Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 72.47
Liaison Daryl Pierson
Submission Date March 30, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Portland State University
AC-10: Support for Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Beth Lloyd-Pool
Program Administrator
Institute for Sustainable Solutions
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct research in sustainability? :
Yes

A brief description of the student research program, including the incentives provided and any positive outcomes during the previous three years:

The Sustainability Scholars program offers competitive awards of $5,000 for four consecutive years to incoming freshmen in the University Honors College who are interested in pursuing undergraduate research with a focus on urban sustainability. Sustainability Scholars meet regularly as a group with their faculty mentor, Assistant Professor Olyssa Starry, to discuss, research, and implement ideas to make the Portland State campus more sustainable. They are encouraged to pursue sustainability-related internships, and agree to pursue a senior thesis on a sustainability-related topic.


Does the institution have a program to encourage faculty from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct research in sustainability topics?:
Yes

A brief description of the faculty research program, including the incentives provided and any positive outcomes during the previous three years:

The Institute for Sustainable Solutions provides faculty support for interdisciplinary sustainability teams pursuing external funding and faculty-community partnership development to address issues related to climate change. The Institute provides support for faculty research in sustainability by offering convening services, research grant proposal development support, administrative support, and matching and direct research funding as well as funding for student research positions, services, supplies, memberships and travel.


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?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s support for interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research, including any positive outcomes during the previous three years:

PSU's promotion and tenure guidelines state:

"A significant factor in determining a faculty member's merit for promotion is the individual’s accomplishments in research and published contributions to knowledge in the appropriate field(s) and other professional or creative activities that are consistent with the faculty member’s responsibilities...It is strongly recommended that the following items be considered in evaluating research and other creative activities:

d. Contributions to the development of collaborative, interdisciplinary, or interinstitutional research programs are highly valued. Mechanisms for evaluating such contributions may be employed. Evaluating collaborative research might involve addressing both individual contributions (e.g., quality of work, completion of assigned responsibilities) and contributions to the successful participation of others (e.g., skills in teamwork, group problem solving).

f. Effective participation in disciplinary or interdisciplinary organizations’ activities should be evaluated in the context of their involvement of state-of-the-art knowledge and impact on peers and others. For example, this participation might include serving as editor of journals or other learned publications, serving on an editorial board, chairing a program committee for a regional, national, or international meeting, or providing scholarly leadership as an officer of a major professional organization.

Evaluation of teaching and curricular contributions should not be limited to classroom activities. It also should focus on a faculty member’s contributions to larger curricular goals (for example, the role of a course in laying foundations for other courses and its contribution to majors, or contributions to broad aspects of general education or interdisciplinary components of the curriculum).

Departments and individual faculty members can use the following guidelines when developing appropriate community outreach. Important community outreach can:
- use disciplinary or interdisciplinary expertise to help groups organizations in conceptualizing and solving problems.

In cases where a faculty member is involved in interdisciplinary teaching and/or research, evaluation must be solicited and provided by all appropriate academic departments."


Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research, including any positive outcomes during the previous three years:

The PSU library provides course and subject guides and has a sustainability history special collection for sustainability research and learning.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.