AASHE is excited to announce that a draft of STARS 2.0 has been finalized through collaboration with the STARS Steering Committee and Technical Advisors. This will be the first major update of STARS since the release of the original STARS 1.0 in 2010. On October 8, 2012, AASHE will begin seeking feedback on proposed changes through a six-week public comment period.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the changes being proposed in STARS 2.0 for which we hope to gather feedback:

• In STARS 2.0, former Tier Two (T2) credits have been consolidated into new credits and into existing credits as optional reporting fields. The STARS 2.0 draft currently includes a single tier of 70 credits, reduced from 139 Tier 1 and Tier 2 credits.
• New credits have been added, including credits covering student-run co-curricular programs, air pollutant emissions, land use, biodiversity, wastewater treatment, workplace health and safety, and community stakeholder engagement.
• The use of baselines in STARS has been changed significantly to give institutions greater flexibility in setting baselines for GHG emissions, energy consumption, waste generation and water use.
• New fields have been added to each subcategory and to the Innovation credits to allow institutions to upload images associated with STARS subcategories.

The STARS 2.0 public comment period will be open to anyone interested in providing feedback on the next major version of STARS. To participate, individuals can access the STARS website to review the STARS 2.0 Technical Manual and a summary of changes on the STARS website, and to participate in a survey of big-picture questions related to STARS. Comments will be submitted electronically on the STARS website.

Please spread the word to colleagues across your campus or organization, and visit http://stars.aashe.org/ on October 8 to begin providing feedback!

Push the frontiers. Explore life sciences. Your way.

At UGA, you choose. The Integrated Life Sciences (ILS)  Program allows first-year graduate students to explore the research areas of nearly 140 faculty in 10 different departments across 4 colleges, then choose a major professor and a departmental home within the first year.

• The Green Dot program launched last Friday.

• The BreakingGround Community Program Grant application is due September 30th (i.e., this Sunday), so apply now.

• A UMBC team including professor Bev Bickel, Shirver Center director Michele Wolff, former SGA President Yasmin Karimian, alumna Helen Atkinson and I shared some of BreakingGround's features and assessment strategy at the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement's annual conference (see pages 47-48 of the conference program).

• UMBC senior Collin Wojciechowski spent a year as the only student member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. He reflects on the experience.
• The campus celebrated the opening of the new Performing Arts and Humanities Building on the 46th anniversary of UMBC's founding. UMBC Office of Institutional Advancement communications manager Dinah Winnick shares insights (and audio) from cultural innovators who participated in the "New Space" panel discussion.
• I describe the early history of UMBC's First Year Council (featuring a giant water gun fight on the Quad), and invite student organizations to nominate the next generation of first-year student leaders.
• Vivian Armor, Director of UMBC's Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, and professor Amy Froide explore some of UMBC's supports for budding social entrepreneurs, including the new Entrepreneurship Minor.
• One of the best-kept secrets of the past 6 years at UMBC has been revealed: the inside story of UMBC Underground, the anonymously-authored publication that generated a lot of buzz on campus before the MyUMBC forums existed.  "Treeveins" (alum and UMBC Underground founder Andrew Gordon) provides the scoop.

--David Hoffman

Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.

Headlines

UMBC launches new recycling initiatives By: Nicole Gosnell - 09/25/2012

Quad hosts rally to improve sustainability practices By: Kayvan Vakili

UMBC takes steps towards becoming more eco-friendly By: Yasmin Radbod

It's never too late to go green By: Tara Mobaraki