| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 46.13 |
| Liaison | Traci Knabenshue |
| Submission Date | March 3, 2021 |
West Virginia University
EN-3: Student Life
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.75 / 2.00 |
Corey
Farris Dean of Students Student Life |
Does the institution have an active student group focused on sustainability?:
Name and a brief description of the active student groups focused on sustainability:
Agricultural Professionals Society-
Promote food, agricultural, and environmental sciences; stimulate interest in agricultural education and leadership, acquaint members to agricultural professionals; provide fellowship opportunities in agriculture; and develop students abilities in agriculture related fields.
Division of Forestry and Natural Resources Graduate Student Association-
This organization is comprised of graduate students within the Division of Forestry and Natural Resources who are interested in enhancing the academic, intellectual, social, and professional opportunities within our division. We hope to bolster academic opportunities by providing a seminar series that includes interests within the entire division along with fostering opportunities for graduate students to meet students from other programs for research collaboration.
Energy Law Association of West Virginia University-
To advance the interest, develop the professional networking, and grow the involvement of West Virginia University students that strive to work in the field of energy law.
Engineers Without Borders-
The mission of EWB-USA is to partner with developing communities to improve their quality of life through the implementation of environmentally sustainable, equitable, and economical engineering projects.
Environmental Law Society-
We plan service projects, educational trips to conferences, and activities that inspire our passion for protecting the earth.
Food Recovery Network-
Food Recovery Network is the largest student movement fighting food waste and hunger in America. Our goal is to reduce the amount of food that is wasted on campus.
People for Organic Practices-
Spreading knowledge of organic farming practices and provide opportunities for students to get involved with sustainable agriculture.
The WVU Chapter of the Society of American Foresters-
Provides access to information and networking opportunities to prepare members for the challenges and the changes that face natural resource professionals. Promotes that forests must be sustained through simultaneously meeting environmental, economic, and community aspirations and needs.
WVU Sierra Student Coalition-
The WVU Sierra Student Coalition is a subsidiary of the Sierra Club, a national environmental organization whose mission is to "Explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the Earth". The Coalition is a large, active community of environmentally conscious students primarily engaged in wilderness outings, volunteerism, and campaigns to promote sustainability on campus.
WVU Vegan/Vegetarian Society-
WVeg holds events to educate WVU students and faculty about the benefits of veganism for our health, environment, and animal welfare.
Society of Environmental Professionals-
We are a club trying to promote ethical practices, technical competency, and professional standards in the environmental fields and to promote academic and career development in Environmental Protection.
Does the institution have a garden, farm, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, or an urban agriculture project where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:
The WVU Organic Research Farm is one of the nation's premier organic agriculture research and education facilities; and provides support to organic growers and gardeners, as well as hands-on experience for students with education programs covering a wide variety of classes and academic majors.
Health Science Center Community Garden-
The purpose of the HSC Student Garden is to create and maintain a community vegetable garden on the grounds of the WVU HSC campus. In so doing, the organization intends to fulfill several secondary goals:
-To enhance student knowledge about practices relating to vegetable gardening in particular, and healthy nutrition in general.
-To provide frequent relaxing activities in and around the garden space, and thereby promote student wellness.
-To provide a setting in which students from the various HSC academic programs can interact informally and thereby build ties between the programs’ students.
-To collaborate, when possible, with WVU academic programs and local gardening related organizations, or providing service for not-for-profit groups.
WVU Extension offers a variety of programs to assist growers and gardeners in Sustainable Agriculture, For example, see:
https://extension.wvu.edu/agriculture
Does the institution have a student-run enterprise that includes sustainability as part of its mission statement or stated purpose?:
A brief description of the student-run enterprises:
Firsthand Coffee-
FirstHand is a coffee brand that was developed by WVU Fair Trade 2.0, a student organization unique to WVU that raised funds through fair trade coffee sales to support cooperative development projects in Central America. Since then the coffee has become a co-brand from a roasting company called 19 Coffee Company. FirstHand Coffee is organically grown, fairly traded and sourced only from democratically managed cooperatives. Farmers are paid above market prices for producing high-quality coffee under conditions that protect the natural environment. FirstHand Coffee also uses 100 percent of its profits to support income diversification and food sovereignty projects in coffee farming communities.
https://www.firsthand.coop/
Horticulture Club Plant Sales-
Students from the WVU Horticulture Club grow and operate multiple plant sales throughout the year featuring house plants, vegetable and fruit plants, and fresh cut flower bouquets for Valentine’s Day and commencement celebrations.
