The University of Idaho Sustainability Center has merged with the Office of Community Partnerships and gained a makeover of its Shoup Hall office spaces as well as its mission.
Jeannie Matheison, sustainability program adviser, said the merger has broadened the scope of the center’s vision.
“The Sustainability Center has historically championed energy efficiency, recycling, waste reduction, food systems and other issue areas,” she said. “The merger allows us to tackle economic development and poverty alongside those issues throughout the state.”
Sustainability Director Darin Saul said the partnership provided the center with university funding and resources to maintain its staff and services, upgrade its facilities and enabled it to remain institutionally permanent. He said the center is led and funded by students, and their needs and interests are paramount.
The Shoup remodel provided 915 additional square feet of office area for them to utilize.
“It’s better for everybody,” Saul said. “It was kind of a ghetto before the remodel.”
Saul said last year’s student staff team of around 20 people shared two offices, and seven non-student staff shared the remaining three offices. The remodel afforded 10 of this year’s student staffers a room to themselves and an additional three offices for everybody.
Matheison said the center’s research assistants, who were working off-site for lack of room, now have an office to use. All of the remodeling was done with certified sustainable materials, she said, including new floors, blinds and furniture for all the workspaces.
The OCP works to involve student research and projects with the local needs of Idaho communities through UI Extension, the Service Learning Center and other resources. Saul said the merger pools the strengths of the OCP and the Sustainability Center, and will afford more resources and opportunities for student involvement and leadership on campus and throughout Idaho communities.
“What the Sustainability Center brings is experience and momentum with student engagement, student leadership and sustainability issues,” Saul said. “What the [OCP] brings is a network of community relations, a history of encouraging student involvement with community issues and relationships with faculty and administration at the university.”
Matheison said the new arrangement is promising.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for the students, for the university and for the communities that we’ll support and collaborate with,” she said.
Matt Maw can be reached at [email protected]