracked using the campus learning management system and duplicates are eliminated. Additionally, 51 civic engagement events involved 451 students in programming including voter engagement, volunteerism, and social justice initiatives. These students sign in to events and programs, and duplicates are eliminated to identify a unique student participation number. In addition to the CCE, student organizations, fraternities, sororities, academic clubs, and athletes also participate in community service. These numbers are conservatively estimated since the institution does not directly track individual students.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
5.2 Employee community service program
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s programs to support employee community service:
Does the institution support employee volunteering during regular work hours?:
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s support for community volunteering during regular work hours:
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
5.3 Support for public policies to advance sustainability
Narrative outlining how individuals affiliated with the institution have helped develop local or regional public policies that address sustainability challenges:
SUNY Single-use Plastics Policy
In early 2022, Glen Bucello Resident District Manager for Chartwells (our food service provider) volunteered to represent Buffalo State University and take part in a SUNY task force with the expectation of developing a resolution for eliminating/reducing single-use plastic use across all SUNY/CUNY campuses. The task force members were comprised of students, faculty, staff and representatives of auxiliary services. They identified eight preliminary categories of single use plastics and the ease or difficulty in eliminating the particular type of single use plastic. For each category there were four tasks; Define the category, identify substitutions, analyze cost implications and propose solutions.
He was an active member of the bottle beverage subgroup, and the co-lead of the utensils subgroup. They met regularly throughout the year with their teams as they were charged with developing an action plan, recommended timeline, and associated policies for the elimination of single-use plastics on all State University campuses, and they considered the following in developing the recommendations: the availability of affordable alternatives; the accessibility of alternatives to all students, faculty, and staff; an evaluation of the effectiveness of reusable alternatives; and benchmarks for assessing progress.
In September, 2023, the final version of their recommendations were published as policy for the SUNY/CUNY system and the impacts of the policies will be significant moving forward.
Narrative outlining how individuals affiliated with the institution have helped develop national or international public policies that address sustainability challenges:
Has the institution advocated for public policies to advance sustainability during the previous three years?:
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s advocacy for public policies to advance sustainability:
Documentary evidence of the institution’s advocacy for public policies to advance sustainability:
Online resource that provides evidence of the institution’s advocacy for public policies to advance sustainability:
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
Optional documentation
Additional documentation for this credit:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.