Sustainable Local Adventure: Pre-orientation program
Dickinson’s Center for Sustainability Education (CSE) was founded in 2008 with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and matching contributions from the college. The founding of CSE was coincident with the launch of Dickinson’s comprehensive, institutionwide sustainability initiative, with the intent that the center lead and enable development of sustainability as a defining characteristic of a Dickinson education.
The Center for Sustainability Education (CSE) has played a pivotal role leading student learning dimensions of the initiative and supporting college-wide sustainability goals that extend beyond the student learning experience. Pursuing and achieving goals that were set in the 2010 report Charting the Path for a Sustainable Dickinson and the 2021 CSE Strategic Plan, CSE has been a leader in making sustainability a pillar of a Dickinson education, one that equips Dickinson graduates for civic action to create a more just, inclusive and sustainable society and that assists Dickinson in attracting and retaining high quality students, faculty and staff.
In 2021, the Center for Sustainability Education updated their strategic plan and decided to pursue new goals for emerging cross-cutting priorities and update performance metrics of its ongoing functions over the period 2022 through 2026.
Goals for Emerging New Cross-Cutting Priorities:
- Revise CSE programs and activities to align with educational priorities, reduced staff and reduced financial resources.
- Make antiracism, social justice, equity and inclusion integral to the understanding and practice of sustainability at Dickinson.
- Enhance opportunities for students to connect sustainability, global interdependence, equity and civic action in their academic studies and co-curricular activities.
Goals for CSE Ongoing Functions:
- Enrich opportunities for students to explore sustainability across Dickinson’s liberal arts curriculum and off-campus study programs.
- Enrich opportunities for students to develop and apply sustainability skills through co-curricular programs.
- Support efforts to advance Dickinson as a sustainability leader in higher education.