Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 53.46
Liaison Winnie Mulamba
Submission Date March 13, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of South Florida St. Petersburg
PA-3: Participatory Governance

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.50 / 3.00 Brian Pullen
Sustainability Planner
Facilities Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1

Do the institution’s students have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a student council)? :
Yes

Do the institution’s students have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body?:
Yes

If yes to either of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which students are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
An elected student representative from our main campus in Tampa sits on the highest governing body, known as our University of South Florida Board of Trustees. This student representative is elected for this role through Student Government and serves one full-year (in which they are then eligible for re-election if continuing on as a student). The Clean Energy and Resource Conservation Commission (CERCC) is a branch of USFSP Student Government. Student Government allocates $30,000 per year to CERCC, as well as as routinely attends other sustainability meetings with our Office of Sustainability to determine ways to promote sustainable projects and allocate SG funding towards them. Currently, our Student Government President is an active voting member of our Student Green Energy Fund (SGEF) committee. Furthermore, Student Government also pays for a student position known as the "Secretary for Sustainable Initiatives", in which this person helps SG figure out ways to fund appropriate projects surrounding sustainability. This past year, SG has allocated over $25,000 of separate funding to support campus green initiatives.

Do the institution’s staff members have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a staff council)?:
Yes

Do the institution’s non-supervisory staff members have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body?:
No

If yes to either of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which staff are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
Our Sustainability Planner, as well as our Facilities Director and Construction Coordinator are active members in both the CERCC and SGEF committees, in which they all are active voting members for committee decision-making. The Sustainability Planner oversees all projects that stem from CERCC and SGEF and acts as administrative facilitator throughout the projects.

Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a faculty senate)?:
Yes

Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body? :
No

If yes to either of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which teaching and research faculty are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
For CERCC, there are three faculty members: the Assistant Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) (Dr. Scott Burghart), a CAS Environmental Science professor (Dr. Chris Meindl), and a College of Business professor (Dr. Karin Braunsberger) who all sit on the SGEF committee and are active voting members in this governance body. Also, our Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (Dr. Martin Tadlock) sits on this committee as well and is an active voting member. For our SGEF committee, a total of four faculty members are active members on this committee: the Assistant Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) (Dr. Scott Burghart), a CAS Biology professor (Dr. David John), a CAS Physics professor (Dr. Leon Hardy), and a CAS Environmental Science professor (Dr. Heather Rothrock).

Part 2

Does the institution have written policies and procedures to identify and engage external stakeholders (i.e. local residents) in land use planning, capital investment projects, and other institutional decisions that affect the community?:
Yes

A copy of the written policies and procedures:
CERCCBylaws.pdf

The policies and procedures:
CERCC Bylaws section: 9. Membership 9.1 Student Government Statute 601.4.1 the commission has the right to “add additional members, maintain half student and half non-student membership, and expand to include University and community leaders.” 9.2 Expanded membership shall include: 9.2.1 Within this section CERCC may establish new permanent seats for university, community and government leadership. 9.2.1.1 One alumnus, appointed by the Student Government President 9.2.1.2 One student organization leader, appointed by the Student Government President 9.2.2 Seats may not be created for specific persons, but rather for specific roles and titles, such as “St. Petersburg City Council” or “St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce” 9.2.3 Seats established for non-USFSP leadership shall be first approved by the Division of External Affairs. 9.3 Individual members of the CERCC may be removed: 9.3.1 With a super-majority vote of the Commission. 9.3.2 After three or more unexcused absences, at the discretion of the Chair. 9.4 Members choosing to resign from the Commission must give at least two weeks of notice to the Chair in email form. 9.5 Should a member resign or be removed from CERCC, the Commission may make a recommendation to the appointing authority for a qualified replacement.

Does the institution have formal participatory or shared governance bodies through which community members representing the interests of the following stakeholder groups can regularly participate in institutional governance?:
Yes or No
Local government and/or educational organizations Yes
Private sector organizations Yes
Civil society (e.g. NGOs, NPOs) Yes

If yes to one or more of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which external stakeholders are engaged in institutional governance (including information about each stakeholder group selected above):
Former students, alumni, City of St. Petersburg (municipality), Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, as well as local stakeholders who are passionate about sustainability within the St. Pete community are all welcome to attend the CERCC and SGEF meetings and may openly voice their opinions, viewpoints, and presentations. Both CERCC and SGEF will take these open viewpoints into consideration and evaluation for future project implementation. An example of this is the creation of our Climate Action Plan and GHG report, in which the CERCC committee voted and approved funding as well as data gathering support from Duke Energy, the City of St. Pete, and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (who all voted as well) all agreed to work with USFSP to completing this project. Members from the City of St. Pete, as well as alumni, and Duke Energy are allowed to have a representative sit on the committee as an acting voting member.

Optional Fields 

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
http://www.usfsp.edu/sustainability/cercc/

Additional documentation to support the submission:
CERCCStatutesAdopted11.7.16.pdf

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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