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http://www.oregoncitynewsonline.com/sustainable/story_2nd.php?story_id=128416028515934000

Students in Jeff Fletcher's fall freshman inquiry class won't get an automatic "D" for failing to separate the paper and plastic. But they may get an earful from dorm-mates.
As part of Portland State University's Living Learning Communities program, students enrolled in Fletcher's "Freshman Inquiry: Sustainability" class will live together on the same floor of the Broadway dorm all school year. You might say that recycling, unplugging computers, tending gardens and riding public transportation are part of the curriculum.
"We're not prescribing them to live a certain way," says Fletcher, an assistant professor in systems science and university studies. "It's to give them a much broader and deeper view of all the different problems that we're facing and how they relate. Part of it is their own personal impact on these problems."
Eighteen students completed Fletcher's freshman inquiry class last year, and another batch of students arrives on campus soon to take their places.
Gustav Rutlen, a sophomore from Milwaukee, Wis., took Fletcher's class last year and lived with classmates in the dorm. He came away with more appreciation and knowledge about sustainable practices - but not necessarily ingrained lifestyle changes.
"I think a lot of people would expect that, and they want that answer, that it creates citizens who do this and this now, who are better off now and behave in a more environmentally conscious way," Rutlen says. "Yes, I am better at recycling now, but I look at any choice I make in terms of the system and how there are multiple implications of what I do."
The Broadway earned PSU a LEED gold certification, a high mark under the Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design system to promote green buildings. Students monitored their energy output in the dorm all year. It became a competition to see who could use the least amount of heat and electricity.
Rutlen discovered he could lower his carbon footprint by turning off electronic devices when he's done. Leaving a computer or TV plugged in drains power, albeit slowly, and that adds up when they're plugged in 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"It's huge, and no one knows it," Rutlen says.
A big project for students was to work with PSU Recycles! to improve and promote recycling. That meant going through debris in garbage cans to determine what should have been trashed and what should have been recycled.
"We found that a lot of paper is going into the garbage," Rutlen says. And students also found out that people are prone to put used paper coffee cups in recycling bins - a no-no.
"It's a soiled paper product," he adds. "Having a coffee cup in recycling soils everything in the bin from being recycled."
Students took field trips to Tryon Farm, an alternative community and demonstration farm at Tryon Creek State Park, and to Bonneville Dam. They also watched films, worked in study groups and had discussions about sustainability issues.
The class watched the movie "King Corn" and read the book "Omnivore's Dilemma," helping them understand the food products industry and to learn how to eat better. Students reported in papers that they had changed their behavior.
"Some people began to diet after we had a unit on diet," Rutlen says.
Students also helped plant a garden on campus.
This year's class gets to work on an eco-garden in an actual eco-district on campus, Fletcher says.
Living Learning Communities at PSU are the brainchild of professor Chris Carey. Carey teaches one for his "On Democracy" class. Another is "Work of Art."
It was Carey who asked Fletcher to start the sustainability class.
"It was a no-brainer, because we have resources at PSU that aren't present in other places - (the university) lives and breathes sustainability," says Carey, an assistant professor in law and communications.
"The idea that education doesn't only take place in the four walls of a classroom is really embraced at Portland State. We had a huge demand for it, and it fit the mission."
Rutlen came west to attend Portland State, influenced by family members who touted the university's environmentalism and urban affairs programs. He chose to attend PSU with Fletcher's class and Living Learning Communities in mind.
"A very consistent theme is people do what they think they should do," Rutlen says, "but they don't always get the proper education, as we see with the coffee cup issue. With the right education, like knowing how to recycle properly, you get the right results. It's not about them being apathetic."
Fletcher says it's been great gaining rapport with a group of students throughout a whole school year.
"Some students come in thinking they'll be prescribed what to do and how to tackle environmental issues," he says. "The class is more about opening their eyes, developing lifelong skills."