Students travel to Iowa for UMACS conference
Six CSB+SJU students are headed to Luther College for a conference on sustainability and education.
Six students from St. Ben’s and St. John’s will join collegiate peers from across the Midwest at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa this weekend for the 2025 Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability (UMACS) Conference.
The theme of the conference this year is “Advancing a More Sustainable and Just Upper Midwest.” According to the UMACS website, the theme was designed to promote a culture of sustainability for everyone on college campuses.
“We seek to work together to meet the needs of all people without harming future generations’ ability to meet their own needs,” according to the UMACS website.
The two-day conference, taking place on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, will feature interactive networking sessions, sustainability tours, poster presentations and breakout sessions on topics such as curriculum development and community engagement. There will be a variety of unique activities offered, including a tour of a local sustainable dairy farm, contra dancing and early morning bird-watching hikes.
On Friday, participants will start with some pre-conference activities, including both oncampus and off-campus sustainability tours. Attendees will gather for the official welcome and participate in an interactive networking session, with options including “Visioning with Legos” and “Sustainability Across the Curriculum.” The day will end with dinner at Luna Valley, a local favorite restaurant featured in a 2020 The New York Times article.
Saturday will feature three breakout sessions, followed by a poster session. The poster session will highlight student-led research and projects. The conference then wraps up with a closing celebration in the afternoon, with the intention of leaving attendees with new ideas to bring home to their own institutions.
Universities across the globe are starting to work towards a “green” or “sustainable” campus, which is evidenced by the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), a self-reporting framework that measures each campus’s sustainability levels. Universities are rated on a scale from Reporter, Bronze, Silver, Gold and the highest being Platinum. Though CSB+SJU are not currently one of the 381 participating institutions, they were both given silver ratings until their expiration in 2018, when renewal was not pursued.
The six students attending the conference will be representing CSB+SJU in a discussion on the state of environmental efforts in the Midwest.
“I’m looking forward to the conference since it will be fun to go learn what all the different campuses in the Midwest are doing about sustainability,” SJU junior Brett Lund said.
On campus, the Environmental Studies major provides students with the option to focus their college studies on pertinent environmental issues.
“We recognize that human beings and the world we share with all creation presently face unprecedented environmental challenges. The coming century will confront all of humanity to devise a sustainable destiny for Earth and all its inhabitants,” according to the CSB+SJU Environmental Studies website mission statement.
CSB junior Abby Robinson, a student coordinator of the experience, spoke on the focus of the conference.
“We’re going to be learning about what other sustainable initiatives are happening,” Robinson said. “A lot of the colleges are very similar to CSB+SJU, so we will get an idea of how we can better incorporate sustainability initiatives at St. John’s and St. Ben’s.”
Beyond learning opportunities, the conference will provide chances to network. Attendees can expect to connect with other Midwest collegiate faculty, staff and students who are implementing sustainability projects on their own campuses.
“It’s a great place to meet likeminded people and be a part of this community,” Robinson said. For the attending CSB+SJU students, Robinson said this conference is more than just a weekend away; it is an opportunity to bring back new, practical ideas that could shape the future of sustainability on campus.
“This is how we grow as a campus community, by listening, sharing and building on what’s already working,” Robinson said.