State University of New York at New Paltz
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Founded in the fall of 2016, the Sustainability Faculty Learning Community creates a community of faculty across ranks and disciplines committed to exploring teaching and course design strategies that integrate sustainability into the New Paltz curriculum, as well as to enhance the understanding of sustainability concepts among faculty and students, particularly those not trained in sustainability/environmental fields. Positive outcomes to come out of the first year of the Sustainability Faculty Learning Community program include 15 revised or newly-developed courses that contain substantial sustainability material. These new courses were developed across schools (Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Education, and Fine Arts) and disciplines (e.g. - Math, Digital Media and Journalism, Graphic Design), and most of the courses were taught during Spring 2017. Additionally, six fellows were funded to develop entirely new sustainability courses during the summer of 2017. Three individually-taught classes and one team-taught course were developed. In a post-program survey of the first cohort of fellows, participants reported an increased awareness of sustainability practice/resources/issues, increased contact with faculty outside of their respective departments, increased contact with regional community partners, and an increased motivation and understanding of how to bring sustainability content to the classroom.

Faculty members receive a $250 stipend for completion of the sustainability faculty fellows program and also have the opportunity to apply for the following types of funding: - Develop sustainability courses ($500) - Develop team-taught sustainability courses ($2,500 per faculty member) - Professional development funding (up to $1,250)