UT Arlington has joined a cutting-edge program called Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Participation will help the Office of Sustainability monitor the university’s overall performance on a wide range of issues, from curriculum, research, and community engagement to buildings, dining services, and landscaping.
Archive for the 'Management Systems' Category
Yesterday I updated the PSC Steering Committee on the carbon footprint reduction initiative. The committee requested that Sustainability Director Meghna Tare prepare a proposal on how to formally get footprint reduction planning underway.
On October 28th UTA hosted the North Central Texas Campus Climate Summit. The event was co-sponsored by the University of Texas at Arlington, the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program and the Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability. The student groups involved with bringing this event to campus were:
Air & Waste Management Association at UTA
International Business Society at UTA
Student Planning Association at UTA
The first-ever North Central Texas Campus Climate Summit brought together over 50 participants from 15 different universities and colleges in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The summit provided opportunities for faculty, students, staff and administrators from the region to get together to share ideas, best practices and resources to accelerate climate change and sustainability solutions. The main themes explored were 1) Transforming the Curriculum to Address Eco-literacy 2) Green Workforce Development and 3) Comprehensive Greening of Campus Operations.
Here are the departments, offices, and other units that have been certified by the Maverick Office Green Team program. Is yours listed? If not, get busy!
Where’s Architecture? Biology? Liberal Arts? Social Work?
Where’s Dining Services? Purchasing? University Publications?
Gold
Career Services – Business Building
Career Services – Davis Hall
Career Services – University Center
Facilities Management
Fort Worth Center
School of Urban and Public Affairs
Small Business Development Center
Undergraduate Recruitment, Office of
University Center/ Apt & Res Life
Silver
Accounting/Suite 409
Admissions, Records and Registration
Alumni Association
Center for Distance Education
Civil Engineering, 4th Floor Nedderman Hall
College of Engineering
Compliance
Deans Office – Business
English Language Institute
Equal Opportunity Services
Graduate Studies, Office of
Human Resources
Mathematics
Multicultural Affairs
President’s Suite 300
Student Enrollment Services Project Management Team
Student Health Services
TRiO Pre-College
Bronze
Automation & Robotics Research Institute
Campus Recreation
Counseling Services
CPB 130/Chemistry & Biochemistry
Environmental Health & Safety
Human Resources – Employment
Management Services, Housing & UC
Research Administration, Office of
Student Affairs, Suite 350
Student Publications
Next week the PSC and university administration will begin the final round of interviews for the Sustainability Director post. The search committee, consisting of V.P. John Hall, PSC co-chairs Don Lange and Stacy Alaimo, and History Prof. Chris Morris, has reviewed scores of applicants, held preliminary interviews, and narrowed the list to four candidates. Beginning Monday, and continuing over the next several weeks, the PSC and key administrators will meet and interview the final candidates.
Congratulations to the finalists.
Shorthorn story, 10/16/09
The College Sustainability Report Card 2010, released yesterday, gave a middling grade to Texas colleges and universities. The 11 schools that participated in the exercise got overall grades ranging from D to A. By my calculation, the overall GPA for the 11 schools was C. I’m not sure why, but UT Arlington did not participate in the rating.
Abilene Christian University D
Baylor University C
University of Houston B-
Rice University B
Southern Methodist University C+
Southwestern University C+
Texas A&M University B-
Texas Christian University C-
Texas Tech University D+
University of Texas-Austin B-
University of Texas-Dallas C-
Last year Princeton Review gave our sustainability efforts a disappointing rating of 60 on a scale of 60-99. As I predicted, our new rating, published July 27, is better. It’s gone up to 74. The PR web page gives no details on the factors responsible for the increase.
A couple of other Texas universities’ ratings improved as well:
TCU: 78 –> 83
UNT: 60 –> 82
Rice: 60 –> 78
A couple stayed the same:
SMU: 69 –> 69
UT Austin: 60 –> 60
One went down:
Baylor: 78 –> 60
Other Texas schools whose prior ratings I don’t know:
UT El Paso: apparently not rated
UT San Antonio: apparently not rated
UT Galveston: apparently not rated
Texas A&M (College Station): 86
Texas Tech: 60
This morning PSC co-chair Don Lange circulated the following message to committee members:
KC Poulos has resigned her position of Sustainability Director. It was a difficult decision for her to make and she was extremely apologetic. John, Stacy and I will meet to discuss our options for filling the position. It is important that we keep our focus and not let this minor setback affect our future progress. If you have any recommendations for filling the position, please let Stacy or me know.
Thanks for your continued dedication and support with UT Arlington’s sustainable initiatives.
Shorthorn story, July 28
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, of which UT Arlington is a member, has issued its annual compendium of developments in campus sustainability. The 356-page volume provides an overview of sustainability efforts on hundreds of campuses, including UT Arlington.
AASHE Digest 2008 (pdf)
UT Austin hired a contractor to perform the university’s first carbon footprint analysis. The results were published this spring.
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