| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 66.65 |
| Liaison | Austin Sutherland |
| Submission Date | Aug. 9, 2021 |
University of Pennsylvania
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
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 "Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum" (ISAC) Program was established in 2012 to help Penn faculty introduce environmental sustainability into existing and new courses. Faculty participants explore sustainability concepts at a one-day workshop in the late spring, and then are partnered with an undergraduate student research assistant to work over the summer integrating sustainability into the course syllabi, lectures, assignments, reading material, and tests. Over the past three years, this program has employed 17 students to update 21 courses.
A brief description of the incentives that academic staff who participate in the program(s) receive:
The primary incentive provided to faculty is the provision of the research assistant to assist with selecting course assignments, reviewing readings, preparing presentations, and assisting in formulating test questions, among other duties. The students are paid using funds made available by the Sustainability Office, and participation is free for faculty. Each student research assistant is paired with two faculty, and the student works 20 hours a week for each faculty member over eight weeks during the summer.
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3,000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to teaching environmental sustainability, with a goal to make climate change and sustainability part of the curriculum and educational experience available to all Penn students. (Penn's 2009 "Climate Action Plan".). This submission documents Penn's efforts during the FY20 year and compares them to the FY09 baseline year which corresponds with the University's "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan. 3.0". The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton has also been referenced and noted as outside the boundary in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.
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