Beloit College
AC-10: Support for Research

Sustainability Fellows Program: This eight-week summer program offers internships and applied research experiences for Beloit College students to engage in sustainability-related activities on campus and in the local community. Each student will work at one site under the mentorship of a faculty member. In addition to working full-time at their placement sites, students will participate in a weekly Sustainability Seminar and a weekly community-based learning workshop. Examples of 2013 projects include but are not limited to: energy audits of Beloit College buildings, environmental education programming for youth, community garden education in the City of Beloit, native species plantings, and natural preserve restoration management.

Beloit College has two programs to support faculty research that is open to any academic discipline or is cross-disciplinary in nature, including sustainability: The Keefer Funds and the Professional and Program Development Committee (PPDC). The Keefer Funds support professional development activities for both junior and senior faculty. Senior faculty members (Tenured Associate and Full Professors) are invited to submit proposals for Keefer Senior Faculty Grants. This grant is designed to fund sustained research projects with a focus on bringing the research toward public presentation, publication, or as a step toward obtaining external funding. Proposed projects may be completed over a summer, while on sabbatical, and/or throughout the academic year. Grants will be available to fund projects to a maximum of $12,000. Proposed projects may span up to two years, provided the project budget is within the maximum allowed for a single project. New tenure-track faculty members receive a $6,000 account that they may use at their discretion for the advancement of their teaching and research agendas. These accounts will be closed at the first semester following the faculty member's first sabbatical or the beginning of the academic year that follows the faculty member's tenure at the college, whichever comes later, with any remaining funds reallocated to future tenure-track faculty members. The Professional and Program Development Committee (PPDC) offers Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members up to $2,000 annually to support travel and projects related to professional activities. Adjunct faculty members in their first two years at Beloit College are eligible to receive up to $1,000 from the PPDC. After two years or service to the college, adjunct faculty members are eligible to receive up to $2,000.

Beloit College Reference staff are available to answer questions about the library collection and services, and to give help to researchers. If you're not sure where to begin, or who to ask, go to reference staff for help. Any questions are appropriate, from finding call numbers to identifying articles on a specialized topic, from using microfilm to tracking down web sites. Personal assistance is available at the library most open hours. You can also contact Reference staff via phone, email, and instant messaging. Beloit’s library subscribes to many resources, which offer access to academic literature on sustainability. The following list is a sample of available resources that support sustainability research and learning: Academic Search Premier (EBSCO host): A good beginning point for recent articles in many subject areas. Includes some full text articles. BioOne: Searchable full text articles from current ecological and environmental science research journals. EconLit: Indexes journals, books and working papers in economics. JSTOR: Covers selected ecology journals. Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe: Covers news (international, national, and U.S. regional), government, law, business, and medicine. Articles are full text. Springerlink: Full suite of publisher journals and ebooks including many in earth and environmental science.