| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 77.43 |
| Liaison | Elida Erickson |
| Submission Date | Feb. 28, 2022 |
University of California, Santa Cruz
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Elida
Erickson Sustainability Director Sustainability Office |
Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
Students are eligible for the following grants to support student research in sustainability:
The Carbon Fund was started in 2010 as a funding source to diminish the campus’s carbon footprint through campus projects undertaken by staff, faculty, and students. More than $100,000 is available to grant directly to projects annually. The Carbon Fund uses money raised by a student-approved fee measure (Measure 44) that raises money through a $3-per-quarter student fee. https://sustainability.ucsc.edu/engage/funding/carbon-fund/index.html
The Campus Sustainability Council (CSC) provides funding to registered UCSC student organizations for programs and events that create, implement, and monitor environmentally sound practices on campus as established through the protocol outlined in the Blueprint for a Sustainable Campus. https://www.enviroslug-csc.org/
The Sustainability Office provides small grants for projects that help the campus achieve and support the goals of the Campus Sustainability Plan. The University of California Office of the President's Carbon Neutrality Initiative and Global Food Initiative fellowship programs also fund several student fellows annually at UCSC.
https://ucop.edu/carbon-neutrality-initiative/cni-fellows/index.html
The Environmental Studies Department offers a host of scholarships and grants to encourage sustainability related research, including:
The Richard A. Cooley Award in Environmental Studies: An award of up to $1,000 will be given to one or more continuing undergraduate students for a field project that results in a tangible, positive action for the betterment of the natural environment or improvement in environmental quality. This award is given in honor of Richard Cooley, founder of the Environmental Studies program at UCSC.
Does the institution have a program to encourage academic staff from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
The campus' Strategic Academic Plan directly supports research in sustainability:
Three major academic priority areas (APAs) of cross-disciplinary research and creative work capture much of the insight and energy the faculty brought to the planning process. The APAs build on existing campus disciplinary strengths, advance priorities critical to the university mission, and represent distinctive research areas where the campus can or already does excel. An intentional and coordinated focus on these three areas - Earth Futures, Justice in a Changing World, and Digital Interventions - will aid us in communicating with one another internally and with the world externally, providing us with another means of highlighting our important disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and creative work at UC Santa Cruz. Alongside our attention to graduate program growth and critical undergraduate curricular needs, we will support strategic efforts around the APAs.
Earth Futures: Taking a uniquely long view of Earth and humanity — not just over the following decades, but over hundreds or thousands of years, UC Santa Cruz examines the scientific, philosophical, social, and practical questions about Earth’s future. Faculty, researchers, and students will pose pressing questions, both ethical and scientific, and propose strategies and actions that lead to desired global outcomes and resolutions.
The Strategic Academic Plan is used as a guideline for the campus administration to help prioritize resource allocations. Faculty seeking to advance the "Earth Futures" goal are eligible for funding via the annual resource call to support research, courses, and more.
Additionally, Faculty are eligible for the following grants to further support research in sustainability:
The Carbon Fund was started in 2010 as a funding source to diminish the campus’s carbon footprint through campus projects undertaken by faculty, staff and students. The Carbon Fund has ~$100,000/annually to allocate for this purpose. The Carbon Fund uses money raised by a student-approved fee measure (Measure 44) that raises money through a $3-per-quarter student fee. https://sustainability.ucsc.edu/engage/funding/carbon-fund/Projects/index.html
The Sustainability Office provides grants for projects that help the campus achieve and support the goals of the Campus Sustainability Plan.
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?:
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
Three major Academic Priority Areas (APAs) of cross-disciplinary research and creative work capture much of the insight and energy the faculty brought to the planning process. The APAs build on existing campus disciplinary strengths, advance priorities critical to the university mission, and represent distinctive research areas in which the campus can or already does excel. An intentional and coordinated focus on these three areas, Earth Futures, Justice in a Changing World, and Digital Interventions, will aid us in communicating with one another internally and with the world externally, providing us with another means of highlighting our important disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and creative work at UC Santa Cruz. Alongside our attention to graduate program growth and critical undergraduate curricular needs, we will support strategic efforts around the APAs.
Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research programs are a hallmark of the UC Santa Cruz campus. The campus's Strategic Academic Plan discusses our campus's emphasis on interdisciplinary work, and many of our faculty are involved in interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and teaching.
A faculty member's participation in interdisciplinary programs is considered during the merit and promotion process, including the tenure review. We consider interdisciplinary work equivalently with disciplinary work. In addition, campus reviews value the overall impact of the work, and interdisciplinary work may have a more widespread impact.
Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
UC Santa Cruz’s University Library includes 58 interviews with farmers, activists, researchers, and educators. It encompasses the 1960s through the present. Here you will find transcripts of all of the interviews in full text (PDF) format, along with audio clips from the oral histories, photographs, and additional resources. They provide three navigable categories that offer different portals to this archive. The entire collection of oral histories is also fully searchable (across interviews) through the UCSC Library's Digital Collections site (ContentDM) at UCSC.
https://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/cultiv/home
Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.