Does the institution have a sustainable investment fund, green revolving fund, or sustainable microfinance initiative through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:
Has the institution hosted a conference, speaker series, symposium, or similar event focused on sustainability during the previous three years that had students as the intended audience?:
A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia, or similar events focused on sustainability:
The Center for Energy and Sustainable Development is an energy and environmental public policy and research organization at the WVU College of Law. They host several large conferences centered around sustainability topics. For a complete list of their previous events visit the link below.
https://energy.law.wvu.edu/events
The Festival of Ideas is a diverse lecture series that occurs throughout the academic year. Topics cover important current issues from news-makers, public figures, and WVU faculty. The list below highlights sustainability lectures that have occurred within the last three years.
Food Evolution (Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design)
Movie screening and discussion with Academy Award nominee Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Blue Zones: Secrets of a Long Life
Dan Buettner, National Geographic Fellow and New York Times Best-Selling Author
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Documentary featuring former Vice President Al Gore
The Truth About Global Warming
Bjorn Lomborg, PhD
Has the institution hosted a cultural arts event, installation, or performance focused on sustainability with the previous three years that had students as the intended audience?:
A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations, or performances focused on sustainability:
Art in the Libraries Program-
A cultural arts program that enriches the connection between WVU Libraries' collections, library services and new ways of seeing, learning, and understanding. This program demonstrates how art, libraries and scholars encourage the community to explore, reflect, and discuss what they learn from these thought provoking exhibits. Below is a list of sustainability related art exhibits featured in WVU libraries that have occurred within the last three years.
WVU Fashion, Dress, and Merchandising: An Exhibit of Student and Faculty Work-
WVU students of faculty in Fashion, Dress & Merchandising in the Davis College exhibit fashions and fashion design drawings exploring contemporary issues and sustainable practices.
Women & Water in West Virginia-
This exhibit features approximately 20 photos, paintings, and sculptures collected, and in some cases created by, WV women water stewards. The contributing women are active in WV in the fields of water policy and advocacy, source water protection, pollution prevention and remediation, conservation, and environmental education. The imagery explores these women's experiences around water in WV and the accompanying narrative panels include personal descriptions of the relevance of each woman's submitted works. A section of the exhibit will also be dedicated to exploring the embodied experiences of water contamination in West Virginia as it pertains to gender.
Water: A Cross-disciplinary Exhibit Exploring the Significance, Power, & Play of Life's critical Resource-
This collaborative, cross-disciplinary, multimedia exhibit examines the power, control, scarcity, abundance, play and impact of water in its various forms. Through interactive visual displays of scholarship, groundwork and art we examine this critical resource and its essential life-giving and life-taking qualities from floods, drought and contamination, to a source of life, beauty, adventure and recreational play.
Does the institution have a wilderness or outdoors program that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:
Adventure WV strives to foster personal growth, leadership development, social responsibility, and student success through adventure-based and experiential education programming. Students interact with Adventure WV both directly (signing up) and indirectly as part of a group that has organized a program with Adventure WV). Adventure WV also serves the broader WVU community, surrounding community of greater Morgantown, and the international community of outdoor education practitioners. Adventure WV offers a broad range of services, from one-hour programs to multi-week intensive excursions that follow Leave No Trace principles. In addition to programming, Adventure WV manages multiple facilities: Outdoor Education Center, indoor rock climbing wall, and Outdoor Recreation Center.
Programs and services that Adventure WV offers includes:
•Most accessible: Extensive Welcome Week adventure programming, mobile group development modules, local day trips, climbing wall, kayak roll sessions, ski mountain shuttles, equipment rentals, and DIY outdoors resources.
•Next Level: Weekend retreats at the Outdoor Education Center, overnight and weekend trips, leadership weekends.
•Extended: First Year Trips program, break trips, leadership training courses, Whitewater programs, International Programs.
•Leadership trainings: First Year Trips Leadership training, Outdoor Education Center staff trainings, Wilderness First Aid, and specialized skill trainings.
Has the institution had a sustainability-focused theme chosen for a themed semester, year, or first-year experience during the previous three years?:
A brief description of the sustainability-focused themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:
Does the institution have a program through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:
Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:
Eco-reps are student employees who work for the Office of Sustainability at WVU. These students are tasked to increase awareness of the sustainability concepts of people, planet, and prosperity, inspire behavioral changes in students that create a culture of sustainability on WVU’s campus, and develop and implement sustainability projects initiated by WVU Auxiliary and Business Services. Eco-reps achieve these outcomes through a combination of outreach events and activities, public education campaigns, and other office and operational duties as needed.
Does the institution have a graduation pledge through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
A brief description of the graduation pledge(s):
A brief description of other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives that do not fall into one of the above categories:
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.