University of California, San Diego
EN-3: Student Life

UC San Diego has several active student groups focused on sustainability: 
 

• CALPIRG: Public interest activism group working to protect the environment, provide hunger relief, and promote civic engagement. (Website)
• Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution Club: The Ecology, Behavior & Evolution (EBE) Club at UC San Diego seeks to provide students with professional and social opportunities focused in ecology, behavior and evolution. EBE also serves an organization to promote activities for EBE students to build relationships within and outside UC San Diego campus. (Website)
• Engineers for a Sustainable World: Dedicated to bringing communities together to develop, implement, and share sustainable technologies and practices worldwide. (Website)
• Green New Deal: A democratically organized, grassroots collective of students, trainees, staff, union members, faculty, alumni, and retirees affiliated with UC San Diego. The Green New Deal campaigns for concrete actions that UC San Diego and the UC system must take to address the climate crisis and environmental injustice. (Website)
• Pollinator Club: Advocates for the native pollinators on and off the UC San Diego campus. Aims to build a community of students interested in protecting native pollinators and learning more about the importance of their relationships to us and others. (Website)
• Sustainability Student Collective: The SSC emphasizes community, collaboration, and empowerment to foster a culture of responsibility and to ensure a sustainable future. Understanding the intersections of environmental, social, political, & economic factors, the SSC strives for a multi-faceted approach to sustainability. (Website)
• Trash Pandas: Mission is to promote a healthier environment through the elimination of trash on campus and in surrounding areas. (Instagram) 

UC San Diego has several campus gardens and one San Diego community garden that promote education and the growth of sustainable food and local produce. UC San Diego's gardens provide a valuable resource for students to learn about sustainability, gardening, and environmental science, while also promoting the growth of local produce and reducing waste on campus. The full list of gardens is available here: https://sustain.ucsd.edu/involve/gardens.html.                  

Garden Highlights: 

The Warren College community garden, also known as "Warren Grow!", allows students to rent plots to harvest their own produce and provides a space for students to learn about gardening, sustainability, and environmental science (https://sites.google.com/ucsd.edu/warrengrow/home). The garden also functions as a hub for students to harvest fresh produce to distribute to the general community. 

Roger's Community Garden is an outdoor garden space for sustainability-oriented student projects (https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/around-pier-keeping-compost-close). The garden features plots available for rent by UC San Diego community members and infrastructure for multiple composting methods, including an anaerobic digester that converts food scraps to high-nutrient fertilizer and gas that can be used to generate electricity. The garden also provides a space for students to learn about sustainable gardening practices and promotes the growth of local produce. 

The Mesa Nueva community garden is a student-led effort to promote sustainability and reduce waste (https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/grassroots-composting-success). The garden features compost bins where students can drop off food scraps and other organic materials, which are then turned into nutrient-rich soil that can be used for gardening. The garden also provides a space for students to learn about composting and sustainable gardening practices. 

Housing, Dining, and Hospitality (HDH) sustainability efforts support the campus community gardens financially, promotionally, and physically. The HDH EcoNauts work in the gardens and regularly promote and encourage volunteer participation to students. The College Corps Zero Waste interns regularly volunteer with and help maintain them for program/service credit. HDH Sustainability initiated this partnership and incorporated community gardening as a College Corps activity. HDH Green Grants have been used to purchase equipment to maintain the gardens. 

UC San Diego has a variety of student-run enterprises that prioritize sustainability as part of their mission statements or stated purposes.  

UC San Diego students can develop socially, environmentally, and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills through The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF). TGIF is a student-run organization that provides funding for projects that promote sustainability and environmental awareness on campus. By participating in TGIF, students can gain hands-on experience in investing and managing funds, while also contributing to the development of sustainable projects and initiatives on campus. Students also develop skills in project evaluation, budgeting, and financial analysis and learn about the importance of transparency and accountability in financial decision-making. 

TGIF gives students the opportunity to engage with the campus community and develop leadership skills through participation in the fund's decision-making process. By working together to evaluate and fund projects, students can develop a deeper understanding of the impact of their financial decisions on the environment and society.  

For further information, please visit: https://studentsustainability.ucsd.edu/green-initiative-fund/index.html  

UC San Diego hosts various conferences, speaker series, symposia, and events focused on sustainability, showcasing the university's commitment to environmental awareness and education. A number of these events are identified below, with students as the intended audience. This is by no means an all-inclusive list of such events. Many departments across campus host seminars and conferences related directly to issues of sustainability that are open and intended for all students. UC San Diego Sustainability maintains a calendar of all campus sustainability events here: https://sustainability.ucsd.edu/involve/calendar.html  

Some highlighted events from the past three years: 

UC San Diego is home to various cultural arts events, installations, and performances that focus on sustainability, with students as the intended audience. 

