We're excited to report that the STARS pilot phase is launching today, with nearly 100 participating campuses!

The list of participating institutions can be viewed at:

http://www.aashe.net/stars/pilot_institutions.php

A copy of the press release is available at:

http://www.aashe.org/highlights/pilot_announcement.php

To moderate the workload of participating campuses, the pilot phase will be conducted in two stages. The first part will be released on February 4, and the second part will be released in the fall. The STARS Liaisons from each participating campus will receive special instructions on the pilot process, including a schedule of conference calls and the reporting structure.

While the pilot is underway, the STARS general review process will continue. We have separated STARS v.0.5 from both of the Pilot releases. The plan is to have STARS v.0.5 ready by the end of March or early April. The comment period for STARS v.0.5 will include both public and expert review (i.e., members of the Technical and Strategic advisory committees, general Reviewers, and special Review Teams). Accompanying v.0.5 will be a document explaining how we responded to all feedback since STARS 0.4.

If you haven't been to the website recently, you may want to check out what's new: www.aashe.org/stars. You'll find the Pilot Phase One Guide (posted under “Key Documents”), a set of FAQs, a PPT presentation on STARS for your use, a tentative timeline for 2008, and links to committee rosters, a list of campuses participating in the pilot, and more.

We're happy to answer your questions at any time - just drop us a line.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped propel STARS to this point, including our four research assistants, Lyndsay Agans (U. Denver), Scott Hollis (The Evergreen State College), Stephanie Sims (U. Florida), and Shirley Vincent (Oklahoma State U.). And averyspecial thanks to Laura Matson (Lewis & Clark ”˜05), who joined our team in January and without whose help we could not possibly have had the pilot version ready in time. Thank you Laura!

Sincerely,

The STARS Steering Committee:

Judy Walton - Acting Executive Director, AASHE and STARS Project Manager

judy@aashe.org

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Julian Dautremont-Smith - Associate Director, AASHE

julian@aashe.org

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Dave Newport - Member, AASHE Board of Directors, and Director, Environmental Center, U. Colorado Boulder

dave.newport@colorado.edu