| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Principle 10 | Academic and Research Programming and Community Engagement – Ensuring Sustainability is part of Academic and Research programming and part of community engagement efforts. |
| Goal 10.1 | Comprehensively integrate sustainability and climate neutrality into the core academic curriculum and research programs to create a means to enable students to enable students to use their campus as a living, learning laboratory. |
| Metric | Annually report on sustainability curriculum available to undergraduate students and on-going curricular developments |
Define the goal issue and provide background info to understand the goal in lay terms.
This is in concert with the mission of the University “to provide an affordable and accessible education of high quality and to conduct programs of research and public service that advance knowledge and improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.”
Currently, the University offers a range of academic offering and research opportunities that provide students with an opportunity to learn about sustainability issues exclusively and as part of other content areas.
Campuses should seek to develop academic and research programming that enables students to use their campus as a living, learning laboratory.
Climate change and sustainability challenges are one of the foremost issues affecting our collective future and impacting the lives of the world’s citizens. University graduates should all be prepared to meet those challenges in their work beyond the University.
Why is this goal important to highlight?
This directly aligns with a major part of the University’s mission to “advance knowledge and improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.”
As an institution of higher education the University is positioned to train and educate future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals to understand and address climate change and sustainability challenges. Moreover, the University can prepare students to respond to the growing challenges our planet faces no matter their field or discipline.
Growing our academic offerings and learning outcomes in the areas of climate change and sustainability is a core focus of the ACUPCC and STARS, to which the University has publicly committed itself.
The Princeton Review’s 2015 Hopes & Worries Survey stated that 60% of students said it would contribute “Very Much/Strongly/Somewhat” to have information about a school's commitment to the environment (ie. from academic offerings to practices concerning energy use, recycling, etc.) in their assessments of whether to apply to or attend the school.
Where does the University/campuses currently stand in meeting this goal?
This goal has been addressed on a campus-by-campus level and the robustness of the integration of sustainability into academic programs on each campus varies widely across the University.
Are there other groups/departments who will be critical in meeting this goal?
There is a wide range of stakeholders involved in achieving this goal such as Chancellors and Vice Chancellors; Provosts; Deans and Associate Deans; Department Chairs; Faculty Senates on each campus; centers or faculty organizations focused on climate change and sustainability challenges, like the Climate Change Initiative at UMass Lowell; and students.
What has been done in the past to advance towards this goal?
At this time, each campus has been undertaking the work of evaluating where general education requirements are to the identified goal and exploring the feasibility of integrating sustainability topics on a department-by-department basis.
What does the University/campus need to do in order to reach this goal?
Evaluate where general education requirements currently align to sustainability topics and determine the best practices to integrate key topics related to sustainability into student learning outcomes.