State University of New York at New Paltz
AC-10: Support for Research

At this time, SUNY New Paltz does not have a specific program that encourages student research in sustainability exclusively. The Office of Academic Affairs provides support for faculty-mentored student scholarship through the Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Program (RSCA). RSCA Programs include the Academic Year Undergraduate Research Experience and the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience.

In the spring of 2015, Lisa Mitten established the Sustainability Seed Fund to provide funding to faculty members to conduct research. The fund specifically supports hiring student researchers, materials and supplies, professional development activities to support teaching and research, and conference attendance to disseminate research and teaching achievements. The following faculty members applied for research funding: * Doni Wulandana - hiring two students to build a solar chimney and a solar powered cooler * Anca Radulescu (Math) - hiring one student to build a mathematical model of lead absorption and toxicity. * Kara Belinsky (Biology) - hiring one student to conduct on campus bird biodiversity research and supplies for bird nest boxes. * Larry McGlinn (Geography) - hiring one student to build a weather station on campus and supplies to build the weather station. * Doug Maynard - hiring one student to conduct an experimental investigation of Sustainable Progress Indicator availability upon resource management decisions * Huicheng Chein - supplies to conduct stream water temperature research * Josh Simons - hiring one student to map carbon sequestration of trees on campus * Andrea Frank - supplies for a think tank for artists on sustainability * Eric Keeling - hiring one student to conduct a tree survey on campus and supplies for the tree survey work. * Matthew Friday - supplies and labor for an art and ecology exhibit

The Collection Development department at Sojourner Truth Library selects print and electronic resources to support interdisciplinary sustainability research in Environmental Studies, Art Studio, Geography, Physics, Engineering, Political Science, Biology, and Sociology. Liaison librarians submit requests for resources on behalf of faculty and students in their liaison areas. In addition, the library subscribes to numerous databases and journal collections that support research in sustainability studies. These resources include ScienceDirect, SciFinder Scholar, Environment Complete, BioOne, Energy and Power Source, Springer Americas and ACS Journals. A Sustainability Library Liaison represents the library faculty and administration on the campus Sustainability Committee, and promotes sustainability themes in the library and campus programming. Librarians represent and support other liaison departments interrelated to sustainability by providing library instruction and research assistance for students and faculty, and through the creation and customization of LibGuides (library web guides) for specific courses and assignments.