Thursday, I had the honor of having Dr. Shawna Weber meet with my EVST Capstone class to answer our questions about her Department of Sustainability at Princeton and then also share our ideas with her about what could potentially be done at Lafayette, for feedback. Dr. Weber was extremely well spoken, and shared with us a lot of insight. I loved how successful the ‘Drink Local’ campaign has been at Princeton, and how committed the Office of Sustainability, and the students are to the program and the idea. Personally, I think this is one of the easiest things we could do here. Putting information about the environmental clubs and organizations in the bottle would be a great way to get the word out separate from a table at a club fair. We would of course need to put in more fill-up stations.
Another thing she spoke about with my class, not in her lecture, was the pre-orientation programs that Princeton has. One is focused on civic engagement, the other is an outdoor action trip. The outdoor trip is designed to get students outside and develop a love of nature through outdoor activities and a sustainability curriculum. These programs are now mandatory for all students starting next year. We already have POSP, which would match the civic engagement program, but it would be awesome if we could start an outdoor/sustainability program. I think this would be something that would be relatively simple to start, especially if students/faculty worked with local park rangers and outdoorsy professors. My capstone class, or a similar one, could work to create the sustainability curriculum (with the help of a future Sustainability Director?!?)
Dr. Weber did a great job explaining the importance and successes of sustainability programs at colleges and universities in a way that was easy to absorb and agree with. Hopefully she helped to convince the president and provost the importance of working towards a similar system!! It was exciting to see such a large crowd of students there with such important administrators also there!
I really enjoyed reading about the pre-orientation programs offered at Princeton! As both a participant and leader in Lafayette’s Pre-Orientation Service Program, I could go on about how amazing the program and all its subsequent opportunities are. It is great to hear that Princeton has something similar! As a student engaged in the environmental and sustainability efforts on campus, I am especially interested in the other program that they offer. I would love to learn more about their programming, and I would love even more to see something similar put into action at Lafayette! I think it would have a huge impact on the campus sustainable conscience to introduce even more first year students to such impactful opportunities from the start.