Loyola Marymount University
AC-10: Support for Research

CURes serves LMU faculty, staff and students by developing undergraduate and graduate courses related to urban ecology, resilience, and sustainability and supporting faculty research with an emphasis on student involvement. The internship program run by CURes creates an opportunity for students to be introduced to the research, and education work CURes does. Additionally, in order to graduate from the Environmental Science, and Urban Studies programs students have to complete an internship related to their studies. These internships are often with local environmental organizations and government agencies, where they are exposed to real world sustainability questions.

CURes works with faculty, staff, students and community members to develop research and other interventions that lead to more resilient and just communities. CURes collaborates with faculty through fellowships, joint grant making and hosting and supporting university outreach programming.

LMU's Faculty Handbook states, under the section discussing Departmental Rank & Tenure Standards, that: Department Standards should take into consideration Loyola Marymount University’s Mission, the College or School’s Mission, the Department Departmental/Program’s Mission, principles of academic freedom, and, if appropriate, accepted practices in professional discipline-specific associations, as well as LMU’s commitments to supporting teaching and scholarship/creative work that crosses disciplinary boundaries. (p. 57) Department/Program Standards are the central benchmark by which candidates for tenure and/or promotion are evaluated at all levels of the process. Departments/Programs, Department Chairs/Program Directors, Deans, the Committee on Rank and Tenure, the Provost, and the President are obligated to evaluate a candidate’s file as measured against Department/Program Standards. (page 10) The interdisciplinarity of the research faculty undertake is factored in to the promotion/ tenure decision based on the Faculty Manual descriptions above. The level of weight that such research work has in playing a role in promotion/tenure varies from department to department, however it is a policy that influences these decisions campus wide.

The library supports sustainability research by providing a research database with categories that address sustainability topics. One such category is called Earth/Environmental Science, under which recent publications can be found that relate to sustainability. http://linus.lmu.edu/search/y Another category of many resources is corporate sustainability http://libguides.lmu.edu/content.php?pid=508425&sid=4183919 Many other guides such as http://libguides.lmu.edu/biology also support sustainability research as does http://libguides.lmu.edu/environmentalscience Additionally, the library provides a research guide (known as LibGuide) that can be geared towards specific topics for individual courses. For example, the link for a class called "Business & Social Responsibility in the Global Economy" has a LibGuide that specifically aids sustainability related research called "Corporate Sustainability". The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) supports LMU's teaching mission and the University's goal of academic excellence by providing support to enhance teaching and encourage learning. The CTE offers a variety of programs and services to faculty such as workshops and presentations as well as individual consultations. This provides numerous resources including Interdisciplinary Connections. LMU is committed to the education of the whole person through interdisciplinary approaches to learning. Courses in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, mathematics, visual and performing arts, business, and media arts express that commitment by virtue of their interdisciplinary pursuit of diverse issues, with attention to the Jesuit-Marymount commitment to learning that will lead to transformation. Students will expand their understanding through the integration of at least two disciplinary approaches. The courses in Interdisciplinary Connections will fall into one of the following thematic categories: 1) Virtue and Justice, 2) Culture, Art and Society, 3) Power and Privilege, 4) Globalization, and 5) Science, Nature and Society.