December Minutes
Attendees: Leila Shahbender, Eileen Zerba, Rick Curtis, Stu Orefice, Dan Casey, Kathy Hackett, Roger Demareski, Mike McKay, Stephen Elwood, James Boehlert, Jenna Losh, Don Weston, Anna Zhao, Miyuki Miyagi, Chrissy Badaracco, Ildi Kohles
- Welcome & Introductions
Kristi welcomed everyone to the final PSC meeting of the semester and previewed the agenda.
- Updates/Announcements
Campus as Lab: Research idea list for JP and Senior Theses to work on projects that use the campus as a laboratory has been posted on the sustainability website. For detailed list, visit http://www.princeton.edu/sustainability/student/resources
PSC Steering Council: All faculty and staff members have been nominated; USG will be submitting nominations shortly. The members will be selected over the next couple of weeks by the Executive Sponsor of the PSC, Mike McKay, and the two PSC co-chairs, Shana Weber, and Elie Bou-Zeid. The Council will become active in the spring 2012 semester.
Office of Sustainability: New office location is at 106 Alexander. Members were welcomed to come by to visit.
Drink Local campaign: Water bottles with the ‘Drink Local’ logo are now available at U-Store.
Ambassador program update: The Ambassador group recently gathered and discussed ways in which individuals can contribute to sustainability. A new online guide to ‘what you can do’ will be posted on the Office of Sustainability’s website. The Office will make an announcement once this is live. The group was also updated on highlights from the 2011 Sustainability Report.
- Defining Activities for the Year
Dining Services Presentation: Stu Orefice, Director of Dining Services, presented recent progress as reported in the 2011 Sustainability Report. He also reviewed research ideas as part of the ‘Campus as Lab’ initiative.
All ideas to date are posted on the Sustainability website:
(http://www.princeton.edu/sustainability/student/resources).
The group was encouraged to submit additional ideas.
Questions raised included how closely other Ivies rank in terms of local food, which Stu reported is not all that close according to recent college surveys, and whether or not students could participate in meal preparation. Stu suggested that the best options would be having classes at the Bake Shop or at Forbes.
- Policies/Initiatives
Campus events/postering marketing survey: The results of a USG survey administered in spring 2011 were presented by Anna Zhao ’12. The survey went out to all undergraduate and graduate students and assessed perceived effectiveness of different methods used to market events on campus. It differentiated between planners and attendees. About 3000 responses were gathered in total. The survey was carried out in part to assess whether or not postering is an effective way to reach students. Each year, about 6,000 lbs. of paper is estimated to be used for postering.
Comments and questions included:
-Are there key outdoor locations that could be used, for example, McCosh Walk?
-If posters were gone, would students get their information elsewhere, or not learn about events?
-There is competition between groups for attention, leading to a lot of postering.
-There would be potential student opposition.
-Word of mouth is believed to be why students actually go to an event.
-Changes to postering practices could eventually be accepted as new students come to Princeton in the future.
-To gather actual evidence on the effectiveness of different marketing strategies, a series of exit polls could be carried out at events.
-A better designed weekly events email could make a difference in its effectiveness; more condensed, more aesthetically pleasing.
Food waste systems evaluation: Members of Facilities and the Office of Community and Regional Affairs recently met with the Town representatives to discuss ways in which each currently handles food waste, and whether there are opportunities to work together to compost our waste locally. We will keep the group updated as we progress with any further discussions.
Next meeting: February 8, 2012