| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65.14 |
| Liaison | Bremen Leak |
| Submission Date | July 10, 2024 |
Brigham Young University
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 2.00 |
Bremen
Leak Associate Director Sustainability & Continuity |
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? :
A brief description of the incentive program(s):
The BYU Interdisciplinary Sustainability Forum, a cross-campus initiative that builds on momentum generated by multiple faculty groups and programs over the last decade, organizes faculty luncheons (there were 5 in the 2022-2023 academic year) with the goal of helping sustainability leaders across disciplines align interests, form partnerships, and develop professional opportunities for research and collaboration across the built, natural, social––and increasingly, creative and spiritual––domains, ultimately increasing student learning of sustainability. See IN-6 for more information.
Positive outcomes include the new Global Environmental Studies minor, offered by the BYU Kennedy Center for International and Area Studies, the new Global and Community Impact Minor from the BYU Marriott School of Business, the new Social Impact Labs offered by the BYU Ballard Center for Social Impact, and a suite of Honors courses that bridge the sciences and arts to teach about sustainability. For example, Foodprints: Food, Sustainability, and Climate Change is an Honors course taught by professors of Portuguese and chemistry. Each of these courses, minors, and labs are open to all students.
As mentioned in the points of distinction, a university-sponsored faculty conference titled "Stewardship Over the Earth and Human Family" brought together academics, administration, and academic-support staff in March 2024, and funding for interdisciplinary sustainability research was announced by the Academic Vice President's Office (see AC-10 for more information). Follow-up conferences are being planned for November 2024 and March 2025.
A brief description of the incentives that academic staff who participate in the program(s) receive:
To date, incentives for developing sustainability courses at BYU remain non-financial, such as recognition from peers and academic leadership, opportunities to publish interdisciplinary research, opportunities to demonstrate citizenship, opportunities to impact students, and networking lunches, but the university is exploring other incentives for future course development. Financial grants for interdisciplinary faculty research are reported in AC-10, and new courses may result from the collaborations.
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