University of Dayton
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Fall 2019 SEE 401, Sustainability Research and Design. Encouraging a sustainable diet and lifestyle at Riverview Cafe and across campus: advocating for plant-based options. This design team explored how to increase the availability of healthy and wholesome plant-based options while promoting the benefits of a plant-based diet. This exploration included an evaluation of student choice in meals, cost-effectiveness, and convenience for students and staff.

Spring 2021 Honors Thesis. Research and creation of a children's book to illuminate issues and highlight the importance of a wide variety of sustainability themes. This project was aimed at reflecting the ideals of sustainability while simultaneously educating about the importance of caring for the natural world. The research explores how the disciplines of sustainability and design overlap, interact, and link for the purpose of education and inspiration.

The River Stewards 2020 cohort created a children's book for their senior project that is a socially inclusive story centered around the Great Miami Watershed. For their senior project, the cohort chose to focus on literacy and raising awareness of watershed management in Dayton. In a presentation at the Stander Symposium, the cohort described their year-long process from writing to printing, and how they identified and collaborated with their community partners. The book was distributed to local libraries to promote water stewardship among school-age children in the Dayton area.

An independent study in 2020, Encouraging Sustainable Fashion on a University Campus, explored the creation of the campus "Clothing Swap" by UD's Fair Trade Coalition. Symposium presentation abstract: The fast fashion industry has made it the norm to rely on cheap clothes with short lifetimes. This has resulted in extremely low wages for garment workers, inhumane working conditions in factories, and an increased amount of clothing waste. As awareness of these unethical and unsustainable practices has increased, more people are turning toward ethically sourced and produced clothing as well as secondhand clothing. Secondhand clothing has become particularly popular among college students who are always on the lookout for ways to save money. Thus, the University of Dayton’s Fair Trade Coalition organized what is now an annual “Clothing Swap.” Leading up to the event, students are able to drop-off old and unwanted clothing. Then, during the Clothing Swap, they are able to “shop” for clothes other students contributed, enjoy Fair Trade coffee, and learn about the impact of the fashion industry and Fair Trade through informational posters and table tents throughout the space that display statistics, facts and discussion questions to prompt dialogue. Additionally, the Fair Trade Coalition organizes the Clothing Swap in collaboration with other organizations to encourage, promote, and educate attendees on ways the university is implementing fair trade and ethical and sustainable practices campus-wide.The Clothing Swap demonstrates one way the University of Dayton is committed to Fair Trade education and engagement as a Fair Trade designated University. It has shown to be a great way to engage and educate students on the human and environmental cost of the fashion industry, leverage other fair trade initiatives and products on campus, and encourage the university and student body to take action through consumer habits both on and off campus.

SEE 401, Fall 2020, Class project, Safe and Sustainable Travel. This design team worked closely with the study abroad office to explore how to continue to promote global competence and provide diverse cultural experiences while making travel decisions that minimize environmental and social impacts. Their proposed solutions included providing the option for travel offsets for study abroad travel and developing new sustainability criteria for the programs.

The Hanley Sustainability Institute's Campus Energy Team, made up of undergraduate and graduate students, facilities management staff, and faculty, conducts energy audits of campus buildings and recommends clean energy projects to reduce energy, emissions, and costs. They also run a variety of energy education programs, such as providing energy consumption report cards to students living in university housing. For graduate level students on the team, this provides an opportunity to use data they gather as the basis for research projects in RCL 595 (RCL Project).

UDI 261: Building Energy Education Program. In 2021, the Campus Energy Team also organized the Spring 2021 Building Energy Education Program, UDI 261, which completed a "virtual" audit of Kettering Labs using data instructors already had for some of these areas.

UDI 261: Building Energy Education Program. The Campus Energy Team also organized the Spring 2021 Building Energy Education Program, UDI 261, which completed a "virtual" audit of Kettering Labs using data instructors already had for some of these areas.

The Building Energy Informatics class, RCL 557, in the School of Engineering uses real energy and building performance data provided through a partnership with Facilities Management and the Hanley Sustainability Institute. Students use this data in classroom lectures and class projects that analyze building energy performance. Classes share this information with facilities for better management and analysis of building use.

Fall 2019 SEE 401, Sustainability Research and Design. Encouraging a sustainable diet and lifestyle at Riverview Cafe and across campus: advocating for plant-based options. This design team explored how to increase the availability of healthy and wholesome plant-based options while promoting the benefits of a plant-based diet. This exploration included an evaluation of student choice in meals, cost-effectiveness, and convenience for students and staff.

SEE 401, Fall 2020: Flyer Nature Trail. In fall 2020 a student design team explored solutions for promoting outdoor mindfulness and wellbeing of students and staff without disrupting the natural ecosystems. This project focused on linking environmental stewardship with positive mental and physical health of the campus community.

Fall 2020, Industrial Management course applied Lean Six Sigma principles and analysis to the campus shuttle system to increase ridership and efficiency and decrease the single occupancy vehicle use for travel between campus locations. The initial goals were to increase student pick-up to 100%, increase student awareness by 15%, achieve a 90% satisfaction rating, reduce wait times by 20%. A second project drafted recommendations for improvement of the shuttle through cost analysis and continued exploration of the identified areas from the Six Sigma project. Price breakdown and comparison of bringing the daily shuttle service in house managed by UD staff rather than an outside company. Identify used and unused stops to recommend changes. A third project investigated a GPS solution that students could view from a UD app or internal website and developed a digital passenger count screen to monitor counts per bus stop that would replace the manual paper sheet method. Drive decision on number of buses, change of routes etc.

