Oregon State University
EN-9: Staff Professional Development and Training

Campus Recycling offers training to OSU faculty and staff several times each year, and additionally by request. Additional training opportunities are often made available during OSU's annual Beyond Earth Day celebration in April.

Several times each year, the Sustainability Office and Transportation Services provide department-specific trainings and/or orientations for employees, typically working with the requester to tailor content to the department's needs at the time.

Through OSU's Sustainability Advocate program, faculty and staff serve as sustainability representatives within their campus unit by sharing information and training opportunities, networking with fellow Advocates and promoting sustainability-related events within their unit. At times, Advocates have served as mentors to other Advocates, helping work through specific sustainability challenges or questions. The Sustainability Office also periodically by request connects campus experts with those who might benefit from their expertise.

Advocates also receive training both from the Sustainability Office and from guest speakers at quarterly Advocates meetings.

While exact attendance numbers are not available, we reach at least several hundred people each year with these and other professional development opportunities.

OSU Sustainability Advocates deliver information about external training opportunities to contacts in their departments. Advocates themselves are offered free passes to conferences like AASHE and WOHESC (Washington & Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference, https://www.wohesc.org/). These passes are covered by the Sustainability Office or other partnerships arranged by the Sustainability Office. Transportation costs to WOHESC are paid for by the Sustainability Office.

Additionally, faculty and staff regularly attend other conferences (other than WOHESC) with a sustainability focus, which the University supports either through direct payment of costs or reimbursement to the employee. Occasionally, the Sustainability Office will offer special sponsorships for employees and students from other departments to attend events or conferences with a sustainability focus.

The WOHESC conference mentioned above is the largest and most consistent professional development opportunity we sponsor and promote. Every year multiple students, faculty and staff attend WOHESC. The conference is an opportunity for those teaching, working, or studying within higher education to come together and learn about sustainability in academics, operations, and research. Participants explore ways to advance campus sustainability through the sharing of best practices, presentations on creative solutions to common challenges, and the development of regional collaborative networks.

OSU students, faculty and staff typically attend AASHE conferences most years (more likely when it's West Coast!).