Keywords

university sustainability, student social movements, social change

Abstract

This thesis examines the development of environmental sustainability on 194 of the wealthiest colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Campus-based environmental organization membership data, organizational profiles, participant observation, and sustainability grades (from the Sustainable Endowment Institutes College Sustainability Report Cards 2009) are used to examine the relationship between campus-based environmental organizations and sustainability of higher educational institutions. Linear regression is used to analyze the overall university sustainability grades as an outcome variable. Overall university sustainability grades are impacted by campus-based environmental activism social movement organizations, high endowment per student, the age of the university, and the presence of state renewable portfolio standards. My findings suggest that the Sustainable Endowment Institute's College Sustainability Report Card might be improved by including indicators of greenhouse gas reports and interdisciplinary courses on sustainability.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Lynxwiler, John

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Sociology

Degree Program

Applied Sociology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0002977

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002977

Language

English

Release Date

May 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Download

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS