Officially, International Earth Day is commemorated on April 22 this year, and its theme is “Invest in Our Planet.” CSUDH held its 16th annual Earth Day Festival on April 18, and the message that sustainable practices can create prosperity for people and businesses alike was clearly on display. Organized by the university's Office of Sustainability, the festival included exhibits by nearly two dozen campus and statewide organizations. Southern California Edison displayed their electric Ford F-150 Lightning to show the company's commitment to growing their electric fleet, from pickup trucks to larger service vehicles. Other events included a Farmer's Market with locally and sustainably ... Read More
Sustainability
CSUDH Earns AASHE STARS Gold for Sustainability Efforts
CSUDH has achieved a STARS Gold rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)–the culmination of more than five years of dedicated work by faculty, staff, administrators, and student leaders. STARS, or the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System, is a framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance in everything from water and energy conservation to the incorporation of sustainability efforts in learning outcomes. No other school in the CSU system has ever progressed from Bronze to Gold in as short a time as CSUDH has done it, said Sustainability Manager Ellie Perry, who spearheaded the ... Read More
Chronicle of Higher Education: The Backlog That Could Threaten Higher Ed’s Viability
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education California State University-Dominguez Hills started building on its current site in 1965, amid America's postwar higher-education boom, and its campus looks like a lot of regional state universities: a core of Brutalist concrete buildings with glassy, modern structures surrounding them. This campus of 16,000 students is emblematic in another way – it's racking up a mounting tab for deferred maintenance. Administrators tally the deferred maintenance there at $130 million, and growing to $252 million over the next 10 years. In September last year, the California State University system requested $1.3 billion from the State of California to address ... Read More
CSUDH is Changing the Face of Sustainability
Sustainability is about more than just greenhouse gas reduction and better waste management, says Jenney Hall, lecturer in environmental studies at CSUDH. “Sustainability is ultimately about perpetuating systems. When you perpetuate systems, you must ask if those systems are serving everyone,” Hall says. “I think that our unique perspective is incorporating social justice, environmental justice, and climate justice into that transition.” Integrating sustainability with social and educational inequities is critical to CSUDH's approach, says Ellie Perry, manager of the university's Office of Sustainability. “We're a small, under-resourced institution that caters predominantly to ... Read More
South Bay Economic Forecast Predicts the Future is Green
In spite of uncertainty around interest rates and inflation, the South Bay has reasons to be optimistic over the next year. Such was the mixed economic picture painted in the 2022 South Bay Economic Forecast and Industry Outlook, which was released on Oct. 13 at the 8th annual CSUDH South Bay Economic Forecast, where more than 200 industry leaders gathered on campus to hear about the challenges and opportunities facing the region. Developed by CSUDH economics and public policy faculty through the CSUDH South Bay Economics Institute, the report presented an in-depth look at the economic health of key industries in the region, as well as housing trends, ... Read More