Your campus has a move-out problem. You can fix it.
Just like we did.
But unlike us, you don't have to do it alone and you dont have to start from scratch. Here are some of the tools and knowledge we wish we would've had when getting started.
The Student-Driven Dorm Reuse Program Ladder.
Look, ideally all a campus needs to start a program is to see that students want it, but sometimes campus admins are...lets say, "not locked in." We've been there. That's why we created this ladder. Start on rung one, and if necessary, go to rung 2. This concept comes from an advocacy/organizing term called escalating, where you gradually increase your efforts to gain support and overcome resistance.
Start here, always.
Show campus decision-makers that students want a dorm reuse program.
Its one thing to identify a problem, its another to demand for a specific, measurable solution. Yet, only when enough students ask for it, do campuses with “no money for this” suddenly find some.
So here are three ways to do that, in the order they get harder to ignore. They work best stacked and time-bound: the same month, on different channels, about the same thing.
One email shows one student cares. Five emails, from five students or a whole student org, in the same week shows demand, which is what moves budgets. But don't just send one email with five names at the bottom; send five, same week, same ask, different words.
These are the departments you should email.
These are the offices that can actually approve a program. Put them on one email so they can see each other's replies.
Housing / Residential Life
They own the buildings students move out of and the move-in email list a reuse shop needs to market. They don't care about sustainability as much as they do operational efficiency (aka ensuring dorms are empty and clean).
Sustainability Office
They make the climate and waste reports that track the campus's sustainability performance every year. These are the people that likely know just how important a dorm reuse program is, but don't have the budget to implement it.
Facilities Management
Depending on your campus, they're the group that pays for the dumpsters, makes the final decision about placing collection bins, and handles the logistics of waste management.
Finding their addresses: search your school's site for “sustainability office staff directory,” “housing leadership,” or “facilities management directory.” A named director gets answered far more often than a general info@ inbox.
Tell us about you.
Swap the office and regenerate to send the same email to all three.
The only part nobody else can write — and the part that gets it read.
Rough is fine — your housing page has it. We turn it into an estimate for your campus.
Your email
Estimates assume 40 lbs of move-out waste per housed student, ~50% of it reusable, $0.08/lb all-in disposal, and the NRF's 2024 figure of $192.40 per student on dorm furnishings. Sources. Same math as the Business Plan Calculator, so it holds up if staff go check.
Got a reply? Put us on the call.
You don't need all the answers. We do this every week, and onboarding a campus is free.
When the answer is “maybe in a few years.”
Ask to pilot it yourselves.
That’s not a no, it’s a resourcing answer — so give it an urgency answer. Every year of delay is one more move-out in the landfill, and one more incoming class paying retail for what the last one threw away. Say that plainly.
Then change the ask. Don’t ask them to run a program; ask them to let your club run a small pilot. Permission, a space, and one building is a far cheaper yes than a budget line and a new staff role. Administrators who can’t approve a program can very often approve an experiment.
Don’t wait for spring move-out.
Look for buildings where leases actually end in December — winter transfers, study-abroad departures, grad apartments. A small December collection gives you real numbers from your own campus months before the big spring ask, and it’s small enough that nobody has to approve much to allow it.
When you’ve asked, piloted, and it’s still a no.
Run it yourselves — but not alone.
Do the full student-led pilot. You’re not speculating anymore — you have your own campus’s numbers from rung 2, and that changes the conversation permanently.
And you don’t have to do it by yourself. ReDorm has a student empowerment coach, and funding for student groups facing resistance who just need startup money. If that’s you, call or email. We’d genuinely love to mentor you through it.
Know your facts before they ask.
The first reply you get will ask for numbers. These are ours — sourced, and honest about what is measured versus what is modeled, which is exactly what makes them survive a sustainability director reading them closely.