University of San Diego
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Design Lab was a collaboration between the EIL, Changemaker Hub, and Student Affairs that brought 21 students together to co-create campus transformation. Topics addressed by the 6 teams included transportation, consumption, and building community. The fellowship was a 7-week commitment from March to May of 2023 with weekly meetings of about 90 minutes each. In a culminating event, each team presented their findings and proposed solutions to campus stakeholders and several faculty members. One of the waste and consumption reduction teams sought to help the campus community better understand how the institution currently manages sustainability challenges. With mentorship from Design Lab staff and other students, they interviewed students, identified pain points, examined current initiatives, and developed a proposal aimed to develop an orientation module that teaches all incoming students the way sustainability is done at USD and how they can actively do their part to reduce waste.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lsug2X4LOoId0yPp-4yjWLD1p5Z3yIhn/view?pli=1

The Mulvaney Immersions Communities for Action & Humility (MICAH) Summer Fellowship allows current USD students the opportunity to cultivate personal and social responsibility through intentionally joining communities that strive to create positive social change. This is a living-learning fellowship that challenges participants to creatively examine and practice the program values: community, leadership, solidarity, social justice and spirituality.
This multidisciplinary fellowship seeks to give fellow the opportunity to identify ongoing systems of oppression and enact leadership to create systemic, institutional, and personal transformation.
Students’ engagement will be varied based on their respective community partner organization. Some will work directly with individuals who are marginally housed to help provide access to basic needs such as food, shelter, jobs, and healthcare. Others will work directly with staff and citizens to plan programs or implement campaigns to end homelessness, provide support for asylum seekers and migrant workers, advocate for access to health care, neighborhood safety, employment, or education.
https://www.micahfellows.org/

Professor Julia Cantzler had her students in Sociological Perspectives: Sustainability analyze USD's 2016 Climate Action Plan, then participate in a multi-week project of drafting recommendations to improve/update the 2016 CAP. Their presentations were shared in class and with the Office of Sustainability.

The Office of Sustainability has been partnering with Residential Life to sponsor a project that measures the energy usage of all apartments in Palomar Hall, a residential building in the Alcala Vistas Apartments, which houses second-year students. Each apartment in Palomar Hall is individually metered and a student assistant from the Office of Sustainability reads each meter each week that school is in session and records the information. This information is then passed along to the Hall residents, identifying each apartment by a code known only to its residents. Thus, while not being able to identify which room is which, other than their own, students can be informed as to how their energy usage compares to their peers. The weekly readings are displayed along with previous reading and are color-coded to demonstrate whether their usage increased or decreased from the previous week. Students in this residence hall also receive information on how to conserve energy in their dorm room (and beyond). Tips include limiting phantom power, using power strips, utilizing natural light, turning off fans and lights when leaving the room, hang drying clothing, etc.
Energy usage and tips are emailed to the student residents and posted in a common area on a weekly basis, showing their week-to-week energy usage. This project has helped to educate students regarding energy efficiency and encourages them to conserve and reduce their energy usage. This campaign has also increased student interest of energy usage in the participating hall, as per their feedback.

The Palomar Energy Project data has shown trends toward student residents decreasing their energy usage. A measurable outcome of reduced energy consumption of 15.6% decrease was seen in these apartments in the 2022-23 academic year. This initiative has been well received by the participating students- along with encouragement to replicate the program to other areas of campus.

The Changemaker Challenge invites all University of San Diego students, faculty, and staff to employ their imagination, passion, and hard work to generate ideas addressing a current social challenge. The theme of the 2021-2022 Changemaker Challenge was "addressing food" justice, prompting students to consider the environmental and social impacts of their dining choices and how they could make a positive change at USD. Students from across disciplines ideated, researched, and developed a variety of ideas including revamping the USD Dining app to increase transparency of food sourcing, making Oatmilk the default milk on campus, and rounding up food purchases to support local regenerative agriculture. In April 2022, the default Oatmilk team was able to pilot their idea in USD's main student cafe.

