University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The university has a sustainability committee that maintains close contact with the student government association's environmental affairs committee. As a funded university committee, some of it's funds have been used to pay for and install fifteen hydration stations across campus, with promotions to encourage the use of refillable water bottles rather than purchasing bottled water. Well-accepted and used by the campus community, success can be seen in the continuing requests to add additional stations in all buildings.

The Gateways to Phoenix Success (GPS) Program is a unique first-year experience that provides students with academic and social support throughout the first year of college. Students that participate in the GPS program are given the opportunity to develop skills, explore interests, and identify resources that will enrich their college experience. In the fall semester, students enroll in a first-year seminar that examines challenges our communities face. In the spring semester, the students complete a service-learning project associated with the challenges introduced in their first-year seminar. Many of the first-year seminars and service projects are focused on sustainability, for example: educating elementary students on the importance of nature, community gardening projects, and building bee houses.

A Bug's Eye View: Insects and Human Society

Students in this course spent their fall semester learning about the complex relationship between our six-legged insect friends and humans. In the spring, they were motivated to help combat the looming extinction of insects by building mason bee houses. They also created a Facebook page, which provides information about why bees are important, why they are threatened, and some videos about how to make and care for mason bee houses. They hope to get some of the bee houses installed on campus in Fall 2020.

What’s for Sale: The History and Politics of American Consumer Culture

In the fall term course, “What’s for Sale,” the group examined the growing power of consumer culture to define our political and social life in the United States. One of the assignments in the fall term asked students to keep a “consumption journal” for a week to consider their own relationship to consumer culture. As a result of the awareness that emerged from that assignment, as well as class discussions on the environmental impact of consumer culture, the class decided to focus on the theme of sustainability in the spring service-learning project. The class partnered with Howe Elementary School, in Green Bay, and worked on gardening projects with students in the school’s YMCA-led aftercare program. Howe is a racially diverse, predominant low-income school (90% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch). The goal was to connect with these students around the issue of gardening and recycling by planting seeds in recycled containers (egg cartons), and working with the students to gather milk cartons and empty plastic soda/water bottles that we can repurpose into planters. Their seedlings (flowers and vegetables) were transplanted into the school’s outdoor garden later in the spring. While introducing students to the principles of sustainability, the cohort also helped these elementary school students envision themselves as future college students.

Wild: Nature and Modern Culture:

This project grew out of Professor David Voelker’s fall first-year seminar course called “Wild: Nature and Modern Culture,” which explored the relationship between humans and nature from the perspective of the humanities (including philosophy, history, religious studies, First Nations Studies, and literature). One of the issues that the class considered was the lack of awareness or connection that many modern Americans feel with nature, as the result of our consumer economy and our technology-driven, fast-paced lifestyles. With these ideas in mind, his students developed an educational project. The class of fifteen first-year students visited Aldo Leopold school twice in April to take fifth graders on a nature walk, followed by a reflective art project, and to use a game to help keep them up-to-date on recycling policies in our region. The overall goal was to increase their knowledge and appreciation of their connection to the natural world. UWGB alumna Crystal Osman served as a Community Mentor for the class.

The Center for Public Affairs provides the following opportunities for student engagement and learning:
Research Associates with the Center for Public Affairs work on community and scholarly research endeavors as team members with our faculty and staff. Students receive credit and often are paid to be part of these relevant projects.

Internships in a variety of settings are available for students with relevant course work to participate in different projects and programming. More about our Internship Program.

Service Learning projects with area nonprofit or government organizations (environ planning, evaluation, leadership, nonprofit management, fundraising)

Honors in the Major projects offer students the opportunity to work collaboratively with faculty.

Civic Engagement opportunities such as participation in forums and educational programming

In Spring 2019, the ENV SCI 102 students at Marinette made posters about sustainable technologies and how they could be used locally. They presented them at Best of the Bay- a showcase of student work open to campus and community members. Additionally, that spring, several of my students put together a panel discussion on climate change, called ‘A Student Perspective on Climate Change.’

Student campus air quality testing.

ENV SCI 464. Atmospheric Pollution and Abatement.
This course provides students an understanding of atmospheric processes and weather patterns and how they affect pollutant transport. Sources, sinks, environmental effects, and abatement technologies for air pollutants are addressed. Atmospheric reactions that create pollution or deplete stratospheric ozone are included.

