Resources

Case Studies, Spring 2005

Entrance Surveys:
The Roommate Matching Game: Should you assign roommates or let students find their own?
By Michael Fickes. From the College Planning and Management journal, vol. 6, No. 8, Aug 2005

Vision Sharing:
A Review of Past and Current Connections: The Residential Nexus: A Focus on Student Learning, The Association of College and University Housing Officers-International
.pdf

Possible Residential Programs:
Cooperative Living: The University of Vermont has a Cooperative Living housing option, called Slade Hall. Cooperative Living gives students opportunities to build strong community as well as move towards a more sustainable lifestyle. The structure supports learning and applying social, environmental and financially responsible behavior. Activities include communal shopping and cooking, buying environmentally friendly products and public transit use.
Slade Hall, University of Vermont

Outreach Programs: Harvard University has started a program to train volunteers and employees, called REPs, to educate residents about environmental issues. From the Harvard REP website: “REP is a peer-to-peer educational program, helping students to teach other students how to reduce waste production, decrease resource consumption, and promote sustainable dorm habits. REP provides an effective avenue of communication between students and university decision-makers concerning resource use on campus.”
REP, Harvard

Resources for Residents:
Guide to the Green Life: Food. Includes basic information about buying in bulk, buying organic foods, from local retailers, and being vegetarian.
The Green Life Resources

Books and Essays, Winter 2005

Sex, Ecology and Spirituality by Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber has developed a useful synthesis of many disciples. His theory provided a context for understanding the cultural and social conditions affecting ecology and sustainability.
  • For introductory writing of Ken Wilber, click here

    Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Chris Cowan

    Spiral Dynamics describes the development of human consciousness and how individuals and cultures make decisions. We used it to help understand what motivates the students at Evergreen to modify their behavior. The work is based on a large amount of research performed by Clare Graves.
  • More information about Spiral Dynamics

    Natural Capitalism by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins

    This book describes an overview on how environmentally friendly technologies and behaviors can have benefits in the arenas of economic, human, and social capital as well. This provides us a basis for our program. The book was written by prominent members of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental policy center and think-tank write Natural Capitalism.
  • More information about Natural Capitalism

    The Death of Environmentalism by Shellenberger and Nordhaus

    "Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus stirred up quite a fuss when they unveiled their essay "The Death of Environmentalism" last fall, declaring the environmental movement kaput and calling for a more visionary and inspiring progressive movement to take its place." -Grist.org
    .pdf version (may be slow, but high quality)
    .html version (quick, no download, just the text)
    For an interview with the authors of this article, click here

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