Sustainable Case Determine How SU

Sustainable Case

Determine how SU specifically gained support for implementing the STARS model and whether this was good management practice.

It appears as though Sustainable University's support for involvement in the pilot program was forged internally. Most particularly, the case study identifies the Sustainability Office at SU as a department which has routinely and historically maintained extensive data on the sustainability efforts and performance at the university. It was anticipated when entering into the program that SU had the capacity to engage university sustainability in a reciprocal way, with the university standing to learn a great deal about how sustainability challenges are met on other progressive campuses while simultaneously helping to advance the functionality, priorities and objectives correlated to the new STARS program.

SU would justify its early involvement in the program with the estimation that its role could be a significant one in helping to move forward the economic, social and operational goals of collegiate sustainability. It would also identify three STARS-related objectives that it considered significant enough to warrant participation in the pilot study. Namely, the case background indicates that "Of the established five broad objectives of STARS, SU believed that the first three were most relevant. For example, SU wanted to use STARS to help advance projects. It was believed that people value external rankings, and as the University had already been recognized as a sustainability leader, SU could use STARS to enhance its reputation." (Charkey & Hadden, p. 3)

These factors most certainly contributed to the support garnered for participation in the program, suggesting that in addition to advancing causes of importance to sustainability on the whole, the university could have the opportunity to advance its own priorities.

2.Determine the most difficult challenge faced by SU in implementing the STARS model.

The pilot program would be important both in terms of demonstrating the value of the STARS program and in terms of identifying possible pitfalls to be addressed before a more broad-based implementation could take place. With respect to these pitfalls, one of the clearest would be the lukewarm reception to the program on the part of faculty. While student groups seem to view the program favorably and to participate in it with enthusiasm, professors and other faculty have shown little interest in the program and have even demonstrated some hostility toward the extra work denoted by surveys and other STARS data-collection instruments.

This suggests both a generational gap in which many older would-be participants seem less apprised of the importance in sustainability for the future of the species than are students. As a result, there appears a level of resistance amongst faculty that could be particularly problematic to the extension of sustainability values throughout the university. It appears that some level of training, workshopping or in-servicing should be employed to help communicate the importance of the goals relating to the STARS program and to determine what incentives might be needed to encourage more wholesale interest and participation by faculty.

3. Analyze whether or not SU's participation in the STARS pilot study will/did add value to the institution.

Even in light of its apparent shortcomings, it seems clear that the STARS program will add value to the campus and the institution. The benefit that is most directly explicated by the case study is that relating to an increased level of campus collaboration. In light of the STARS program, the case study notes that "Moreover, top administrators and associate deans began to recognize more fully what the Sustainability Office had been advocating and working on for years. Specifically, sustainability encompasses courses and academic programs and research on sustainability, not just operations. The Sustainability Office was provided with opportunities for partnering with others on campus in the future, for example, the Office of Institutional Research." (Charkey & Hadden, p. 4) This denotes that the shared objectives of sustainability may help to create a greater inter-departmental cohesion across the university.

4.Evaluate whether or not the STARS model rewards higher education for focusing on the "low-hanging fruit" or its more long-term strategic sustainability challenges.