Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 58.11
Liaison Elizabeth Drake
Submission Date April 19, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Swarthmore College
AC-10: Support for Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 4.00 E. Carr Everbach
Professor of Engineering
Engineering
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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:

How do students learn to lead? In the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship (PSRF) at Swarthmore College, they learn by leading: by taking stewardship over vital sustainability challenges. The program matches small teams of advanced students with staff and faculty mentors to research, develop, and implement projects in a year-long course and associated internship. In the program’s pilot year, our Fellows are doing all we could have asked: redesigning our waste management system, developing a 3-year vision for campus woods stewardship, implementing Swarthmore's internal carbon price, launching behavioral change strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and creating a system to track sustainability progress across campus. They’re also doing more than we could have imagined. In tackling waste reduction, for instance, Fellows are uniting custodial staff and students by redefining waste as an environmental justice issue. In championing the campus woods, Fellows are connecting faculty and students with grounds and arboretum staff to engage not only the College provost and vice-presidents but also neighboring communities. The pioneering PSRF program, a collaboration between the President’s Office, the Office of Sustainability, the Environmental Studies Program, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, fosters interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the institution. As students learn, lead, and innovate, they apply their knowledge to pressing needs and produce replicable solutions for our campus and beyond.


Does the institution have a program to encourage faculty from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct research in sustainability topics?:
No

A brief description of the faculty research program, including the incentives provided and any positive outcomes during the previous three years:
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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?:
No

A brief description of the institution’s support for interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research, including any positive outcomes during the previous three years:
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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 Swarthmore Libraries partner with Bryn Mawr and Haverford to offer TriCo Research Guides. Our guides related to Environmental Studies offer some examples of support for sustainability research: TriCo Research Guide: Environmental Studies. On this guide, you'll see links to sustainability-related resources to which the Libraries subscribe, such as: GREENR (https://catalog.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/find/Record/.b4142278) and GreenFILE (https://catalog.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/find/Record/.b3319614). The Libraries actively collect print and digital materials relating to various aspects of sustainability. In terms of Library support for research, my colleagues and I provide instructional support and reference assistance to students in courses that relate to sustainability in various ways.
Here are some of the courses we've worked with over the past couple of years, along with links to the relevant course-specific research guide:
- ANTH 023C: Anthropology of Conservation (Schuetze, Spring 2016)
- HIST 033: Environmental History of the Soviet Union (Weinberg, Fall 2015)
- BIOL 002: Organismal and Population Biology (Miller, Spring 2016)
- BIOL 034: Evolution (Mayack, Fall 2015)


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:
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