| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65.58 |
| Liaison | Jim Walker |
| Submission Date | March 2, 2020 |
University of Texas at Austin
EN-2: Student Orientation
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.16 / 2.00 |
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 | No |
| 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:
A brief description of how sustainability is included prominently in new student orientation :
Freshman Orientation is held seven times during the summer and serves 58% of incoming undergraduate students. New Student Services in the Dean of Students office coordinates Orientation.
During Freshman Orientation, all students are required to attend a lunch session hosted by their respective colleges. In 2019, Office of Sustainability and Resource Recovery worked with all 12 colleges on campus to implement a waste diversion system during these lunch sessions. Upon request, colleges were provided with bins and signage to collect recycling, compost, and unopened food. They also received powerpoint slides and a script to explain to students how to properly divert their lunch waste. Office of Sustainability student staff provided outreach at the larger colleges' bin stations, showing incoming students how to properly discard of their lunch waste. Through this programming, all incoming freshmen received hands-on experience thinking about and properly discarding their waste on campus.
Additionally, in 2019 all students at this orientation were offered the opportunity to participate in an optional mini-series of sustainability workshops. This mini-series covered the topics of sustainable food, zero waste, alternative transportation, community service, and how to get involved in campus sustainability. Each workshop was led by a different sustainability-related unit on campus including Athletics, Resource Recovery, Office of Sustainability, Housing & Dining, and the Campus Environmental Center student organization. We also partnered with the Longhorn Center for Civic Engagement. Typical attendance at these optional workshops was ~25 students. Students were introduced to the many ways they can implement sustainable practices into their life on campus as well as how to personally get involved in sustainability on campus.
The University Housing and Dining sustainability coordinator provided training to all residence hall RA's about the sustainability programs and how to get involved. They are encouraged to then pass that information along to their residents.
Website URL where information about sustainability in student orientation is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
58% is calculated from: 9633 undergrads+3640 grads = 13,273 incoming students in Fall 2019; 7756 students attended Freshman Orientation in Summer 2019. Our programming was open to this population.
58% is calculated from: 9633 undergrads+3640 grads = 13,273 incoming students in Fall 2019; 7756 students attended Freshman Orientation in Summer 2019. Our programming was open to this population.
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.