Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 45.10
Liaison Bo Solomon
Submission Date March 3, 2023

STARS v2.2

Drexel University
EN-3: Student Life

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Bo Solomon
University Sustainability Officer
Procurement
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Student groups 

Does the institution have an active student group focused on sustainability?:
Yes

Name and a brief description of the active student groups focused on sustainability:
(1) Drexel Sierra Club seeks to spread environmental awareness and instill an appreciation of the natural world in order to reduce Drexel’s environmental impact through its policies and student involvement, and to educate students to continue help them environmental efforts after they graduate.
(2) Fossil Free Drexel advocates for climate justice by pushing Drexel to divest its endowment funds from the fossil fuel industry. Along with colleges and universities around the world, we're standing up and demanding that institutions pull investments out of an exploitative industry and reinvest funds into local and sustainable projects and businesses. Let's say no to fossil fuels and yes to a new, regenerative economy.

Gardens and farms 

Does the institution have a garden, farm, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, or an urban agriculture project where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
Yes

A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:
Drexel has a shared garden project with 12 raised vegetable beds at its community resource center, the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. A partnership with the community food access organization Trellis for Tomorrow, both Drexel students and campus neighbors participate in planting, maintenance, and harvesting, and all participants share in the harvests.
Drexel’s Culinary Arts program also maintains a plot in a local community garden called the Summer Winter Garden, part of a network of community gardens around Philadelphia. The Summer Winter Garden is surrounded by Drexel’s campus. Students in the Culinary Arts Course CULA 426, Kitchen Garden, work in the garden and use harvests for course food preparation projects.

Student-run enterprises 

Does the institution have a student-run enterprise that includes sustainability as part of its mission statement or stated purpose?:
Yes

A brief description of the student-run enterprises:
Sharing Excess is a social enterprise founded by a Drexel student, Evan Ehlers, and which engages Drexel students in its operations. Sharing Excess addresses food waste and food insecurity among college students and city residents.

Sustainable investment and finance 

Does the institution have a sustainable investment fund, green revolving fund, or sustainable microfinance initiative through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
No

A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:
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Events 

Has the institution hosted a conference, speaker series, symposium, or similar event focused on sustainability during the previous three years that had students as the intended audience?:
Yes

A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia, or similar events focused on sustainability:
Drexel hosts a variety of events throughout the year, including: annual Earth Day Block Party; Green Infrastructure, Climate and Cities featuring lectures of green topics; film screenings; Recycling Collection Events; Clothing Donation Drives; Recyclemania and Campus Conversation Nationals; neighborhood and city cleanups. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University's Urban Sustainability Forum also hosts monthly lectures and panel discussions. Academic departments across the university regularly host lectures and other educational events surrounding sustainability.

Cultural arts 

Has the institution hosted a cultural arts event, installation, or performance focused on sustainability with the previous three years that had students as the intended audience?:
Yes

A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations, or performances focused on sustainability:
ANS Climate year programming

https://ansp.org/exhibits/online-exhibits/

Wilderness and outdoors programs 

Does the institution have a wilderness or outdoors program that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
Yes

A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:
Drexel Weekend Warriors is a student organization that organizes outdoor trips, such as hiking or whitewater rafting, open to all Drexel undergraduates each quarter.

Sustainability-focused themes 

Has the institution had a sustainability-focused theme chosen for a themed semester, year, or first-year experience during the previous three years?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-focused themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:
The Pennoni Honors College hosts a program called the Symposium, a year-long series of interdisciplinary coursework around a common theme; themes are frequently sustainability-focused, with the most recent theme looking at waste.

Sustainable life skills 

Does the institution have a program through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
No

A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:
N/A

Student employment opportunities 

Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:
The Drexel Computer Recycling Program (DCR) helps University departments guarantee data security on existing computers that have reached the end-of-life stage for departments and allows these computers to be refurbished for reuse.
There are sustainability-related co-op opportunities, such as field ecology positions with the Academy of Natural Sciences and field research positions with the Sustainable Water Research Engineering Lab in the Drexel College of Engineering.

Graduation pledge

Does the institution have a graduation pledge through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
No

A brief description of the graduation pledge(s):
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Optional Fields

A brief description of other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives that do not fall into one of the above categories:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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