University of California, Berkeley
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

For the last two years, UC Berkeley has operated a program to assist faculty in including sustainability in their curriculum. In the first year, in 2016, the program was offered to the UC system. In 2017/18 through a campus grant, the program was offered for a second time and plans are in the works to continue the training. Initially, UC Berkeley worked with the UC Office of the President's Faculty Engagement and Education Working Group (FEWWG) to launch workshops and offer financial assistance to faculty to create sustainability-related courses on campus or incorporate sustainability concepts into existing curriculum. As part of the Office of the President's Carbon Neutrality Initiative, the program included holding a regular workshop for faculty members to help them create sustainability-related modules. The program also includes networking events to spur faculty and student dialogue around sustainability curriculum partnerships. https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/news/2017-faculty-curriculum-sustainability-workshop https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/news/faculty-workshop-incorporating-sustainability-your-curriculum Some outcomes/courses impacted from the 2017/18 effort include: • Twelve participants representing 12 departments participated in this program. • Five of those departments worked within traditional sustainability fields, including environmental science, engineering and geography, while seven were non-traditional disciplines including social welfare, languages, writing and literature. Examples of transformed courses • Jacobs Institute Global Product Development • GEOG C146, IB C100, EPS C100 Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences • College Writing R4B Stories of Sustainability • SLAVIC 172 Topics in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian • HISTART 101 Theories & Methods for a Global History of Art • SOCWEL 114 Practice in Social Work • English 31AC Climate Change Fictions • ESPM 50AC Introduction to Culture and Natural Resource Management • SCANDIN 100B Intermediate Scandinavian Languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) • MSE 120 Materials Production • MSE 130 Experimental Materials Science and Design New classes developed out of this program • HISTART 105 Eco Art: Art, Architecture, and the Natural Environment (Sugata Ray) • MSE 24 Freshman Seminar (Matt Sherburne) Number of students reached • 753

The Green Initiative Fund, which is supported by self-assessed student fees, provided $19,500 in 2017 to support the sustainability curriculum development program. Through the program, faculty members who participated in UC Berkeley's Faculty Curriculum Sustainability Workshop were offered $700 for materials or student support in helping them develop their sustainability modules. In 2017, the UC Berkeley workshop targeted 15 faculty, and the follow-up networking event was attended by about 35 faculty. Building off the success of the previous year’s Faculty Curriculum Workshop and Networking Events implemented at UC Berkeley, the program intended to keep faculty and students engaged in incorporating sustainability into the curriculum and increase the numbers of courses with sustainability content at UC Berkeley. As a result, that would increase the number of students educated in various aspects of sustainability. As part of its Carbon Neutrality Initiative, the Office of the Present provided additional incentives for sustainability coursework by offering the annual Faculty Climate Action Champion award, which came with a $25,000 grant, to a faculty member who has performed "outstanding teaching, research and public service in the areas of climate change solutions, action and broad engagement." Faculty member Whendee Silver received this award for Berkeley and as part of her effort offered a seminar focused on the Carbon Neutrality Initiative with student research in climate, food and environmental justice.