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
Sustainability
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
New Solar Panels Reduce CSUDH’s Carbon Footprint
Within the past year, five of CSUDH's largest buildings have gone from merely consuming energy to generating it. Approximately 2,400 solar panels now adorn the rooftops of the Torodome gymnasium, the Science and Innovation building, the Leo F. Cain Library, the Social and Behavioral Sciences building, and Welch Hall. The installations, which were completed between December 2021 and February 2022, officially came online in June as part of a broader campaign by Facilities Services and the Office of Sustainability to find more ways to increase renewable energy resources on campus to further reduce the university's considerable carbon footprint. Central Plant Manager Kenneth Seeton ... Read More
