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Northwest State Community College

Northwest State Community College
Campus Category: 
Community colleges and other two-year institutions

Contact Information

Ed
Singer
Social Sciences Instructor
Arts & Sciences
Education and Research:

Northwest State’s steady progress toward a sustainable campus and renewed community outreach began in August 2005. Two administrators joined three faculty members to form “Education for Sustainability” (E4S). The founding faculty members – a biologist, sociologist, and HVAC specialist – were concerned about the local decline in farming and manufacturing and dissatisfied with a curriculum that did not provide viable alternatives.

The faculty-centered model has provided important opportunities to advance the curriculum, provide co-curricular programs, and integrate student learning with campus operations and outreach.

  • Spring 2006: With no budget and no visible interest in “sustainability,” E4S brought David Orr on campus to deliver his message of unprecedented environmental crisis and immense opportunity. An administrator funded the program from his information technology budget.
  • Fall 2006: The award-winning (Recyclemania 2008 “Waste Minimization,” Partial Campus) recycling program began as a class project in sociology. Student teams designed and implemented the program, and then assessed “behavioral changes.”

  • Spring 2007: E4S and Students for Sustainability (S4S) established a native landscaping project using designs created from an ecology class project. Implementation problems fed back to ecology and botany classes as new course assignments.

  • March 2008: Michael Shuman presented his model for local economic development followed by on-campus workshops with local business people and a seminar with faculty to explore the college’s new role. His visit leveraged an on-campus small business incubator for startup in spring 2010.

  • April 2008: Debra Rowe delivered a community-wide presentation on “Business, Education, and Sustainability,” a presentation to the Board of Trustees, a series of faculty workshops on curriculum development, and a “cross-silos institutional planning” workshop.

  • June 2008: The plastics program was awarded a grant to upgrade the plastics lab, develop knowledge and training around “cradle to cradle” designs and enter into partnerships with local industry. The project is integrated with the recycling program to perform in-house plastics reprocessing and provide a permanent on-campus “demonstration effect.”

  • December 2008: The Board of Trustees approved a new two-year degree program for design and service of renewable energy technologies. Final approval is pending at the Ohio Board of Regents. Training scale equipment installation for wind and geothermal energy sources are underway.

  • Spring 2009: The special topics course “Social Movements, Public Policy, and Political Action” was built around “NTI – Global Warming Solutions” and a D.C. class trip to “Power Shift 2009.” On their return from D.C., 28 students led a series of roundtable discussions and other presentations on campus, became involved in several community outreach and political action activities, and were sought by local reporters for interviews.

Campus Operations:

A variety of forces advanced campus operations: faculty with an eye toward designing problem-based assignments, outstanding leadership from students, a new Director of Facilities with an engineering degree, ever higher energy prices that turned yesterday’s “newfangled ideas” into today’s “good business sense,” and new state-wide energy efficiency mandates. Highlights are:

  • Fall 2008: A new energy management plan was approved. By fall 2009, a campus-wide lighting upgrade will be complete, the boiler replaced, and R-30 insulation installed in two of the four campus buildings with an estimated total cost savings in the first year of $14,663.
  • Fall 2008: A community “drop-off” program was set up in a corner of the campus parking lot and is completely run by students. The “drop-off” serves college staff and students in rural areas lacking convenient access to either curbside recycling or neighborhood centers. To date, more than 10,000 pounds of recyclable materials from the homes of staff and students have been collected.
  • April 2009: The campus recycling program completed its third year of Recyclemania, finishing in the top five on “Waste Minimization” and the top twenty for the “Grand Prize.” Keys to the program’s success are:
    1. The student group, S4S, runs the recycling program.
    2. Professors and students do a “dumpster dive” each year inside the Atrium and Food Court area at lunch time.
    3. S4S performs a “waste audit” and reports the results each year to a college wide audience.
    4. Drawing and painting classes create original labels for recycling bins and signage throughout the campus.
    5. S4S and E4S sponsor a film series each year featuring the “Story of Stuff” and other documentaries relating to stewardship of resources.
  • June 2009: The college began replacing all campus cleaning products with the GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified Products seal.
  • June 2009: As part of the internal “green grant,” the college purchased an in-vessel accelerated composter to start up in fall 2009. Attractive, easy-to-clean, and effectively labeled cabinets are under construction in the engineering lab to be placed in various food center locations to sort the end-user wastes and conveniently serve as collecting points. As with the collection of recyclables, students will run the composting system. By spring 2010, all food wastes from students and catered, on-campus community events will be composted.
  • Since January 2009, the College managed Food Services team is transitioning to all biodegradable or recyclable food packaging and service ware. The switch is in anticipation of the new composting system.
Administration and Finance:

Institutional change works best when “top down” joins “bottom up.” Many initiatives in education and campus operations are validated by engagement of more students, community members, and cost savings. As credibility grows, commitment deepens at the top. With an operating budget in FY 09/10 of $18,412,806, one-quarter million is marked this year for energy management projects and an additional quarter million has been placed in reserve for future energy projects.

  •  April 2008: E4S sponsored an all-day “Everybody Eats” conference, a critical look at the industrial food system and a search for local solutions. By June 2009, E4S had formed “Eating Local Foods,” a growing network of over 60 informal members including local producers, professionals, and concerned consumers. Among the projects already underway is a fall community dinner celebrating local foods, skills, and fellowship.
  • September 2008: E4S became a monthly “Sustainability Forum” open to the entire college community chaired by a faculty member but now with three regular Forum members who have seats on the President’s cabinet. The Forum features an ongoing “sustainability initiative” each month and provides a setting to problem-solve, have preliminary project ideas tested out, and welcome new sustainability leaders.
  • October 2008: The President established the first “green grant” to encourage innovative ways to achieve energy efficiency gains and promote education. The “Green Grant Committee” awarded its first grant to the food waste composting project. Funds for the other three proposals, smaller in size, were also made available, but through the college general fund.
  • April 2009: The Board of Trustees approved a “sustainability learning outcome” be added to the list of Institutional Learning Outcomes. Using the methods already piloted by the recycling program in sociology and the native landscaping project in science classes, as well as other approaches shared in Debra Rowe’s workshops, the college will teach sustainability to all 2-year degree students and assess learning on this outcome by spring 2011.
  • May 2009: The college agreed to fund an “E4S Leadership” faculty position equal to 20% of the teaching load, for the purpose of advocating, coordinating, and implementing sustainability across curriculum, operations, and outreach.
  • Presently, the College Cabinet is deciding whether to seek approval from the Board of Trustees to become a signatory to the UCPCC, embrace the challenge of climate neutrality, and build a capacity in our local communities to achieve the same.

A leadership model that is faculty-led and builds consensus around steady change works for us. This model may be well-suited for other small colleges, like Northwest State, that begin with no budget, no tradition in sustainability, and no apparent interest or awareness from college or community.

Please email resources@aashe.org with any suggestions, additions or updates.