Academics

• SU Students Study Cost Effectiveness of Green Buildings - The recent announcement of Salisbury University’s first Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the Teacher Education and Technology Center was called the start of a new “green building” era for SU. Now, students are looking at ways even the campus’ existing buildings may become a little more environmentally friendly. more »
• Since 2005, SU has partnered with the Newton Marasco Foundation to present the Green Earth Book Awards, the first prize in the United States lauding authors of environmentally friendly children’s literature. Visit our Children's Literature Festival Site 2009 photo gallery.
• Environmental Issues Program continues to thrive.
• SU philosophy students collect vegetable garbage from their homes and residence halls for a compost pile on campus.
• Under the direction of Dr. James Hatley, philosophy students have planted a wildlife garden on campus to attract insects and small animals, and a self-watering rain garden.
• Students in Dr. Joan Maloof’s environmental literacy class are studying sustainability measures in SU’s daily operations using the Association for the
• Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System.
• Dr. Maloof’s students also have presented ideas for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet” grant competition. Through this program, the EPA challenges college students to come up with better designs for sustainability.
• Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Adams, management and marketing faculty, and John Hickman, executive director of the Small Business Development Center at SU, students conducted a semester-long carbon study of the campus. As the second university system in the United States to require its campuses to conduct such studies (California was the first), the University System of Maryland asked planners to present their findings during a system-wide meeting. SU was the only university to conduct a study using its own students exclusively.
• Students in Dr. George Whitehead’s environmental psychology class have received hands-on instruction, creating and installing bluebird boxes at Pemberton Historical Park in Salisbury.
• Dr. Shawn McEntee of the Sociology Department hopes to take the environmental initiative even further, drafting a plan for SU to grow its own vegetables to be served in the dining hall.
• Students have conducted environmental research abroad in Honduras with Dr. Laura Marasco of the Education Specialties Department and in India with Dr. Michael Lewis of the History Department.
• The Maryland Department of the Environment has hired Dr. Michael Scott and other researchers from the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative at SU to locate and some 420,000 septic systems statewide. MDE will use the data to identify failing septic systems in areas that critically impact the Chesapeake Bay. 
• Students in Drs. Danny Ervin and Tylor Claggett’s classes in the Economics and Finance Department have studied alternative energy sources and received a hands-on lesson at the Atlantic County
• Utilities Authority (ACUA) renewable energy and environmental protection facilities near Atlantic City, NJ.
• In 2007 SU hosted the first ShoreEnergy Renewable Energy Conference, encouraging elected officials and business leaders to take a closer look at bio-fuels, wind power, geothermal energy, solar energy and nuclear power.