Slippery Rock University
AC-10: Support for Research

SRU's Sustainable Enterprise Accelerator (SEA) supports sustainable student projects and research. Incentives include student internships and several $1,000 fellowship grants provided annually by a local business. The SEA also receives grants from other nonprofit organizations to support projects involving sustainability research, such as the current aquaponics demonstration and research project. This project involved the design and construction of an aquaponics system located at the Robert A. Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems Education and Research ("RAMC"). Student workers at RAMC operate the system and document/research the productivity of the system (in which fish are raised in one water tank, with their waste used as nutrient piped by gravity flow to a second hydroponic tank in which swiss chard is grown). The system is purported to produce twice the vegetative matter using only 10% of the water used by conventional gardening techniques. Lessons learned and the actual production results obtained are being researched and documented to aid a small village in Uganda to replicate the system, where both tilapia and swiss chard are cash crops with high nutritional value for the villagers. The system uses a photovoltaic panel to power a small recirculation pump; during Spring semester 2018, the system was stocked with fish and production of swiss chard began.

The faculty co-directors of the Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems Education & Research each receive 1/4 time release as an incentive to develop and manage the Center's programs, which include both sustainable education and research topics. One positive outcome in 2017 was the sponsoring of a "World Cafe" brainstorming session to identify educational and research priorities and programs for the future of the Macoskey Center; individuals invited included the general public, alumni, faculty, staff and students. Another positive outcome is the collaboration on the Aquaponics demonstration and research project among the School of Business's Sustainable Enterprise Accelerator interns and the Parks & Recreation Department's graduate assistants/student workers at the Macoskey Center.

SRU's Bailey Library supports research across many disciplines, including sustainability, by providing a Center for Student Research, resources for different subject areas, interlibrary loans, scientific/research databases, as well as tutorials and citation format information. The "LibGuide" at the library allows free and open access to database material at http://sru.libguides.com/, including specific sections on "sustainability and the environment", "Rachel Carson and Silent Spring", "Geography, Geology, & the Environment", and "Parks, Recreation and Environmental Education". Positive outcomes include increased awareness of, easier access to, sustainable research resources (including environmental films available for free use) and the preservation of historic organic gardening and permaculture encyclopedias that have been archived at the library. See the "Robert A. Macoskey Center Collection" on the website URL below.