The new STEM building has solar panels installed to generate electricity for the building. At the entrance of the building is a display that illustrates the amount of energy generated, GHG offset, and equivalent energy per residential house. There is also a figure displaying time of the day with solar energy produced in excess of required energy. Students produced the signage and newsletter to contribute to community understanding of the solar energy produced.

In Spring 2019, the ENV SCI 102 students at Marinette made posters about sustainable technologies and how they could be used locally. They presented them at Best of the Bay- a showcase of student work open to campus and community members. Additionally, that spring, several of my students put together a panel discussion on climate change, called ‘A Student Perspective on Climate Change.’

Green Bay’s Student Union, campus and Student Government leaders looked into composting food waste. The Student Union Director partnered with EMBI to research composting options and provide recommendations. After a semester’s internship, one EMBI student intern presented a document as a guide for the following year’s (2017-2019) data collection and potential action with respect to purchasing a composting unit for the University Union using funds from the Student Sustainability Fund. As of 2020, a new institutional composter has been installed and students are compiling food waste data to share with the larger community.

The Cofrin Center for Biodiversity employs advanced undergraduates as part-time technicians to help with curation of specimens in the Richter Museum and the preparation of voucher specimens in the Herbarium. In the summer technicians are hired to help control invasive plants on our natural areas.

The Cofrin Memorial Arboretum forms a natural boundary of 290 acres encircling the UW Green Bay campus and providing ready access for recreation, field trips, and research projects. The purpose of the Arboretum is to restore and preserve some of Wisconsin's native ecological communities and to provide a place where people can enjoy and appreciate nature. Emphasis is placed on the protection, enrichment, and development of native Wisconsin plant communities and areas of special ecological significance. Forests, prairies, ponds, and creeks represent some of the major communities thriving in the Arboretum. The Arboretum also contributes significantly to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay environment, making it one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.

With new changes on the way for the dining services at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay’s Student Union, campus and Student Government leaders are now (2021) composting food waste. The Student Union Director partnered with EMBI to research composting options and provide recommendations. After a semester’s internship, one EMBI student intern presented a document as a guide for next years' (2017-2019) data collection and potential action with respect to purchasing a composting unit for the University Union using funds from the Student Sustainability Fund. As of 2020, a new institutional composter has been installed and students are compiling food waste data to share with the larger community.

Additionally, in 2017 - Installed in 2018 - UW - Green Bay student interns with the University Union Marketing and Promotions department developed all new stickers for recycling and waste receptacles (over 60 units on campus). These stickers will both help to educate users on which materials are recyclable versus waste and assist in reducing contamination in the recycling streams.

What’s for Sale: The History and Politics of American Consumer Culture

In the fall term course, “What’s for Sale,” the group examined the growing power of consumer culture to define our political and social life in the United States. One of the assignments in the fall term asked students to keep a “consumption journal” for a week to consider their own relationship to consumer culture. As a result of the awareness that emerged from that assignment, as well as class discussions on the environmental impact of consumer culture, the class decided to focus on the theme of sustainability in the spring service-learning project. The class partnered with Howe Elementary School, in Green Bay, and worked on gardening projects with students in the school’s YMCA-led aftercare program. Howe is a racially diverse, predominant low-income school (90% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch). The goal was to connect with these students around the issue of gardening and recycling by planting seeds in recycled containers (egg cartons), and working with the students to gather milk cartons and empty plastic soda/water bottles that we can repurpose into planters. Their seedlings (flowers and vegetables) were transplanted into the school’s outdoor garden later in the spring. While introducing students to the principles of sustainability, the cohort also helped these elementary school students envision themselves as future college students.

Wild: Nature and Modern Culture:

This project grew out of Professor David Voelker’s fall first-year seminar course called “Wild: Nature and Modern Culture,” which explored the relationship between humans and nature from the perspective of the humanities (including philosophy, history, religious studies, First Nations Studies, and literature). One of the issues that the class considered was the lack of awareness or connection that many modern Americans feel with nature, as the result of our consumer economy and our technology-driven, fast-paced lifestyles. With these ideas in mind, his students developed an educational project. The class of fifteen first-year students visited Aldo Leopold school twice in April to take fifth graders on a nature walk, followed by a reflective art project, and to use a game to help keep them up-to-date on recycling policies in our region. The overall goal was to increase their knowledge and appreciation of their connection to the natural world. UWGB alumna Crystal Osman served as a Community Mentor for the class.

