CSUMB’s Sustainable City Year Program
About Us
The Sustainable City Year Program is a university-community connection where cities and other municipalities work with universities to “matchmake” community needs (as determined by someone in city management) to university expertise. The matchmaking is done by someone on campus once the needs of the city are determined.
The university sends out an RFP to regional municipalities soliciting them for a “wish list” of sustainability-related projects. Interested municipalities respond with proposals that describe sustainability-related projects that they would like to work on, but may be unable to otherwise engage in due to staffing or other limitations. A contract is then generated between the university and the municipality.
Our Mission. Our Community
The Mission of the CSUMB Sustainable City Year Program (a member of the EPIC-N international network) is to enhance regional sustainability through student engagement in relevant class-based projects. Our partner communities are regional municipalities that have identified specific projects that will enhance their sustainability goals, but which would greatly benefit by partnering with university classes. Both CSUMB faculty members and staff with the partner municipality provide guidance for the class projects.
Current Partnership With The Transportation Agency for Monterey County
We have been very fortunate to partner with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC) as a part of their Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program to encourage more K-12 students to safely walk, bike, bus or carpool to school. The goal of this program is to encourage safe and active transportation to promote health, reduce vehicle congestion near schools during the start and end of each school day, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with single-student dropoffs.
A number of classes across campus have participated with their classes on this program.
- A class in Cinematic Arts has created public service announcements to promote the Safe Routes to School Program.
- A class in Computer Design has created templates for traffic gardens that schools will implement on their grounds to encourage active and safe walking and biking behavior for their students.
- A Geographical Information Systems (GIS) class has helped to create maps for communities.
- A Psychology class examines how student behaviors and mental health are impacted by their commute patterns.
- Several Environmental Studies classes performed bicycle and pedestrian counts at intersections near schools where temporary road demonstration projects have been set up to gauge their impacts on numbers of commuters and whether they engage in safe or unsafe commuting practices.
