| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 81.96 |
| Liaison | Lindsey Lyons |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2024 |
Dickinson College
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Neil
Leary Director Center for Sustainability Education |
Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
Dickinson students from all academic programs have opportunities to engage in sustainability research, and a large percentage of them do. Opportunities include student-faculty research projects and research assistantships that are funded by Dickinson’s Sustainability Education Fund (SEF), for-credit Independent Research and Independent Study courses, and research that is conducted as part of senior capstone courses, research methods courses, community-based research courses, and courses that are part of one of Dickinson’s immersive “Mosaic” programs that include field research, as well as other courses and internships.
The Sustainability Education Fund is administered by Dickinson’s Center for Sustainability and a faculty advisory committee. As of Spring 2023, 67 Sustainability Education Fund awards totaling $372,000 have been made for student-faculty research and research assistant projects since 2008. Over 180 students from diverse majors have participated in the funded projects, receiving either a stipend for student-faculty research projects or a wage for research assistant projects. Funded projects include research in arts & humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, and cross-disciplinary fields. Individual awards have ranged from $700 to $16,000.
Far more students participated in sustainability research through avenues other than student-faculty research and research assistantships. A 2023 survey of student engagement in sustainability found that 34.8% of students reported engaging in a “substantial research project related to sustainability” in an academic course within the past year (1000 student sample, 27% response rate). Similar percentages of students reported participating in substantial sustainability research projects in surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019.
Research topics have included global climate change risks, resilience, adaptation, and mitigation, greenhouse gas emission inventories, natural hazard mitigation, ocean acidification, green chemistry, renewable energy, integrated organic pest management, wildlife conservation, vermiculture, biogas production from animal and food wastes, food security, environmental justices, equity in transportation access, affordable housing, local air quality, local and sustainable economic development, and many others. Many of the research projects have used Dickinson’s Organic Farm, the Reineman Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Dickinson campus as living laboratories for research.
Student research outputs have been utilized in a number of significant ways. Recent examples include adoption of climate action plans by Carlisle Borough and Cumberland County, integration of community resilience in Carlisle’s comprehensive plan, integration of climate change risks in Cumberland County’s hazard mitigation plan, development of a commercial scale biodigester at Dickinson’s organic farm, and optimization of feedstocks for input to the biodigester.
Does the institution have a program to encourage academic staff from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
All faculty and staff are eligible to apply to Dickinson’s Sustainability Education Fund for grants to support student-faculty research, curriculum development, professional development, creative works, co-curricular projects, and other projects. As of spring 2023, 299 awards totaling $680,000 have been awarded since 2008 to 165 faculty and staff members. Of these, 67 awards totaling $372,000 were for research projects. 84 of the awards were made for projects in the arts and humanities, 46 for projects in social sciences, 72 for projects in physical sciences, 70 for interdisciplinary projects, and 27 for co-curricular projects.
Faculty can also receive funding for all manner of research, including sustainability research, from Dickinson’s Research & Development Committee.
Types of projects funded, eligibility requirements, and other information about the Sustainability Education Fund is online at https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20052/sustainability/2438/sustainability_education_funding.
Has the institution published written policies and procedures that give positive recognition to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions?:
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
Dickinson College values interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching and gives them weight in faculty tenure and promotion decisions equal to scholarship and teaching in traditional disciplines. From Dickinson’s self-study for reaccreditation: “We see interdisciplinary fields as important vehicles for newly emerging knowledge and understandings. Interdisciplinary work reflects the growing complexity of the world; our students must be able to synthesize knowledge from multiple fields in order to engage with the problems and issues of the 21st century.”
The value accorded to interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching is evidenced by the large number of interdisciplinary majors and certificates that are offered, the number of faculty who participate in these programs, the number of these faculty who have been granted tenure, and the large number of students who major and minor in interdisciplinary fields. Over 40% of Dickinson graduates major in interdisciplinary fields and over 20% of Dickinson’s faculty members have full or partial appointments in interdisciplinary programs, with the expectation that they will conduct interdisciplinary research, and many having earned tenure on the strength of their interdisciplinary research. Examples of our interdisciplinary majors include Africana studies; American studies; archaeology; biochemistry & molecular biology; classical studies; data analytics; East Asian studies; environmental science; environmental studies; French & Francophone studies; geosciences; international studies; international business & management; Italian studies; Judaic studies; Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean studies; law & policy; Middle East studies; neuroscience; and women’s, gender & sexuality studies. In addition, Dickinson offers several interdisciplinary minors and certificates, including film & media studies, food studies, health studies, medieval & early modern studies; Portuguese & Brazilian studies; and security studies, with participating faculty engaging in related interdisciplinary research.
Chapter 8 of Dickinson’s Academic Handbook states “The College should be committed to fostering a curriculum which grants equal status to disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses,…” Chapter 4 of the Academic Handbook states “A member of the Dickinson faculty is expected to be a capable undergraduate teacher. We understand this to be shown by the ability to develop and implement courses which meet appropriate standards of pedagogic and scholarly excellence within either or both of two paradigms, one primarily disciplinary, the other primarily interdisciplinary.” It goes on to state “flexibility is gained by retaining the capacity to make new appointments to meet new kinds of needs and by tenuring faculty who are flexible in their disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary approaches. Our Personnel Committee considers these statements to be a mandate to give credit to all forms of interdisciplinary work in promotion, tenure, and salary increases.
Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
The Waidner-Spahr Library at Dickinson hosts and manages online research guides for many different disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields, including a guide dedicated to sustainability research. From the library’s Sustainability Research site: “Welcome to the sustainability research guide! This guide contains information and links to help you get started with sustainability research, organized according to the format and type of information needed. Please use the contact information on the right to get personalized help with sustainability-related questions. Because research on sustainability can cross over many academic disciplines (such as Biology, Environmental Studies, History, Business, Sociology, Psychology or Economics) students are strongly encouraged to consult with a librarian for help with specific topics.”
The guide includes pages/tabs directing users selected resources for different media types: books, articles, films, and web resources. There is also a page on sustainability and academic writing. See the homepage for the sustainability research guide: https://libguides.dickinson.edu/sustainability/home.
Additionally, one of the library’s liaisons is assigned responsibility for assisting students and faculty with sustainability-related research. The sustainability library liaison visits classes, meets one-on-one with students and faculty members, and has open office hours to provide guidance for searching for and selecting credible information sources, writing literature reviews, and other services to help support sustainability-related research.
Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Sustainability Education Fund: https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20052/sustainability/2438/sustainability_education_funding
Library Sustainability Research Guide: https://libguides.dickinson.edu/sustainability/home
Research in Sustainability: https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20052/sustainability/2236/research_in_sustainability
Faculty Sustainability Research & Scholarship Inventory: https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20052/sustainability/2238/faculty_research_inventory
Student Sustainability Research: https://www.dickinson.edu/homepage/757/student_sustainability_research
Academic Handbook of Dickinson College:
https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20195/provost_and_dean_of_the_college/1641/academic_handbook
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.