Overall Rating	Reporter - expired
Overall Score
Liaison	Michael Mumper
Submission Date	Feb. 27, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Lebanon Valley College
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	Reporter	Michael Schroeder Associate Professor of History; Co-Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Committee Department of History, Politics & Global Studies

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Part 1

Total number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff that are engaged in research (headcount):

101

Number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff that are engaged in sustainability research (headcount):

Percentage of the institution's faculty and staff researchers that are engaged in sustainability research :

4.95

Part 2

Total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts research:

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts sustainability research:

Percentage of research-producing departments that are engaged in sustainability research:

16.67

Research Inventory

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability research that includes names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:

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The institution’s inventory of its sustainability research that includes names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:

Robert Valgenti: Department of Religion and Philosophy; Kshama Harpanker: Department of Business & Economics; Rebecca Urban: Department of Biology; Will Delavan: Department of Business & Economics Doug Becker: Department of Biology

A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory (including the types of faculty and staff included as researchers):

Robert Valgenti (Chair, Department of Religion and Philosophy) leads the EAT Research Group, which has undertaken a number of initiatives related to sustainability. These include student-led research projects such as a “weigh the waste” program to track food waste; a “record the waste” project to use video images to quantify food waste; and introducing plant-forward dining options to meet sustainability goals. Katie Wray (Student: Biology Major) conducted research in the College’s greenhouse, catching Painted turtles in the campus pond, hiking through Rohland Woods to identify trees, and walking in Quittie Park to collect samples of invertebrates. My research was unique, exciting, and involved wildlife—a resource that other colleges simply do not have to offer. Robert Valgenti is also a member of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC) and chairs its Academics Committee. The MCURC has initiated two projects in dining halls across the country to achieve its sustainability objectives through better dining. The first, "Building a Living Laboratory Model in University Dining Halls – Process Evaluation of a Coordinated 5-University Taste Testing Experiment," tested the acceptability of reduced-meat meatball options in dining halls. The second, currently underway, studies the effect of indulgent food labels as a means to increase vegetable consumption. Gabrielle Cressman's honors thesis in Economics on reducing LVC’s nitrogen footprint through researching food waste and completing the College's Carbon Footprint calculation.

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

http://www.lvc.edu/academics/programs-of-study/philosophy/student-faculty-research/ http://www.lvc.edu/academics/programs-of-study/biology-major/student-faculty-research/ http://www.lvc.edu/academics/programs-of-study/environmental-science/research-first-program/