Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.58
Liaison Derek Nichols
Submission Date Dec. 14, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University at Buffalo
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Mara Huber
Special Assistant to the President for Educational Initiatives / Director of BPS/UB Partnership
Center for Educational Collaboration
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have an ongoing program or programs that offer incentives for faculty in multiple disciplines or departments to develop new sustainability courses and/or incorporate sustainability into existing courses?:
Yes

A brief description of the program(s), including positive outcomes during the previous three years (e.g. descriptions of new courses or course content resulting from the program):

The Experiential Learning Network (ELN) officially started in fall 2017. This department provides programs for students and faculty that are aimed at providing high quality, exciting and meaningful sustainability experiential learning experiences. They offer a wide range of programs such as funding for short-term study abroad courses, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)-based opportunities, community partnerships and seed funding for new sustainability courses.

Although only two semesters old, some examples of newly created sustainability courses include:

A university librarian developed a course called “Move Your Research to the Next Level” that had students partner with two NGOs in Ghana helping them with grant submissions for improving their educational opportunities.

A second course, “African Americans and the City: 19th and Early 20th Century Buffalo,” focused on the social and racial history of Buffalo. Students had the opportunity to visit local historical sites of African American importance and hear from community leaders.

ELN was also an instrumental source of funds for a study abroad in Costa Rica that was completely focused on the sustainability of that region.

https://www.buffalo.edu/eln/stories.host.html/content/shared/www/eln/articles/academic_articles/faculty-spotlight--filomena-critelli11.detail.html


A brief description of the incentives that faculty members who participate in the program(s) receive:

The Experiential Learning Network (ELN) offers Course Infusion Funds to support the inclusion of sustainability experiential learning activities within existing undergraduate courses. ELN provides funding for field trips, guest presenters or innovative programs that provide an engaging and impactful experience that enhances learning.

Faculty can join the “Faculty Fellows” and gain access to $5,000 in funding to support the development and facilitation of proposed projects, assistance from ELN staff and leadership in course development and implementation and can partake in the Global Partner Studios which links faculty to organizations all across the globe.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Additional funding was made available to faculty that created coursework pertaining to renewable energy from the Localizing Buffalo's Renewable Energy Future project. This project comes from a REV grant from NYSERDA. It has allowed UB to fund studios and courses in the architecture and planning school over the last two years. See: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2018/02/029.html and http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2017/11/020.html


Additional funding was made available to faculty that created coursework pertaining to renewable energy from the Localizing Buffalo's Renewable Energy Future project. This project comes from a REV grant from NYSERDA. It has allowed UB to fund studios and courses in the architecture and planning school over the last two years. See: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2018/02/029.html and http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2017/11/020.html

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.