Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 85.50
Liaison Breeana Sylvas
Submission Date Feb. 28, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of California, Merced
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Michael Dawson
Professor
Life & Environmental Sciences
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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 faculty held a networking session April of 2017 as a follow up to the Climate Neutrality Curriculum initiative retreat. The event provided faculty throughout the campus an opportunity to gage insights on how to integrate sustainability into courses. The event incorporated round table discussions on intersections and applications around sustainability curriculum.

In 2020 the campus was to faciliate a sustainability workshop retreat as a continuation of the 2016 faculty Climate Neutrality Curriculum Initiative Retreat. The objectives of the workshop in 2020 was to (1) coordinate sustainability curricula at UCM, (2) facilitate implementation of sustainability-oriented subject matter into undergraduate and graduate instruction. The 2020 retreat was put on hold as a result of the pandemic, which shutdown in person workshops.

The goals of the workshop where to:
— Cultivate campus potential as a living laboratory in a teachable landscape
— Facilitate implementation of sustainability curricula in undergraduate and graduate instruction
— Develop consensus on the concept and promotion of sustainability in the overall UCM curriculum

The University of California Global Climate Leadership Council implemented the Climate & Sustainability Education and Resource Library (CSERL). The web gateway provides faculty with the opportunity to share course curricula, lectures, seminars, tutorials around sustainability with colleagues around the University of California system.

A brief description of the incentives that academic staff who participate in the program(s) receive:
Faculty who participated in the 2017 networking session and presented received a stipend for their participation. In 2020 the Chancellor approved funding for the Faculty Sustainability Workshop to be held summer of 2020. The funding would provide participating faculty with a stipend to integrate sustainability curriculum into existing courses.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the incentives for developing sustainability course content is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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