Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.90
Liaison Sarah Stoeckl
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

University of Oregon
EN-2: Student Orientation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.80 / 2.00 Robyn Hathcock
Recycling Coordinator
Campus Operations
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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:
90

A brief description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation :
Virtually all first-year and transfer undergraduate students go through orientation activities and programming that provides sustainability-related information and is organized to be more sustainable in practice. Sustainability practices include limiting paper hand-outs from UO to a streamlined, 15-page booklet (after a failed paperless pilot); vendors are prohibited from providing handouts and all other supplemental information is in digital format. First-year orientation sessions include 2 "outdoor" meals, which feature back-of-the-house food composting (all that's accepted currently by local haulers) and zero waste event services staffed by volunteers who help attendees separate their materials properly and begin to learn about the recycling culture at the university. Orientation also includes one "indoor" meal held in a campus dining hall that produces little to no waste because campus dining venues use reusable dish/silverware and compost back-of-the-house food scraps.

New student orientation includes information about alternative transportation resources including the local bicycle rental program and a bike tour option during Week of Welcome to learn about biking in Eugene, one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the US.

Transfer students participate in an information fair that is modified for their non-first year status. The transfer student information fair also includes alternative transportation information and resources, zero waste event service at catered meals for attendees to separate their materials, and any other meals hosted in a no-to-low waste campus dining halls.

The Student Sustainability Center does outreach throughout orientation events and Week of Welcome.

Graduate student orientations are led by their home departments and include various resources that are not centrally tracked by the institution. Graduate Employees are strongly encouraged to attend the New Employee Orientation, which includes representation from the Office of Sustainability.

All narrative information provided by Director of Student Orientation Programs. No formal policies or URLs currently exist to document the visibility of sustainability in orientation.

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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