University of Colorado Boulder
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

While CU does not have a specific sustainability focused incentive program for faculty, CU Boulder offers significant ongoing incentives for staff in multiple disciplines. These include:

1) UROP program: the faculty grants program and the Council on Undergraduate Research. While it is not specifically sustainability focused there is a great inter-disciplinary effort with an on-going priority on funding sustainability projects. https://www.colorado.edu/urop/mentoring-guide

2) Center for Teaching and Learning: offers resources for course design and development. The CTL sponsors a range of programs that enable educators to make sustained inquiries into teaching and learning. These programs bring educators together from across campus in order to foster the exchange of ideas and practices. As well as instructor training and support with the fall intensives workshops, micro-credentials, the CTL is a central project of Academic Futures and a recommendation of Foundations of Excellence and IDEA plan. Finally, there are numerous Teaching grants and awards.
https://www.colorado.edu/center/teaching-learning/teaching-resources/course-design-development
https://www.colorado.edu/center/teaching-learning/teaching-resources/grants-awards

3) The CU Boulder Outreach Awards fund faculty-led outreach and engagement work that connects research, teaching and creative work with public needs and interests. Individual faculty applicants may request up to $9,000 for each project; interdisciplinary or interdepartmental faculty groups may request up to $24,000 for a single, collaborative outreach project. The CU Boulder Outreach Awards Committee, which is composed of faculty and staff from many disciplines, awards up to $360,000 annually for outreach and engagement projects. Since 1999, 836 projects have received nearly $6.4 million, benefiting 5.5 million people in Colorado and beyond. These awards are funded by the Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost and the Division of Continuing Education.
https://www.colorado.edu/outreach/ooe/outreach-awards#event-_20-years-of-investing-in-communities

4) The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) is a campus office reporting to the Provost. Our charge is to examine the undergraduate student experience, assess student and program outcomes, identify gaps, and launch and support student-facing campus initiatives to promote student success. OUE oversees a variety of academic programs; international programs, including Education Abroad and International Student & Scholar Services; and the Program in Exploratory Studies, which is home to approximately 25% of entering first-year students each year.
https://www.colorado.edu/exploratorystudies/design-your-path-living-learning-community/courses

5) Previously, the First Year Seminars offered an array of courses faculty are paid to develop--including sustainability-focused and related courses. Examples of sustainability-focused courses in the past include, "Environment and Science Communication", "Building Sustainable Communities", Toxins in Our Environment",and "Science of Sustainability". Surveys of the students indicate that 92% of students would recommend these courses to other students and the overall evaluation of the courses was "Excellent" according to the faculty course questionnaires at the end of the semester. The FYS series is now part of Exploratory Studies. A $6,000 incentive for faculty is offered to develop courses that focus on first-year students and topics of relevance to these students. One area of particular interest has been the development of courses focusing on sustainability. The focus of this area is to enhance the student's ability to place sustainability in a larger context as well as communicate the goals of sustainability to others.

https://www.colorado.edu/exploratorystudies/exploration/programs-different-lens
https://www.colorado.edu/exploratorystudies/exploration/programs-different-lens/social-responsibility-and-sustainability