Overall Rating Reporter - expired
Overall Score
Liaison Jenny Isler
Submission Date March 1, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Clark University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete Reporter Jenny Isler
Director of Sustainability
Physical Plant / Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of students enrolled for credit (headcount):
3,094

Total number of students enrolled for credit that are served (i.e. directly targeted) by a student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program (avoid double-counting to the extent feasible):
2,192

Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer educator program:
70.85

Name of the student educators program:
Eco-Liasions

Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (headcount):
615

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities:

The Eco-Liaisons program is supported by Residential Life & Housing and operates in the freshman dorms. Eco-Liaisons work directly with the residents to encourage more daily sustainable behavior practices, such as energy or water conservation; recycling and composting. They invite residents to regular info sessions (with refreshments) and do door-knocking for one-on-one engagement. Primarily, however, Eco Liaisons manage Clark's participation in the Conservation Nationals energy reduction competition, including monitoring and sharing data nationally and at Clark; facilitating dorm versus dorm friendly competitions each semester and for EarthWeek; encouraging participation through dorm sign-ups and tabling; running events like Do It In the Dark (stargazing) or Lights Out Clark; a Facebook group and of course an awards party for the winning dorms and on-going updates during the national competition.


A brief description of how the student educators are selected:

At the beginning of the year, all residents are invited to join various groups within the dorms; this is one of them. An RA on each floor in each dorm, who is also either an Eco Rep, an Environmental Action Council member, or has other experience with sustainability on campus selects from all applicants. One senior RA is then chosen by RLH to be the program manager.


A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach:

The Director of Sustainable Clark and the gradate assistant conduct an initial training overview early in the year, consisting of much of the same presentation and materials that are presented to all freshmen, along with an open Q&A and idea-generation session.


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or faculty/staff coordination):

Sustainable Clark meets with the Eco-Liaisons monthly after an initial welcome/orientation and provides on-going guidance to the RA program manager as well as the RLH Education & Outreach Coordinator.RLH provides programming funds to the Eco-Liaisons for their advertising, events and programming needs.


Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
Clark Composts!

Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (2nd program):
3,094

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (2nd program):

Clark Composts! is not a club, but a loose organization of students who serve to provide awareness and advocacy about composting across campus. They have info tables in the University Center and the Academic Commons; will also table in the residence halls or at events; attend food-inclusive events to educate and stand by the bins; create posters and displays in public places to advance awareness; and apply for funding from student council to get more compost infrastructure on campus. They have meetings with the RA's to make sure dorm composting is understood, advertised and going OK.They collaborate with campus clubs (who have funds) to co-host a tour of our commercial composting facility every spring. They also go around and talk to academic departments and offices as well as doing peer to peer outreach.


A brief description of how the student educators are selected (2nd program):

They self-select and recruit when they table.


A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (2nd program):

Sustainable Clark and the Recycling Crew provide an initial training at the beginning of the semester, but Clark Composts members are very well informed and proactive!


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or faculty/staff coordination) (2nd program):

Sustainable Clark meets monthly with the key members of Clark Composts! to advise and direct, but they have no financial support other than what they get themselves from grant processes (which they do).


Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
Clark Sustainability Collaborative

Number of students served (i.e. directly targeted) by the program (3rd program):
2,192

A brief description of the program, including examples of peer-to-peer outreach activities (3rd program):

The Collaborative is a student organization with dedicated members but also delegates from other sustainability-oriented clubs such as Cycles of Change, Divest Clark, Food Truth, the Herban Gardeners, etc. The Collaborative holds monthly open CollabLabs in which every participating group talks about their mission and current activity, educating and raising awareness among all CollabLab attendees. The balance of all CollabLabs is a conversation cafe, where attendees engage with each other to talk and learn about the sustainability issues that concern or interest them, and form collaborations to address issues not otherwise addressed by the University or a student group. For example, this is where Divest Clark began, and the Blue Ocean, and SAVVY (vegan food) and a few others! The Collaborative also hands out informational materials about sustainable practices and behavior (such as recycling and composting guidelines, managing the heat in dorm rooms, eating healthy food) during the CollabLabs and at tabling events.


A brief description of how the student educators are selected (3rd program):

The executive board of the Clark Sustainability Collaborative invite delegates from all student clubs to be a part of it, and they get a lot of responses even from clubs that don't directly relate to sustainability. The e-board themselves recruit highly passionate and motivated members to replace themselves as needed, generally from among students who have regularly come to a CollabLab and shown initiative.


A brief description of the formal training that the student educators receive to prepare them to conduct peer outreach (3rd program):

There is no formal training as this is a very loose and open collaborative structure.


A brief description of the financial and/or administrative support the institution provides to the program (e.g. annual budget and/or faculty/staff coordination) (3rd program):

The Collaborative receives a small budget frol Student Leadership, as do all student clubs, but by pooling resources through collaborating, they are able to do more together.


A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, including the number of students served and how student educators are selected, trained, and supported by the institution:
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Total number of hours student educators are engaged in peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education activities annually (all programs):
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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