University of Texas at Austin
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Annual Sustainability Course Development Award description
Funded by the Mitchell Foundation and organized through Undergraduate Studies, in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, the Bridging Disciplines Program in Environment & Sustainability is pleased to announce an open competition for course development funds to create new undergraduate courses or to convert existing undergraduate courses. Courses should investigate sustainability issues while incorporating an aspect of experiential learning, allowing undergraduates to engage with a real-world problem through research or on-the-ground work. Preference will be given to courses that are designed to be interdisciplinary and that are open to students from multiple colleges and/or majors.

Sustainability is commonly understood to require a balanced pursuit of ecological health, social equity, and economic welfare. The pursuit of sustainability is grounded in an ethical commitment to the well-being of not only current populations, but also future generations. The concept of sustainability is broadly applicable to courses across the curriculum including topics such as environmental ethics, climate science, resource management, energy efficiency and technology, transportation and planning, as well as courses that speak to the history and philosophy of environmentalism, environmental health, environmental arts and performance, economic development, social justice, communication, and psychology.

To be eligible for an award, a course must address issues related to sustainability and incorporate an aspect of experiential learning.

Applications may come from any academic unit on campus.

A proposed new course must:

A proposed new course must:

Be an undergraduate course that has never been previously taught.
Incorporate sustainability as a distinct and significant course component/module or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue throughout the course.
Be offered at least three times beginning with either the spring 2020, fall 2020, or spring 2021 semesters. Preference will be given to courses that are designed to be a regular part of the department’s course offerings.
Include a brief letter of support from the faculty member’s department chair indicating the place the course will have in the department, how accessible the course will be to students outside the department, and that the department intends to offer the course at least three times.

A proposed course conversion must:

Adapt an existing undergraduate course to incorporate sustainability as a distinct and significant course component/module or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue throughout the course.
Be offered at least three times beginning with either the spring 2020, fall 2020, or spring 2021 semesters. Preference will be given to courses that are designed to be a regular part of the department’s course offerings.
Include a brief letter of support from the faculty member’s department chair indicating the place the course has in the department, how accessible the course will be to students outside the department, and that the department intends to offer the course at least three times after the conversion.

For each award to develop a new course, $5,000 will be given to the selected instructor to support costs associated with new course development (i.e., travel, books, research expenses, technology costs, etc.); the remaining $1,000 will be given to the chosen instructor’s home department.

For each award to convert an existing course, $3,000 will be given to the selected instructor to support costs associated with course conversion (i.e., travel, books, research expenses, technology costs, etc.