In 2019, an honors student created a tool to assess the carbon footprint of University food purchasing for her honors thesis research (2017 - 2019). It is designed to be implemented in the dining halls as an easy-to-understand labelling systems for students to make more-informed food choices and purchases.

Fall 2020 SEE 401: Safe and sustainable student travel. Students assessed opportunities for study abroad that promotes global competence, provides diverse cultural experiences, empowers and educates students and faculty to make travel decisions that minimize environmental and social impacts, and preserves the liberty of students and faculty.

Spring 2019, MPA graduate assistant designed the first campus transportation and commuting survey, delivered the survey to students and staff, and compiled the data and recommendations. She also completed and submitted the Bicycle Friendly University application, earning the university its first BFU recognition.

Fall 2018 SEE 401: Students completed the Bike Friendly campus application, hosted a forum attend by over 100 students on bicycle safety and bicycle commuting options, and conducted a survey on the obstacles and priorities for students to embrace bicycling as recreation and transportation.

In 2017, students gathered employee and student commuting data. From this data, working with the Hanley Sustainability Institute, the students analyzed current commuting and travel information and developed strategies for carbon footprint reduction related to travel. This information provides both the methods for how to collect transportation date on campus and the baseline for comparison for future years as we implement transportation initiatives for reduced carbon emissions.

ECE420/GEO420 class (Dr. Andrew Rettig) worked with facilities management and the Hanley Sustainability Institute in Fall of 2019 and 2020 as clients to study and propose a low-cost sensor design that would add GPS tracking to University vehicles. The goal was to explore the feasibility of adding real-time tracking to some of the fleet vehicles in order to monitor and reduce idle times and optimize driving distances for facilities vehicles.

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience 2021: Mentored by civil engineering faculty and the office of sustainability, a student is piloting waste audit protocols to better characterize the campus waste stream.

Zero Waste Arena -- In 2017, students in the SEE 401 course worked with Hanley Sustainability Institute, Facilities Management and Athletics to propose a strategy for implementing a Zero Waste program at the University basketball arena. The plan will be begin to be implemented during the current renovations, and will be fully implemented by the 2019-2020 basketball season.

Biology Honors Thesis, Spring 2021-Fall 2021: Environmental biology student is analyzing stormwater inputs and recommendations for less toxic methods to maintain aesthetic character and biodiversity of a campus freshwater pond.

Fall 2018 SEE 401 students evaluated best management practices for stormwater management, and drafted a stormwater management policy for campus.

2015-2016: (SEE 401) Our Place in the Watershed project: In collaboration with the Miami Conservancy District, students measured and evaluated the impact of the University of Dayton’s water run-off on the health of the Great Miami River. Students mapped campus impervious surfaces, followed by mapping all campus land cover and land use. This mapping effort continues to contribute to our ability to quantify and improve grounds management such as designating areas for native plantings and more accurately quantifying our impervious surfaces.

SEE 401 in Fall 2019 worked on a group project to research and propose strategies for a university stormwater management plan. The project plan aimed to identify the unique causes and effects of the University's stormwater runoff and provide the
groundwork for solutions. The project work included metrics and information specific to the University of Dayton as well as Best Management Practices (BMP’s) and the potential barriers and benefits of implementing the proposed plan.

Two graduate students completed the university's first resilience assessment for their graduate research project. Their project included researching best practices for resilience assessments, identifying chronic stresses and vulnerabilities, identifying existing actions that are building resilience capacities, and recommending next steps for building community resilience.

In 2017, for MPA 599 capstone course, a student project assessed the impact of a campus-based, student-led National Issues Forum on Climate Choices to build dialogue, trust, and capacity for action on climate solutions. This project contributed to a greater understanding of the role of deliberative dialogues on campus to build campus community interest and engagement in climate solutions.

A course project for UDI 380, Understanding, Respecting, and Connecting: Examining Privilege and Taking Action, explored Creating Inclusive Community involving students, faculty, and staff who attended a diversity conference in Chicago, IL in April 2020. This group project culminated in presenting at the campus-wide research symposium on the skills and knowledge they gained to enhance the campus climate for inclusivity and diversity.

Independent Research, presented at UD Student Research Symposium (Stander 2020). Unlearning LGBTQ+ implicity biases on campus. Abstract: Just as prejudices are learned, they are also possible to “unlearn.” College is often the first opportunity students have to encounter LGBTQ+ themes and communities. Therefore, regardless of intentions, students are likely to act on biases they have formed prior to entering college. This can create a challenging environment for LGBTQ+ students to live and study in. Cognitive psychology research has identified successful strategies for reducing bias. This session proposes a customized digital learning module based on this research, aimed at helping UD students unlearn LGBTQ+ biases. This session will also be an opportunity to gain insight and feedback from stakeholders in preparation to implement this project on campus.

Fall 2016, SEE 401 Sustainability Research course, a student project evaluated and assessed processes that encourage student engagement in the Green Revolving Fund, created a lighting calculator, and a way to streamline the GRF application process. This student project provided a gateway itself for additional student engagement in campus financing of "greening" projects.

Graduate research paper in counselor education, presented in 2020 at the UD Research Symposium (Stander): The effects of food insecurity on the student experience. Through an intentional and in-depth case study of an undergraduate student who identifies as experiencing food insecurity this study addressed the following research questions: How do college students conceptualize food insecurity through their personal lived experiences? How does food insecurity impact college students’ curricular experience? How does food insecurity impact college students’ co-curricular experience? The results of this study address common themes between student experiences through the students own words.

SEE 401, Fall 2020: Flyer Nature Trail. In fall 2020 a student design team explored solutions for promoting outdoor mindfulness and well-being of students and staff without disrupting the natural ecosystems. This project focused on linking environmental stewardship with positive mental and physical health of the campus community.