Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 53.82
Liaison Holli Fajack
Submission Date Jan. 29, 2021

STARS v2.2

California State University, Long Beach
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have an ongoing program that offers incentives for academic staff in multiple disciplines or departments to develop new sustainability courses and/or incorporate sustainability into existing courses? :
Yes

A brief description of the incentive program(s):
The Green Thread Workshop, which is supported by the Office of Sustainability and the President’s Commission on Sustainability, is an incentive program designed to help faculty learn methods for connecting sustainability themes and ideas to core concepts in their own disciplines.

During the full-day, interactive workshop, faculty members explore ways to enhance student understanding of the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and economic issues and concepts. From identifying “hidden curriculum,” to integrating new readings and assignments, faculty can transform their courses to increase student learning about sustainability. The workshop also features guest speakers and a campus sustainability tour.

Faculty are asked to come to the workshop with a specific course in mind that they would like to enhance, modify, or in some cases create. Integration of sustainability concepts and learning outcomes into courses is demonstrated through the inclusion of explicit language in the course syllabus and/or Standard Course Outline. Courses that meet this threshold are then eligible to be included on the list of Sustainability Course offerings at csulb.edu/sustainability.

The program is typically offered during the spring and fall semesters. Faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to participate and must fill out an application form to ensure that participants are chosen from across different departments.

To date, more than 50 faculty representing every college at the university have participated in the program, which has resulted in more than 35 courses being created or modified to include sustainability concepts and learning outcomes.

A brief description of the incentives that academic staff who participate in the program(s) receive:
Participation in the Green Thread Workshop is offered for free to all faculty. The full-day training includes breakfast and lunch and each participant receives a resource handbook that is theirs to keep. Upon successful creation or modification of a course to include or focus on sustainability, faculty members receive a stipend and inclusion of their courses on the official Sustainability Course list.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the incentives for developing sustainability course content is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.