University of Richmond
AC-10: Support for Research

The University offers course credit for student fellowships and research during the semester or over the summer with a professor. Credit is also offered for research completed abroad as well as at off-site facilities. The University also provides students with living expenses and a stipend for fellowships. Students enrolled in Environmental Studies, Geography and the Environment, Biology, and other departments often choose sustainability-related topics. All University of Richmond students who are interested in an Arts & Sciences discipline, including sustainability-related fields, and who wish to conduct full-time research over the course of the summer can apply for a summer research fellowship through the School of Arts & Sciences. Fellowships are available for a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 10 weeks. Environmental Studies faculty are committed to mentoring undergraduate student research projects. There is a focus on communicating results, seeking publication in peer-reviewed journals, and making formal presentations at the School of Arts & Sciences’ annual Student Symposium, as well asat national and international conferences. There is a faculty-reviewed poster session on sustainability topics at the annual Student Symposium. The top three posters receive awards. The Office of Fellowships and Research supports students applying to the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, which is dedicated to educating a new generation of Americans to preserve and protect their national heritage through scholarship, fellowship, and internship programs focused on environmental and Native American issues. The Udall Foundation is also committed to promoting the principles and practices of environmental conflict resolution.

The University of Richmond has Faculty Learning Communities that create space for collaboration across disciplines. Each Faculty Learning Community (FLC) encourages cross-program, cross-department, and cross-school interdisciplinary engagement with projects that are germane to the institution’s mission and the greater good of the University, the City of Richmond, the nation, and the world. Each FLC cohort engages in collaborative year-long projects that reflect the breadth and depth of UR faculty and staff commitment to both producing and expanding the frontiers of knowledge and education for the common good. There have been three sustainability FLC's, one each year since they bean in 2016: The Climate Change REMAP (2016-17) explored how the power of liberal education can be used to combat global climate change. This FLC was built upon five imperatives: respond, educate, mitigate, adapt and prevent (REMAP). The group developed a white paper. Environmental Stewardship in A Changing World (2017-18) responds directly to the University’s new vision of Environmental Stewardship by strategizing ways to incorporate this value more deeply through teaching and research. UR Sustainable - Fostering Environmentally Literate Faculty (2018-18) explores and discusses strategies to integrate sustainability into coursework, leaning outcomes, and scholarship across the university. Discussions support the development of a framework for sustainability literacy across the UR curriculum. Relationships built encourage interdisciplinary research and teaching opportunities.

To encourage, recognize, and formalize contributions by faculty to academic programs in schools other than the one in which they hold their primary appointment, or between departments within a school, the University has developed guidelines by which the deans, President, and Provost of the University may confer secondary appointments upon those faculty for whom such appointments are recommended. All joint appointments are documented in memos of understanding, and include a specification of how the coordinators/chairs/deans of the interacting programs/departments/schools will contribute to the annual faculty evaluation process and/or the mid-course/tenure review. http://asadmin.richmond.edu/chairs/program_coordinator-job_description.html

The University Library has created a guide for sustainability-related materials. This guide showcases Boatwright Library's resources for research on sustainability and related topics http://libguides.richmond.edu/sustainability