| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 74.59 |
| Liaison | Chris Adam |
| Submission Date | Sept. 7, 2020 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Dawson College
EN-3: Student Life
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 2.00 |
Chris
Adam Coordinator Sustainability Office |
Does the institution have one or more active student groups focused on sustainability?:
A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability:
The Green Earth Club is a student club with dedicated space that is actively involved in all aspects of sustainability. It helped organize a significant Climate march in September 2020 involving 100's of students, is involved with waste reduction campaigns, food justice, zero waste events, and is represented by a member on the Foundation Responsible Investment Committee (reference 2019).
Students are also advocating against the oil infrastructure bills at the federal level in Canada.
The website URL where information about the student groups is available (optional):
Does the institution have gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:
1. Nine biodiversity micro-habitat zones (rooftop pond, decomposition area, meadow, wet meadow, monarch butterfly nursery area, problematic plant display, regenerating zone, Insect resort and Forest Floor)
2. Three Sister's garden on the gym roof
3. Rooftop Honeybee area - two hives on a permanent constructed green roof.
4. Self-watering container vegetable gardens on rooftops and vegetable garden on campus grounds
A small Dawson College vegetable market offers fresh vegetables grown on site once a week and is staffed by student volunteers. Food banks also receive surplus food as does the Dawson Financial Aid office at times. Biodiversity Zones and the peace garden are outdoor classrooms used by over 60 classes in 2018.
The website URL where information about the gardens, farms or agriculture projects is available (optional):
Does the institution have student-run enterprises that include sustainability as part of their mission statements or stated purposes (e.g. cafés through which students gain sustainable business skills)?:
A brief description of the student-run enterprises:
The vegetable market does give minor skill development but it isn't sufficient enough to warrant this criteria.
The website URL where information about the student-run enterprises is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:
The website URL where information about the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives is available (optional):
Does the institution have conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability:
Peace Week - 5 days of speakers and workshops for students held every year. Attendance of 5300 student participants in 2018.
Earth Week - 5 days of workshops, speakers and events for students - attendance is 2000-3000 for the week each year
Public Life Conference - 5 days of speakers for classes with 6-7 workshops or lectures per day for students (60% sustainability-related themes):https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/humanities/wp-content/uploads/sites/95/HPL-2019-program.pdf (reference 2019).
The website URL where information about the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability is available (optional):
Does the institution have cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability:
Indigenous Awareness Week - indigenous dances, lectures, food, ceremonies and workshops that attracts hundreds of students to workshops, traditional dances, and crafting workshops.
The website URL where information about the cultural arts events, installations or performances is available (optional):
Does the institution have wilderness or outdoors programs (e.g. that organize hiking, backpacking, kayaking, or other outings for students) that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:
The website URL where information about the wilderness or outdoors programs is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences (e.g. choosing a sustainability-related book for common reading)?:
A brief description of the sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:
Semester Sustainable Happiness Journal (100 days - one question per day) that can be related to the UN Sustainability development goals. Completed in the summer of 2020, this journal is available to all Dawson students.
The website URL where information about the sustainability-related themes is available (optional):
Does the institution have programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:
Student Health Services (room 2D.2) is dedicated to general health promotion and education, and to helping students learn new strategies contributing to a healthy lifestyle. Health care services have on-going wellness campaigns where students can volunteer and link their work to their schooling: mental health workshops and themed weeks to address anxiety, stress, depression, suicide prevention, healthy sleep patterns, smoking cessation and healthy eating.
Student volunteering - learn basic gardening skills, how to compost, workshops (Lavender wands, seed collecting…)
The website URL where information about the sustainable life skills programs is available (optional):
Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:
Through the Sustainability Office, students have been employed for occasional work to help with projects and summer garden care. The financing comes from the Sustainability Office operational budget.
Facilities department hired students to be part of a Waste brigade where they visited classes raising awareness on how to properly sort compost, recycle and waste once our 80 sorting stations were installed around the campus. They also walked around the cafeteria at peak hours visiting students at tables raising awareness of the new sorting stations.
Student services hire students during large events to assist in set up, take down and to ensure the events run with sustainable principles.
Athletics department hires students throughout the year for large sporting events and reviews sustainable waste practices and purchasing.
The website URL where information about the student employment opportunities is available:
Does the institution have graduation pledges through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
A brief description of the graduation pledges:
The website URL where information about the graduation pledges is available (optional):
Does the institution have other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives?:
A brief description of the other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives:
Habitat Restoration Week (peace week and beyond...)- this brings classes from many disciplines together to work on upkeep or creation of Dawson's rooftop micro-habitat initiatives and link work to specific classes involved. Nursing students, civil technology, recreation, second language classes and electronic engineering students all participated in one year (reference 2018).
The website URL where information about other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives is available (optional):
Estimated percentage of students (full-time and part-time) that participate annually in sustainability-focused co-curricular education and outreach programs (0-100):
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Union letter re student climate march: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/announcements/joint-statement-from-the-dawson-teachers-union-the-dawson-support-staff-union-and-the-association-of-dawson-professionals/
Letter, Green earth Club to Larger community: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/announcements/statement-from-the-dawson-green-earth-club-a-student-club-affiliated-with-the-dawson-student-union/
Earth Week newsroom: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/dawson-community/sharing-sustainability-at-dawson-during-earth-week-2019/
Newsletter: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/sustainable/wp-content/uploads/sites/85/sd-newsletter-spring-2017.pdf
Union letter re student climate march: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/announcements/joint-statement-from-the-dawson-teachers-union-the-dawson-support-staff-union-and-the-association-of-dawson-professionals/
Letter, Green earth Club to Larger community: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/announcements/statement-from-the-dawson-green-earth-club-a-student-club-affiliated-with-the-dawson-student-union/
Earth Week newsroom: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/dawson-community/sharing-sustainability-at-dawson-during-earth-week-2019/
Newsletter: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/sustainable/wp-content/uploads/sites/85/sd-newsletter-spring-2017.pdf
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.