Let me know if you receive anything useful. Always informative to see what others have produced.

Greetings!

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but most of our strategy has to do with creating multiple learning pathways for students to be involved and interconnectedness across programs and departments. There are also underlying values of intergenerational learning, change agent leadership development, holistic sustainability, and embeddedness across the campus and throughout the entire student experience. With that in mind, let me give you a snapshot of a few models of what that might look like.

Our Sustainability Leadership Center (SLC) is the hub for most student activity. The SLC has evolved based on the evolving institutional needs and capacity. One key to the SLC success is that its coordinator co-reports to our Institute for Sustainable Solutions (the academic, research, and public engagement side of sustainability) and the Dean of Students (in Student Affairs) because at the core, we are creating cocurricular leadership and service opportunities for students. There is a lot to be shared between the two, especially for student engagement and leadership development.

At a couple of other universities, I have seen positions created within Student Affairs that combine overseeing traditional service or social justice initiatives or student groups in addition to typical environmental initiatives. Then they are often tasked with integrating them more into a broader sustainability umbrella. Especially in tough budget times, this seems to be a common approach.

Another avenue of student engagement that we have, which I coordinate, is the Solutions Generator (SolGen) program, which funds student-led sustainability projects. While housed under the Institute for Sustainable Solutions and collaborating with Student Affairs, it also connects to Academic Affairs and the community by involving faculty, staff, and community members in the student learning processes and inviting faculty to consider curriculum shifts toward applied, solutions-based learning that could prepare students for SolGen projects. Another important connection is that both the SLC and SolGen collaborate with our Campus Sustainability Office, which focuses on implementing our Climate Action Plan and the Bottled Water Task Force recommendations.

Keep in mind, I am speaking from the perspective of a large, public university, where we have had supportive leadership, funding, and at least 5-6 years of student engagement in sustainability--going back to the very basic levels. We have also had our fair share of scrapped ideas and things that haven't turned out as planned along the way. I can also give ideas of what I have seen at smaller private universities if that is more applicable. I would be happy to connect more about this topic if interested. - ahamilt@pdx.edu :)

If you would like to join the Community of Practice on Sustainability in Higher Education monthly conference call that I convene, please sign up here: https://www.lists.pdx.edu/lists/listinfo/sustainabilityhighered/. July is only our third month, and I think your question is a really great one to bring to a community of practice.

Another avenue for exploring it if you are attending the AASHE Conference is through the post-conference workshop "Community of Practice" for Cocurricular Sustainability Program Coordinators: http://conf2012.aashe.org/workshops/cocurricular

I think the best thing I can contribute about strategy is to convene people who care about your goal and ask the question. :)