Resources & Publications
An ACPA member exclusive - login and download a complimentary PDF copy of Toward A Sustainable Future: The Role of Student Affairs in Creating Healthy Environments, Social Justice, and Strong Economies.
Printed copies on FSC-certified paper are available for purchase at the ACPA online store.
Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Materials Guidebook
ACPA’s Sustainability Task Force partnered with the Commission on Assessment and Evaluation with the goal of creating assessment tools to help ACPA members effectively measure student learning around sustainability. Towards these ends, Kimberly Yousey-Elsener (StudentVoice), Diana Richter Keith (Columbia University), and Staci Lynne Ripkey (New York University) formed a team in 2007 to begin a literature and web-search of assessment tools being used by various institutions.
This guidebook is built upon a framework of student learning outcomes developed by the ACPA Sustainability Task Force and published in the Monograph, Toward a Sustainable Future: The Role of Student Affairs in Creating Healthy Environments, Social Justice, and Strong Economies. Therefore, the assessment tools in this guidebook focus on one piece of the sustainability puzzle — student learning — and should be used to complement the assessment of operation and program effectiveness.
Download your copy of the Guidebook.
Download the Triple Bottom Line Quick Guide.
Download the HEASC Fellow Application
On December 7, 2005, ACPA and eight other higher education associations officially founded the Higher Education Association Sustainability Consortium (HEASC). As part of the U.S. Partnership for Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the mission of the work of the consortium is to help ". . .leverage the United Nations Decade to foster education for sustainable development in the United States."
ACPA recognizes that colleges and universities provide students with the knowledge they need to make an impact in their personal, civic and professional lives. By educating them on sustainable development, they can make positive changes for society by making economically, environmentally and socially responsible choices that help create a flourishing ecosystem, healthier communities and stronger societies.
How does sustainability reflect ACPA's core values?
Among ACPA's stated core values are the following:
ACPA is committed to the advancement of healthy and sustainable communities throughout the world. By supporting college student educators and the work they do with students, ACPA's core values will help solidify the action steps taken to achieve the mission of HEASC. By advocating the total development of students, ACPA plays a key role in the consortium by emphasizing the student development approach to teaching and learning with the national higher education community.
What is ACPA doing to support sustainability?
Envisioning a student affairs division that supports sustainability
Imagine working for a division of student life that has as its mission educating students so they can contribute to the development of a sustainable society. Programs, initiatives, and budgetary expenditures are driven by one clearly articulated educational goal: Educate students who will become the leaders of our world so as many people as possible on the planet are healthy and can meet their basic needs; have fair and equitable access to Earth's resources; have a decent quality of life; celebrate cultural diversity; are realizing their highest aspirations; and restore and preserve the biologically diverse ecosystems on which we all depend. Read more.
