Come the bronze and gold colors of fall, the U-M campus will be getting another green sweeping - this time by way of the
Planet Blue Sustainability Ambassadors, a pilot seminar that mixes students and staff in the classroom and on field projects around campus.
Experts in such fields as psychology, conservation behavior, organizational change, and educational programs will be brought in to work with the class of 25 students and 10 staff, which will meet over a full year. Although similar programs exist at other campuses nationwide, the involvement of staff members in class is a unique set-up, says Mike Shriberg, education director for the Graham Sustainability Institute and a lecturer in U-M's College of Literature, Science, and Arts (LSA).
"The program here that's grounded in the classroom seminar and has staff members who are serving a similar role in their home departments, whether they work in the hospital, in athletics, in the housing department, or in LSA, are also going to be receiving information and participating with the same experts in the classroom," he says. "We don't know of other scenarios where students and staff are actually in the classroom learning together in this way."
The course is open to students via a competitive application process; applications are due August 15, says Program Coordinator Lydia McMullen-Laird, a U-M undergraduate public policy major. All admitted must live in university housing.
"For me, a natural way for the university to move forward in terms of
sustainability was to integrate it into housing...that's such a big part
of campus life for so many students, and there wasn't really a set
program in place in housing," says McMullen-Laird. That need kicked off
the course proposal process. McMullen-Laird was part of the team from
the
Student Sustainability Initiative that wrote the proposal.
On the project end, students will start off doing an environmental behavior audit of their residence hall, looking for opportunities such as promoting locally grown food and reducing electricity and water usage, Shriberg describes.
Ambassadors will then work with residence hall leaders on implementing programs along the lines of, for instance, an educational program on energy conservation or a documentary about the world's water crisis, Shriberg says. Fluidity is a given, as each residence hall has unique needs. "We also expect with this being a new program that students will come in and use their own creativity and ideas."
Sources: Mike Shriberg, education director for U-M's Graham Sustainability
Institute and LSA lecturer; Lydia McMullen-Laird, program coordinatorWriter: Tanya Muzumdar
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