Some recently held cultural events, installations, and performances includes: 

Recently held art events that were not sustainability-focused, but featured sustainability elements: 

UC San Diego Outback Adventures offers various wilderness and outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles, promoting environmental sustainability and responsible outdoor recreation. Outback Adventures provides opportunities for students to explore the natural beauty of San Diego and its surroundings while minimizing their impact on the environment (https://www.instagram.com/ucsdoutbackadventures/?hl=en). The program offers a range of activities, including hiking, camping, and rock climbing, and incorporates Leave No Trace principles and training throughout its educational programming.  

Outback Adventures hosts Wilderness Orientation, which is a comprehensive outdoor education program designed to introduce students to the principles of wilderness travel and outdoor leadership (https://recreation.ucsd.edu/adventures/wilderness-orientation/). The program focuses on teaching students how to navigate, camp, and cook in the wilderness while minimizing their impact on the environment and following the Leave No Trace principles. 

SEVENTH COLLEGE THEME: “A Changing Planet” 

At UC San Diego, each undergraduate college has a unique theme that drives its academic mission, and Seventh College is no exception. The theme of Seventh College is sustainability-focused and called "A Changing Planet." The goal of Seventh College is to prepare students to engage with the changing planet, and this is reflected in its core academic program, the Synthesis Program. 

The Synthesis Program is designed with climate justice as its core theme, and students explore this theme through writing-intensive and project-based courses. This program is unique in that it takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and addressing the challenges posed by our changing planet. The program consists of a three-course sequence, including two courses of intensive instruction in university-level writing and one project-based course. 

In addition to the Synthesis courses, students at Seventh College must also take courses from a list of Alternatives, which are electives that have been vetted to have a climate connection. This ensures that students are exposed to a wide range of perspectives and ideas related to climate change and sustainability. 

For more information, please visit https://seventh.ucsd.edu/ , https://catalog.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/colleges/seventh-college/index.html , and https://catalog.ucsd.edu/curric/SYN.html 

ADDITIONAL FIRST-YEAR EXPERINCE:  

As mentioned in AC-2 Learning Outcomes, all first-year undergraduate students, regardless of college, are required to meet the Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement. This requirement is designed to ensure that all students have a basic understanding of climate change and its impacts and are prepared to engage with the changing planet in a meaningful way.  

For more information, please visit: https://undergrad.ucsd.edu/programs/jtccer.html  

UC San Diego offers various programs that enable students to learn sustainable life skills, promoting environmental awareness and responsible practices.  

EcoNauts – Housing, Dining, and Hospitality:  

The HDH EcoNauts is a group of sustainability ambassadors who create and execute programs, social media content, and projects related to sustainability in order for students to learn sustainable life skills. The EcoNauts program is a core part of UC San Diego HDH and can be found on the HDH Sustainability website (https://hdhsustainability.ucsd.edu/what-we-do/index.html#EcoNauts-/-Events). The EcoNauts also helped to develop the Green Living Guide, a comprehensive guide that highlights HDH's sustainability efforts, initiatives, and opportunities for residents to engage in sustainable behaviors. The guide is updated and published on the HDH Sustainability website, as well as shared on social media and with Residential Life for dissemination. 

Student Sustainability Collective: 

The Student Sustainability Collective (SSC) (https://studentsustainability.ucsd.edu/resources/index.html) is a space open to all students, providing resources and tools for building sustainable life skills. The SSC offers resources such as food scrap drop-off, menstruation station, green event guidelines, and mending station and button makers. 

The Zone:  

The Zone (https://healthpromotion.ucsd.edu/zone/) is another program that promotes sustainability and well-being on campus. While not exclusively focused on sustainability, The Zone offers resources and programs that encourage students to adopt healthy and sustainable habits, such as healthy cooking demos and active well-being.  

UC San Diego offers various sustainability-focused student employment opportunities that enable students to engage in environmentally responsible practices while gaining valuable work experience. 

The Graduation Pledge is a voluntary commitment that students can make as they prepare to graduate from UC San Diego. By taking the pledge, students are making a public statement of their commitment to social and environmental responsibility and are joining a community of like-minded individuals who share their values. 

The pledge itself is simple and straightforward: "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organization for which I work." By taking this pledge, students are committing to consider the broader impacts of their actions and to strive to make a positive difference in the world. 

Please see this link for further information https://sustainability.ucsd.edu/involve/green-grads.html  

Points of contact for credit information: