University of Pittsburgh
EN-2: Student Orientation

UNDERGRADUATE ORIENTATION

1) Online Orientation - First-year and transfer undergraduate students complete comprehensive online orientation before arriving on campus. To help students learn about campus sustainability efforts and positively contribute to the University’s culture of sustainability, an information module on sustainability was added to online orientation in Fall 2019 – and has been updated annually since. The Pitt Sustainability module provides resources and links to sustainability information on campus, including high-level messages about the University's commitment to sustainability.

2) Pre-Orientation - Pitt offers pre-orientation opportunities for incoming first-year students to explore campus, connect with Pitt, serve the community, and develop friendships prior to enrollment. Recently dubbed “Panther Connect,” sustainability has been integrated into pre-orientation experiences since 2015. During Summer 2023, 946 incoming first-year students participated in Panther Connect programs over four dates.In 2022, sustainability-related first-year pre-orientation experiences included a wide variety of sustainability-related activities including planting a campus green wall, helping maintain Oakland trees, and assisting with post-Clutter for a Cause (move out) materials sorting.

3) Pitt Green Team – As introduced in AASHE STARS Credit EN-1, since 2013, “Pitt Green Team” has been a way for incoming first-year students to become eco-ambassadors, as trained by Pitt’s professional Sustainability team and student leaders. Though involved in multiple campus sustainability activities throughout the year, the 50 to 60 first-year student Pitt Green Team members are most visible at Arrival Week, during which they are responsible for introducing students to sustainability and recycling dozens of tons of cardboard. Pitt Green Team students move in early and complete a week of sustainability education, learning from sustainability staff, faculty, and community members and complete a sustainability service project. After their orientation, Pitt Green Team assists with zero waste move-in and continue to participate in relationship-building and service activities throughout the year. In Summer 2023, 50 students completed the Pitt Green Team orientation and zero waste move-in work.

GRADUATE STUDENTS
Graduate students are admitted and orientated to campus through their individual departments which makes sustainability more difficult to embed. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, both Pitt’s Law School and School of Public Health involved Sustainability in their orientations through marketplace-style resource fairs.

First-year and transfer undergraduate student admissions numbers provided by Pitt Admissions.

Graduate student headcount utilized from the University of Pittsburgh's Fact Book generated by the Office of Institutional Research - https://www.ir.pitt.edu/university-information/fact-book