Coordinator

The responsibilities of the green living program (GLP) coordinator are as follows:

  • coordinates among program stakeholders and related initiatives
  • organizes and facilitates steering group meetings
  • works with a wide range of partners including facilities, recycling and waste, dining services, residence hall leaders, faculty, real estate, alumni and others to establish the strategic direction of the program
  • provides strategic information and support to student employees, including developing semester calendar, activities and training
  • oversees internal communications materials, publicity materials, grant applications and surveys
  • guides student employees on how to use proven educational, marketing and psychological tools for creating behavioral change
  • designs and manages processes for recruiting, payroll, time reporting, budget and administration
  • mentors student employees
  • coordinates program reps and captains
  • identifies funding streams for continued financial support
  • provides continuity and leadership to the program by documenting and evaluating progress, fundraising, arranging on- and off-campus publicity, reviewing performance of GLP staff, and undertaking problem solving in consultation with stakeholders

Relational Benefits

From the GLP coordinator, the captains and reps gain:

  • support for a unifying vision of the program;
  • leadership development and mentoring;
  • support for creating the yearly calendar and weekly and bi-weekly campaigns;
  • advice on individual projects;
  • a central resource for information about past projects and campus networking.

A Full- or Part-time Program Coordinator

Expectations for your GLP coordinator will be decided by the amount of hours she or he works per week. Based on your budget, you will need to decide whether you want your coordinator to be employed full- or part-time. There are benefits to both scenarios. In the first two years of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) GLP, the coordinator worked 25 hours per week. In the third year, funding was secured for an "undergraduate environmental programs fellow," who would devote 25 hours per week to the GLP and 15 hours per week to general HGCI work. The decision to go with a full- or part-time coordinator may depend on whether the top candidate is in graduate school or has another type of commitment.

Part-time Considerations

If you decide to go with a part-time position, you will need to make very clear what counts for hours and what does not to ensure the program coordinator is finishing the necessary tasks. For example, will attending field trips and conferences count for your program coordinator? Another suggestion for a part-time position, if it makes sense for the program you are envisioning, is to have the position be part-time "on average," with fewer hours during the summer and more hours during the academic year, if that works for your program coordinator’s schedule.

A part-time position allows your coordinator to have a diversity of roles and experiences. He or she could, for example, could engage in other campus sustainability work, such as writing a grant for another program, which would likely complement his or her GLP duties. The coordinator could also take classes or another part-time job unrelated to sustainability. In any of these cases, the experience might add balance to the coordinator's personal life or hone a skill set that benefits the GLP. In particular, a coordinator who has a part-time job elsewhere on campus could draw on their experiences and built relationships there to the advantage of the GLP.

In short, the pros of having a part-time coordinator include the following:

  • The coordinator could be taking a class at the same time—maybe even on a related subject—and could therefore bring that knowledge to the job.
  • Working by the hour encourages full productivity within each hour.
  • If other people know the coordinator is part-time, they might be more willing to step up and offer help on projects, creating a larger community of interest with more partners invested in each project.

Of course, there are some cons to bear in mind:

  • Because of the limited hours, the coordinator may not be able to spend as much time on events, field trips and other supplementary activities that are beyond the necessary tasks of running the program.
  • When scheduling issues arise, the limited hours may not work well with the needs of the students.
  • Working part time may mean the coordinator is not as up-to-date with recent happenings related to the GLP and campus sustainability in general.

Full-time Considerations

When hiring a full-time coordinator, be clear about the acceptable work hours. Most likely, they should not be "regular business hours" because the majority of the coordinator’s work will be with students, who do not operate on a 9-5 schedule.  The coordinator should have flexibility in determining his or her schedule, thereby permitting weekend work or evening appointments with student captains or reps.

Some of the pros of hiring a full-time coordinator include the following:

  • Coordinator is there every day to keep up with events, emails and other program business.
  • More opportunities are available to explore related efforts.
  • There is more time for tasks that are not urgent but still important, such as fundraising, program evaluation, documentation and website updating, all of which may not be done if the coordinator has limited time.
  • With more time, the coordinator is better able to improve training materials and plan field trips or other GLP activities.

Cons also come with the full-time arrangement:

  • The extra cost of the full-time coordinator may not be justified if the activities fail to generate savings.
  • With no set limit on hours, it is easier for the coordinator to burn out.
  • A full-time coordinator may be less able to maintain or acquire a student mind-set.