The Office of Sustainability is under the Department of Facilities Management at Dickinson College. The Office has three primary focuses: (1) oversee and assist with the development of sustainability-related facilities projects that the College undertakes; (2) provide information and outreach to the College Community and outside organizations about sustainability in general and as it relates to the College; and (3) assist non-academic departments and student organizations at the College in developing their own sustainability programs. In order to meet these objectives, the Office employs a full-time Sustainability Coordinator, 5 Sustainability Interns each semester, and has recently added 4 Residential Eco-Intern positions.

The Sustainability Coordinator is a one-year, full-time position offered each year to a new graduating senior from Dickinson College. The Coordinator is in charge of running the Office, serving as chair of the Society AdVocating Environmental Sustainability (SAVES), ensuring that all of the sustainability programs on campus are communicating effectively with one another, and maintaining the Sustainability Webpage. The Coordinator meets regularly with the Director of Facilities Management to discuss the progress of the sustainability programs and is in regular contact with the Director of the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education (CESE) to ensure that the College's academic departments are fully utilizing the sustainability resources that are on campus.

The Sustainability Interns are overseen by the Sustainability Coordinator and are tasked with a variety of projects, including: event planning, writing informational articles for the College Community, and researching proposals for future facilities projects. The Interns also attend the SAVES meetings.

The Residential Eco-Interns are overseen by the Sustainability Coordinator and specifically focused on designing and implementing a comprehensive student outreach program in student residence halls aimed at reducing water and energy consumption as per President Durden's 10% Challenge.

Dickinson College announced in 2007 its intention to make study of the environment a defining characteristic of a Dickinson education. To support attainment of this goal, the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education (CESE) was created in Fall 2008 with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and matching funds from the college. Primary functions of the Center are to (1) act as a point of information sharing and coordination for academic and co-curricular activities at Dickinson that are related to study of the environment; (2) assist faculty to enhance environment and sustainability related content in their teaching across all three divisions of the College; (3) enhance educational connections between the classroom and co-curricular activities, campus sustainability operations and global education; (4) expand opportunities for student-faculty research and independent study; (5) assist students on design of study programs for the exploration of problems of sustainability within the context of their chosen majors; and (6) encourage student engagement in community service that promotes sustainability.

CESE administers a new grant making program, the Environmental Education Fund, which will award grants for participation in the Valley and Ridge Study Group, curriculum development, faculty development, and student-faculty research. Announcement of these opportunities and a call for applications will be made in late 2008. CESE is also assisting campus groups and individual faculty members with external grant applications.

Current activities of CESE include:

Building Bridges Across the Curriculum
CESE, in collaboration with the Clarke Forum, the Office of Global Education and the Community Studies Center, are initiating a cross-department dialogue to explore and enhance opportunities for interdisciplinary learning.

Sustainability, Human Rights and Global Education
Planning is underway for this March 2009 event which will include panel sessions, workshop discussions and keynote speaker to explore connections between environmental sustainability and human rights issues and the integration of these topics into the curricula of Dickinson's Global Education programs. The event is a joint project of CESE, the Office of Global Education and the Clarke Forum.

Focus the Nation 2009
Dickinson College is once again participating in Focus the Nation to educate our community about climate change and to encourage action on solutions. Activities are being planned for February 1-5. CESE is assisting the Office of Sustainability with educational programming for the event.

Valley and Ridge Study Group
Modeled after the Ponderosa Project and Piedmont Project, the Valley and Ridge Study Group provides a forum for faculty to discuss sustainability concepts, share knowledge about pedagogies for place-based learning and to work together on curriculum development. The first study group was held in June 2008. Applications to participate in the next study group, planned for late-May or early-June of 2009, will be invited in February 2009.