Additionally, the Design Lab was a collaboration between the EIL, Changemaker Hub, and Student Affairs that brought 21 students together to co-create campus transformation. Topics addressed by the 6 teams included transportation, consumption, and building community. The fellowship was a 7-week commitment from March to May of 2023 with weekly meetings of about 90 minutes each. In a culminating event, each team presented their findings and proposed solutions to campus stakeholders and several faculty members.
One of the Consumption student teams examined the issue of food insecurity on campus. With mentorship from Design Lab staff and other students, they interviewed stakeholders, examined current initiatives, and developed a proposal to better meet students' food needs.
https://www.usdeil.com/_files/ugd/4a5f6a_331fbec1e0df4be3846fe1146250f9f3.pdf

The Design Lab was a collaboration between the EIL, Changemaker Hub, and Student Affairs that brought 21 students together to co-create campus transformation. Topics addressed by the 6 teams included transportation, consumption, and building community. The fellowship was a 7-week commitment from March to May of 2023 with weekly meetings of about 90 minutes each. In a culminating event, each team presented their findings and proposed solutions to campus stakeholders and several faculty members.
The Transportation student team examined the issue of student commuting off-campus. With mentorship from Design Lab staff and other students, they interviewed stakeholders, examined current initiatives, and developed a proposal to better meet students' transportation needs.
https://www.usdeil.com/_files/ugd/4a5f6a_a1add2a89643481ab49b255b53e435bd.pdf

In Fall 2023, two student fellows from the Changemaker Hub and Office of Sustainability worked with Atlas Zero Waste to perform a semester-long holistic assessment to measure the campus’s capacity to achieve zero waste. These students were trained and licensed to use the Atlas Zero Waste Campus Programs Checklist to gather information for the assessment. Information was gathered by performing interviews with campus stakeholders, compiling campus resources and policies, and synthesizing waste and material management reports. Upon completion of the interviews, the fellows submitted the scored Checklist giving the campus its zero waste score and certification level.

Professor Julia Cantzler had her students in Sociological Perspectives: Sustainability analyze USD's 2016 Climate Action Plan, then participate in a multi-week project of drafting recommendations to improve/update the 2016 CAP. Their presentations were shared in class and with the Office of Sustainability. One of the student groups focused on water use on campus.

The Associated Student Government (ASG) maintains a Sustainability Coordinator position on its Senate. This student senator is appointed by ASG and works directly with the Office of Sustainability to assess the sustainability needs of the university, pitch new sustainability initiatives and policies to ASG, and coordinate sustainability efforts across campus.

The Design Lab was a collaboration between the EIL, Changemaker Hub, and Student Affairs that brought 21 students together to co-create campus transformation. Topics addressed by the 6 teams included transportation, consumption, and building community. The fellowship was a 7-week commitment from March to May of 2023 with weekly meetings of about 90 minutes each. In a culminating event, each team presented their findings and proposed solutions to campus stakeholders and several faculty members.
One of the building community student teams sought to help 1st year POC students overcome their fears in order to gain a sense of belonging that celebrates their identities. With mentorship from Design Lab staff and other students, they interviewed students, identified pain points, examined current initiatives, and developed a proposal aimed to bring different USD minority communities together through art.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gC7ah_AvOPUWtcxvqZbX3dLNb20JdBSf/view?usp=sharing

In 2021, 2 students (1 undergraduate and 1 graduate) participated on the Socially Responsible Investing Task Force. The Socially Responsible Investing Task Force (SRITF) was created by the Board of Trustees and the President to provide a framework for consideration of environmental, social, and governance issues (broadly known as ESG) that arise in the management of the investments in the University’s long-term investment pool.

The Design Lab was a collaboration between the EIL, Changemaker Hub, and Student Affairs that brought 21 students together to co-create campus transformation. Topics addressed by the 6 teams included transportation, consumption, and building community. The fellowship was a 7-week commitment from March to May of 2023 with weekly meetings of about 90 minutes each. In a culminating event, each team presented their findings and proposed solutions to campus stakeholders and several faculty members.
One of the building community student teams examined the issue of increased loneliness on college campuses. With mentorship from Design Lab staff and other students, they interviewed students, identified pain points, examined current initiatives, and developed a proposal aimed to decrease student loneliness.
https://www.usdeil.com/_files/ugd/4a5f6a_29c3885a83f549949efd2377222769f8.pdf

The Mulvaney Center for Community, Awareness and Social Action - https://www.sandiego.edu/mccasa/about/
Design Lab Fellowships - https://www.usdeil.com/copy-of-climate-alliance, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bBhpMFExxp-lyHYZwnoJ6WjXFDCTPJEN/view