Residence
With one in three students choosing to live on Iowa State's campus, the Department of Residence (DOR) serves more than 8500 individuals who live in 3.6 million square feet of housing. Over 90% of all freshmen live on-campus and many current residents remain on-campus for the following year.
To meet the needs of such a large population, the DOR considers sustainability to be an integral component of its work. The DOR's green initiatives include the use of chemical-free cleaning products, campus-wide recycling programs and an ongoing effort to replace lighting with more energy-efficient LEDs.
In "re-educating" over 5,000 new residents a year, the DOR continually seeks student feedback to improve its facilities and services. For example, the DOR installed water bottle filling stations in every campus residence after students proposed the idea themselves. More than 1,600 leadership opportunities are available to students within campus housing. To share your thoughts or pursue a role within the DOR, please e-mail housing@iastate.edu. Your idea might just be the next great sustainability project at Iowa State!
"Every year, we always have the same age group of students that comes in with all kinds of new ideas. They're in touch with what's going on in the outside world. There's a vitality there that we really need to be a part of. It's fun to sit down and listen to those ideas. Sometimes they sound off the wall, then you go to research them and realize they'll work. If we didn't have that constant influx of creativity, we would just keep doing things the same way."
-Roger Graden, Department of Residence Associate Director for Facilities