SDSU on The Princeton Review’s 2021 Guide to Green Schools

Story written by: Matthew Schmidt

South Dakota State University has been named to The Princeton Review’s 2021 Guide to Green Schools list.

According to The Princeton Review, the schools on the list share superb sustainability practices, a strong foundation in sustainability education and a healthy quality of life for students on campus. SDSU is the only school among the South Dakota Board of Regents’ institutions included on the list.

“Having SDSU’s name added to the list of Green Colleges is incredibly exciting. It shows that each of our individual-, department- and universitywide efforts are making an impact and getting noticed,” said Jennifer McLaughlin, SDSU’s sustainability specialist.

The Princeton Review’s selections were based on a combination of school-reported data and student opinion, collected in 2019-2020 via institutional and student surveys. It also uses information from many sections of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) report, which SDSU completed in February and earned a silver rating.

When selecting the schools in the guide, The Princeton Review factored in the school's Green Rating, which is based on institutional data obtained from school administrators. The 10 survey questions covered these key factors:

• Whether students have a quality of life on campus that is both healthy and sustainable.
• How well a school is preparing students for employment in an increasingly green economy.
• How environmentally responsible a school’s policies are.

Student survey responses included student ratings of how sustainability issues influenced their education and life on campus; administration and student support for environmental awareness and conservation efforts; and the visibility and impact of student environmental groups.

Out of the nearly 700 schools considered for this project, all 416 Green Colleges profiled on the site are, in The Princeton Review’s opinion, truly up to the task of training the next generation of leaders, who will be responsible for putting green ideas into practice.