Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
---|---|
Overall Score | 53.46 |
Liaison | Winnie Mulamba |
Submission Date | March 13, 2017 |
Executive Letter | Download |
University of South Florida St. Petersburg
EN-3: Student Life
Status | Score | Responsible Party |
---|---|---|
![]() |
2.00 / 2.00 |
Brian
Pullen Sustainability Planner Facilities Services |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Does the institution have one or more active student groups focused on sustainability?:
Yes
A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability:
1.SEAS
The Student Environmental Awareness Society (SEAS) is the longest running club at USF St. Petersburg. SEAS is open to anyone interested in promoting awareness of environmental issues, outdoor activities, and a greener world. SEAS strives to encourage the USF St. Petersburg Campus Community to be leaders and role models in sustainable practices, design and development. This includes USFSP students, faculty, staff, affiliates, and members of the surrounding community. SEAS holds monthly beach clean-ups on campus and organizes environmental awareness events like an Earth Day celebration and Food Day.
2.The Garden Club
The Garden Club focuses on educating students about sustainable urban farming techniques, while fostering a connection with the local community and the land. The club helps manage the Bayboro Food Forest on campus. All students and professors are welcome to come experiment varios gardening techniques. The Garden club recognizes that home garden space is very limited, so having a garden on campus offers everyone cooped up in the dorms and apartments a chance to practice their green thumbs. The Garden Club also maintains the Native Plant Butterfly Garden. The Garden Club organizes events to increase awareness on topics such as urban farming, healthy foods, shopping local and more.
3.ESSC
The Environmental Science and Sustainability Club (ESSC) aims to spread environmental education and scientific practices throughout our campus through projects and collaboration.
4. The Marine Adventures Club
The Marine Adventures Club is an activity-based club that strives to give students the opportunity to learn about the environment and environmental safety through a laid-back, hands-on approach. The club’s main goal is to raise funds to take members on an adventure trip each semester. Most recently, the Marine Adventures Club was able to raise enough money to go on a snorkeling trip, and they are currently planning a camping trip for this semester. The Marine Adventures Club’s weekly meeting times may be used for kayaking and paddle boarding, exploring the outdoors, visiting aquariums, or holding fundraisers.
The website URL where information about the student groups is available (optional):
Does the institution have gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
Yes
A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:
Bayboro Garden and Bayboro Food Forest
As noted in the previous STARS report the Bayboro Food Forest has now been built and includes a pond, vertical gardening structures, food producing trees, and a variety of other food producing plants. The pond as well as lighting within the garden is supplied by solar pannels which shade the garden.
The Butterfly Garden
The Butterfly garden designed, paid for and maintained, by students features only native Florida plants and is certified as both a North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Garden, and a Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Foundation. The garden was designed to improve the campus entrance, promote the interaction and appreciation of nature in an urban setting, and to encourage the growth of struggling bee and butterfly populations. The garden provides a calming natural setting for everyone to enjoy. The Butterfly Garden was created in 2014.
Water Goats
In order to prevent the pollution of Tampa Bay and encourage a healthy fish population within the Bayboro Harbor that our school sits on, we have implemented watergoats, a net catchment system that allows fish and other marine life to easily swim in and out underneath the nets while a buoy floats the upper half of the net to catch liter and other debris coming out from the storm sewers and prevent it from flowing out into the bay.
The website URL where information about the gardens, farms or agriculture projects is available (optional):
Does the institution have student-run enterprises that include sustainability as part of their mission statements or stated purposes (e.g. cafés through which students gain sustainable business skills)?:
No
A brief description of the student-run enterprises:
---
The website URL where information about the student-run enterprises is available (optional):
---
Does the institution have sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
Yes
A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:
Student Green Energy Fund (SGEF)
At USF St. Petersburg, SGEF is financed through a nominal student fee of $1.00 per credit hour. Students at each campus within the University of South Florida (USF) System has the right to vote, via a student body referendum, to approve initiation of the fee and affirm any subsequent modifications to it on their respective campuses. Every three years, students will have the opportunity to reaffirm support of the fee via referendum.
The fund is used to assist the university in reducing energy costs through conservation, promoting power generation using clean, renewable energy technologies, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Any student, faculty, or staff member at USFSP can propose a project, and the SGEF committee votes on which projects to fund. The SGEF committee is made up of at least 4 student voting members, and 4 faculty, or staff voting members. The committee is chaired by a student. SGEF catalyzes a growing experiential learning model that eviscerates student leadership and creative energy towards a noble and necessary goal.
Green Revolving Fund
A green revolving fund is in the process of being established and savings will be rolled over from projects monitored by a submetering energy management system.