Laboratory instrumentation enhances student opportunities to perform chemical analyses which are important in environmental monitoring. Such instrumentation includes mass spectrometers, infrared and UV-visible spectrophotometers, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, gas chromatographs, ion chromatographs, and high-performance liquid chromatographs. In addition to opportunities to monitor air and surface-water quality, students also have the opportunity to monitor ground water; three wells have been drilled on campus specifically for that purpose.

UW-Green Bay’s Kevin Fermanich (Natural and Applied Sciences) was awarded an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant to aid in his research of the water quality impact of managed grazing. Fermanich will work in collaboration with UWGB Assistant Scientist Paul Baumgart, as well as UWGB grads and undergrads, NEW Water (Green Bay Metropolitan Sanitary District) and the Oneida Nation. The research timeline spans from Spring 2016 to Spring 2020, and will help to further inform the impact managed grazing has on water quality, specifically in the Lower Fox River sub-basin.

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will take the lead on a grant for one of the first large-scale attempts to directly link in-field soil health parameters with intensive edge-of-field water quality monitoring across the Great Lakes Basin. The results of this work will provide direct management recommendations for improving the health and quality of the Great Lakes.

The Environmental Management and Business Institute (EMBI) collaborated with the Alliance for the Great Lakes on two newly funded projects; Agricultural Outreach in the Lower Fox Basin and the Lower Fox Perennial Forage Project.

Targeting Sediment Reduction in the Lower Fox - This project will reduce agricultural sediment and nutrient loading to the Lower Fox River and Green Bay through the installation of innovative yet underutilized conservation practices (such as stream buffering, stream bank protection and cover crops) in key sections of the Plum and Kankapot Creek watersheds. The project will also monitor the effects of the installed conservation practices in order to guide the future implementation of conservation practices throughout the Lower Fox watershed.

A sustainability intern in the fall of 2021 conducted an inventory of all courses from the course catalog and the learning outcomes for all degree programs to determine which were sustainability focused, sustainability inclusive, or potentially sustainability inclusive (to identify opportunities for infusing sustainability into our curriculum further). This data collection and analysis served as the basis for the AC1 and AC2 STARS credit reporting.

An Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion academic intern worked with Dr. Gaurav Bansal (business faculty) and Dr. Stacie Christian (Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence) to conduct literature reviews and then focus groups with students in the Cofrin School of Business to try to explain the low diversity within the school and provide recommendations to make it more inclusive.

UREC serves UW-Green Bay students and the campus community through outstanding sport and recreation facilities, inclusive programming, and leadership opportunities in pursuit of mental and physical well-being.

Development by providing students opportunities for growth through leadership and teamwork
Well-Being by promoting healthy lifestyles
Integrity by committing to honesty, respect, and responsibility
Inclusivity by providing a safe and welcoming environment for all
Recruitment through community engagement, attractive facilities, and innovative programming
Retention by fostering relationships and shared experiences in a fun environment

Campus Cupboard
The Campus Cupboard is a student organization run by students, with the mission of providing an on-campus food pantry, clothing closet, and cleaning/personal hygiene products to ensure adequate basic needs are met of all students, faculty, and staff. The Campus Cupboard and Clothes Closet are located in the new 'CK One' space in Rose Hall 140.
For more information, check us out on Facebook. If you would like to volunteer, attend one of our organization meetings, or provide donations to the cupboard and closet, please email us: sofoodpantry@uwgb.edu. Or contact Campus Cupboard Faculty Advisor Dana Johnson by phone at 920-465-2346 or by email, johnsond@uwgb.edu to schedule a time to access the Campus Cupboard.

Campus Kitchen
Campus Kitchen collects unused, quality food from local food providers. Student volunteers, cook and store the donations according to food handling regulations. Food donations are used to create balanced and nourishing meals. Prepared meals are delivered to organizations as well as to low-income families and individuals.
If you would like to get to know a little more about CKUWGB before volunteering, or have a question that needs answering, please check out our Facebook or Twitter page, or send us an e-mail at socampuskitchen@uwgb.edu.
Or, check out our Volunteerhub, for all upcoming events. Cooking and serving shifts are up to date. In order to reserve your spot on a shift, create an account and then use the handy ‘Sign Up’ button. This helps us keep track of who is attending and how often you have volunteered with us before.