Talking Stick - May/June 2009 - 64

22 contInued res lIfe Shining the Spotlight on Sophomores The program offers help in creating personal vision statements, provides opportunities for career shadowing and leadership, and offers a chance to celebrate the second-year experience in a “Halfway to Graduation Celebration.” As Sealine and Clemens explain, collaboration is the hallmark of their programming: “Second-year initiatives fit into the overarching ‘Case Way’ model, a university experience designed to assist students from orientation through graduation in regard to active citizenship, lifelong learning, and emerging ethical leadership. Case focuses on academic and social exploration, leadership engagement, and personal vision of longtime goals in the second-year program.” Partnerships are created with specific campus offices and divisions to develop events that have become, for sophomores especially, something to look forward to. For example, Case works with Alumni Relations and Development in its Alumni Mystery Bus Tour and its Distinguished Alumni Series. The Mystery Bus Tour is a unique series that utilizes alumni in distinguished careers in the local Cleveland area. Students sign up for a tour to an unknown destination, which in the past included behind-the-scene tours of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Indians and Browns stadiums, the Playhouse Theatre, and the Cleveland Clinic. Even Sealine and Clemens were surprised when a prominent Cleveland surgeon and Case alumnus invited interested students to scrub in and observe an actual surgery at the Cleveland Clinic during their visit. The Distinguished Alumni Series is a guest lecture sequence featuring prominent Cleveland and university citizens. Previous guest speakers include the late Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones and former university presidents. Students have often referred to their second year on campus as the sophomore slump, a period when they have lost the initial excitement and newness of the campus experience, they know they have at least three more years of the academic grind and its attendant pressures to survive, and they are uncertain about their personal goals and professional futures. They may even feel they are not getting the same institutional attention and support that they became accustomed to as freshmen. This is an opportunity, then, for faculty and professional staff to use all available resources and develop new ones in order to shine the spotlight on an important cohort of students. tS Luke LaCroix is currently the assistant director for the upperclass experience and assessment in the Department of Residential Education and Housing at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. 60 contInued facIlItIes To LEED or Not to LEED Despite strong support for LEED, many industry experts, including Curtin, are quick to point out that it is not perfect; and with LEED 2.2 just coming out, there are areas where LEED can continue to evolve and improve. Among areas needing improvement, Curtin notes that LEED is too focused on using fossil fuels efficiently and needs to focus more on using sustainable energy sources. Curtin also notes that LEED should consider regional needs: “For example, more points could be given in Arizona for water conservation where the supply is very limited, whereas here in Chicago water is ample.” By customizing LEED points to certain regions, he believes the point system could have greater environmental impact. Another concern with LEED is that it may curtail more thought about and progress toward sustainability on Talking STick campus. “LEED is not a be all/end all. Don’t just keep doing what you’ve always done. Don’t just build a LEED building and call it good. Go to the next step,” Yeoman advises. Campuses with LEED buildings should make sure that funding mechanisms for deferred maintenance are in place. “In tough economic times, don’t put off maintenance on the building and skimp on training for maintenance personnel,” Yeoman advises. LEED buildings tend to be very technical, and “when things go wrong they can go very wrong.” With a weak economy, campuses are looking for ways to cut construction costs, but Curtin believes that energy reduction and lower operating costs will keep LEED going even in this economy, since campuses must consider the impact of buildings decades down the road. Waller agrees: “There is more emphasis on not just doing the right thing, but saving money on operating costs over the long term.” Sherry stresses the beneficial long-term impacts of LEED certification: “[LEED] will pay dividends, both monetary and in good will. I can say that the Green Quad has enhanced our national reputation. We are proud to be leaders in the green movement.” tS Tonie Miyamoto is the director of communications at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. want to Continue tHis DisCussion? Sign on to the ACUHO-I Online Network at network.acuho-i.org and join the Housing Facilities and Services Group.

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Talking Stick - May/June 2009

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