Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 45.06
Liaison Saiyare Refaei
Submission Date Sept. 13, 2010
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.0

Pacific Lutheran University
ER-18: Sustainability Research Incentives

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 6.00 / 6.00 Christine Cooley
Sustainability Coordinator
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a program to encourage student sustainability research that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s program(s) to encourage student research in sustainability:

Pacific Lutheran University supports student sustainability fellowships to promote not only specialized education, but cross campus collaboration. Student Sustainability Fellowships are intended to provide opportunities for students of any discipline to participate in furthering sustainability efforts on PLU’s campus. Fellows are matched with both staff mentor and faculty adviser to carry out their research. Faculty bring academic rigor to the decision-making process of sustainable practices at PLU, and the staff can contribute valuable knowledge of and experience within the management and operations. This team will meet regularly, and work together from the very different perspectives that they hold. Projects require examination of existing practices and use of resources on PLU’s campus and examine best practices at other institutions of higher education and facilities in the local area. Following their research, they propose strategies and solutions to address sustainability practices PLU’s campus and identify potential resources for the project. The fellowships are intended to continue the collaboration between students, faculty and staff around issues of sustainability while building the skills of the students. In only the 4th year of fellowships, the 3 annual fellows have made significant changes on campus such as the creation of a section of campus dedicated solely to habitat restoration, establishing a STARS data collection plan, and improving campus dining and admissions sustainability efforts. Almost more impressively, the relationships built across campus seem to be holding well after the completion of the fellowship, and even past the students’ graduation.


The website URL where information about the student research program is available:
Does the institution have a program to encourage faculty sustainability research that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes
+ Date Revised: Aug. 23, 2012

A brief description of the institution’s program(s) to encourage faculty research in sustainability:

PLU has instituted two programs called Teaching for Technology and the Regency Advancement Award. Faculty are able to apply and receive funding for various projects and research opportunities that are judged legitimate by the PLU Faculty Committee. Sustainability has been a component of research in the past and still remains an encouraged research subject by PLU Faculty Committee.

+ Date Revised: Aug. 22, 2012

The website URL where information about the faculty research program is available:
http://www.plu.edu/humanities/widgets/documents-forms/items/regency.pdf
+ Date Revised: Aug. 23, 2012

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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