Texas State University, San Marcos
EN-3: Student Life

• Sustainability is brought forward to all new students at new student orientation by having a day encompassing all the student organizations on campus. Environmental/sustainable organizations are represented by student officers.

A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability
• Animal Rights Club: A group to help animals, people, and the environment all while promoting a vegan lifestyle and eating delicious, cruelty free food.
• Bobcat Blend: A faculty managed, student-run and grant-supported research and teaching-oriented waste management campus composting program at Texas State. The goals of the organization are to teach students, faculty and staff through daily operations and development of habits the environmental, economic, and intrinsic values of composting, in the dining halls and in the classrooms, labs and landscapes on campus.
• Bobcat Buzz: Building and maintaining equipment. Harvesting honey to promote the Agriculture Department. Educate students about the importance of honeybees in our communities and here at Texas State. Hold events to educate as well as promote the club and department.
• Bobcat Stream Team: To engage students, alumni, and the community in water quality monitoring of Texas waterways.
• Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO): We bring in guest speakers from various parts of the environmental field to share their experiences (and possible job opportunities). -We find new ways that our campus can become more sustainable and make them happen -We participate in various volunteering opportunities, such as trail building, tailgate recycling, and Bobcat Build. We learn about new ways to reduce our impact in our personal lives.
• HEAT Establishment: Bi-weekly meetings, campus beautification, river clean-ups, volunteering with local animal shelters, working with dining halls to pick up wasted food or compost items, volunteering for/supporting causes for humanity (i.e. invisible children), emphasize "Green Building" on campus, and provide students with an outlet for multiple service opportunities.
• McCoy College Bobcat Net Impact: Award-winning Net Impact recognized by Presidents Clinton and Obama provides members with leadership through sustainability projects on campus and along the IH 35 corridor. Speakers at General Meetings bring first-hand knowledge on innovations like crowd funding and energy auditing skills. Projects are the backbone of the organization at Circuit of the Americas and ESPN Summer XGAMES. We make a positive impact.
• Not on My Campus: A student-led organization and marketing campaign centered around breaking the silence surrounding sexual assault. In order to provide a safe environment for all faculty, staff, and students. It is imperative that the campus sustains a comfortable and welcoming community where all are encouraged to participate, in order to maintain a sustainable community.
• Oxfam at Texas State: Interested in Activism, Human rights advocacy and fighting injustice. Oxfam at Texas State serves as a branch from the Global organization Oxfam America. Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice.
• Resource Conservationists of Texas State: Resource Conservationists of Texas State will work in affiliation with Bobcat Blend, the Texas State Recycling Center, and the City of San Marcos to spread awareness of the need for and benefits of proper recycling. Volunteering efforts will promote a more environmentally friendly campus and city.

A series of gardens reside around the Agriculture Building that are maintained by students. They include: Fountain Garden, Shade Garden, Herb Garden, Pool Garden, Cactus Garden, Pleasant Street Garden, Zen Garden, Pergola Garden, Dark Crystal Garden and Butterfly Garden. Additionally, the Bobcat Buzz club is actively building a pollinator garden on campus.

Bobcat Blend is a student organization devoted to composting the food waste and grounds waste on campus and selling that to the general community.

Environmental Service Committee, $1 of tuition every semester goes to this committee to fund environmental projects around campus that are proposed by students, staff, and faculty.

The Philosophy Dialogue Series is a program of as many as 60 presentations each semester, this unique series of lectures, interactive presentations, and discussions, is held in the Dialogue Room (Comal 116).

For over 20 years, the series has provided a forum for the lively exchange and critical evaluation of diverse ideas. This series has grown from a few presentations a month during long semesters to four or five each week during most of the fall and spring semesters and during one summer session.

There are usually several presentations each semester that deal directly with issues of sustainability.

The Symposium and Pow Wow promote Native American and Indigenous culture and diversity on the Texas State campus and the surrounding community. Tribes represented at the Pow Wow will include Kiowa, Lipan Apache, Comanche, Lakota, Dakota, Choctaw, Paiute, Northern Cherokee, Chickasaw, Potawatomi, Creek, Sans Arc, Caddo, Delaware, Zuni, Huron, Hawaiian, and Aztec. Participants will attend workshops and keynote lectures. Through these lectures and workshops, attendees will learn the traditional methods of living off the land in a sustainable manner from different tribes.

The Texas State Outdoor Recreation Program is committed to preserving natural areas through following and sharing the Leave No Trace Principles for Outdoor Ethics. Our staff recognizes the importance of low impact/"no trace" living in the outdoors to promote land stewardship, minimum impact skills, and wilderness ethics.

The Office of Sustainability hires two sustainability interns each semester. The Recycling Department hosts a number of paid and unpaid interns to help with the recycling program. Bobcat Blend employs approximately seven student workers to collect and process the campus compost.