The website URL where information about the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives is available (optional):
Does the institution have conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
Yes
A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability:
Speakers and Film showings:
Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for Florida and America
Join us in the ballroom of the University Student Center with Cynthia Barnett, journalist and author of the books Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.; Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis; and Rain: A Natural and Cultural History, to talk about her work and a key part of the solution to our water woes – a new water ethic in Florida and nationwide. This special program brings together lessons from all three of Ms. Barnett’s books. Students, faculty, and the general public are encouraged to read Blue Revolution prior to the event, and come together to talk about water, ethics, and the future of Florida
This event wass put on by the Environmental Science and Sustainability Club in conjunction with UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County and the Florida Studies Program.
Screening of “The Forgotten Coast: Return to Wild Florida”
Screening of the “The Forgotten Coast: Return to Wild Florida” Following in the footsteps of a wandering Florida black bear, three friends leave civilization and become immersed in a vast and unexplored wildlife corridor stretching from the Everglades to the Florida-Alabama border. The rugged thousand-mile journey by foot, paddle, and bike traverses Florida’s Forgotten Coast – a wilderness that has the potential to change the way we see the natural world.
Collaboration between students and the university.
The website URL where information about the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability is available (optional):
---
Does the institution have cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
Yes
A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability:
Reuse-a-bull Fashion Show
The Department of Sustainable Initiatives hosts this fashion show every fall. Participants must make their outfits out of recycled or reused materials.
Eco-fest
A celebration organized by Student Environmental Awareness Society(SEAS) for the 45th anniversary of Earth day. "This event will feature - live music by local bands, artists, community vendors, environmental groups, and USFSP organizations."
Gaia-Fest
A multi-day celebration of the earth and the things that we can gain by caring for it. A live plant exchange, multiple documentary showings, as well as local vendors supplying locally and sustainably produced products.
The website URL where information about the cultural arts events, installations or performances is available (optional):
---
Does the institution have wilderness or outdoors programs (e.g. that organize hiking, backpacking, kayaking, or other outings for students) that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
Yes
A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:
Leadership in the Great Outdoors Class
Students in this class practice sustainability and “leave no trace” principals as they travel for three days down the Suwannee River and staying in “green” campsites designed by the state Department of Environmental Protection that minimize impact on native environmental communities. No disposable products are used – the students cook in cast iron pots over an open fire, wood salvaged from downed trees, in a method reminiscent of time long gone. Students are tasked to have zero impact, leaving only footprints in the sand, taking only photographs.
The website URL where information about the wilderness or outdoors programs is available (optional):
---
Does the institution have sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences (e.g. choosing a sustainability-related book for common reading)?:
Yes
A brief description of the sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:
USFSP began its Living Learning Communities as a first-year experience for the entire fall and spring terms.
Living Green Living Learning Community
A community living green for a better tomorrow
In the classroom, the lab, on campus and beyond the Living Green Living-Learning Community provides a multidisciplinary introduction to environmental science, policy and sustainability. The linked courses focus on an overall theme of sustainability and environmental science. As a cohort, members of this community will learn and live together, taking courses that use different modalities (lecture, lab, online) and leveraging opportunities for civic and community engagement in St. Petersburg.
The website URL where information about the sustainability-related themes is available (optional):
Does the institution have programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
Yes
A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:
The Department of Sustainable Initiatives of the Student Government Association hosts Sustainability Workshop Series to teach sustainable life skills.
Example Workshops:
Earth and People Friendly Meals: Demonstrated how to prepare a delicious vegetarian meal and information on how conventional farming and agriculture harm the environment and contribute to climate change.
DIY Health Products: Demonstrated how to make shampoo and toothpaste out of all natural products, and provided information on how many health products harm the environment.
The website URL where information about the sustainable life skills programs is available (optional):
---
Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
Yes
A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:
Secretary of Sustainable Initiatives
The Department of Sustainable Initiatives is led by the Secretary of Sustainable Initiatives which is part of the Executive Branch of the Student Government Association at USF St. Petersburg.
The website URL where information about the student employment opportunities is available:
---
Does the institution have graduation pledges through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
Yes
A brief description of the graduation pledges:
Students may purchase a Sustainability Ribbon that they are allowed to wear on their gown during their Graduation Commencement. The sustainability ribbon represents the student’s lifetime commitment to a healthy environment. The money from purchasing of the ribbons funds sustainability initiatives on campus.
The website URL where information about the graduation pledges is available (optional):
---
Does the institution have other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives?:
Yes
A brief description of the other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives:
Students are able to intern with the office of sustainability and work alongside the Sustainability Planner through projects with students and administration as well as integrate these projects into classroom experiences.
The website URL where information about other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives is available (optional):
---
Estimated percentage of students (full-time and part-time) that participate annually in sustainability-focused co-curricular education and outreach programs (0-100):
---
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---
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.