Calvin College

Case Study

Calvin Environmental Assessment Program (CEAP)

CEAP and the Local Community

The CEAP project provides a context for engagement with the larger neighborhood and the larger Grand Rapids urban area.  For example, as we studied the issue of planning on our own campus we encountered the larger issue of mass transit in the Grand Rapids region.  This has led to more partnerships with the local transit authority.  Likewise, the CEAP garbology project, which tracks the nature of Calvin College's trash, has raised issues of recycling behavior on campus, but also the issue of the regional recycled material market and Calvin's place in this regional problem.  Thus questions that start out as campus questions, naturally draw the campus into the regional dialogue. 

CEAP is a public project in that the end-of-the-semester poster sessions are open to the public and neighbors surrounding Calvin College and regional environmental groups are specifically invited to these events as well as the larger community.  At the recent 10th anniversary of CEAP, students and faculty combined the poster session with a field day where families were encouraged to come to campus and work through activities at different environmental stations across campus.  The CEAP website is also a public website, used by courses as a depository of their research results.  The data is occasionally used by people from outside the campus. CEAP blurs the boundaries between academic learning and student life, between academic programs and campus planning, as well as between the campus and the surrounding community.

 

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