University of Wisconsin-River Falls
EN-6: Employee Educators Program

The previous year's cohort of Sustainability Faculty Fellows mentor the incoming year's cohort with guidance from the St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development.

Incoming fellows attend a workshop based on the AASHE "Sustainability Across the Curriculum" workshop (http://www.aashe.org/events/workshops/curriculum). In addition, the Sustainability Learning Outcomes Project committee runs a faculty workshop to engage faculty in reflecting upon their changed curriculum, framing coursework with essential questions, articulate activities and assessments, and naming sustainability learning objectives that gets to the heart of the central goal for student learning. This information is being compiled within a curriculum chart, tracking the growth and progress of integrating sustainability within a myriad of disciplines on campus. The Committee seeks to initiate further dialogue regarding stimulating innovative sustainability curriculum and practice, and motivation or incentives for faculty to integrate sustainability issues and concepts in coursework.

UWRF's St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development provides funding for the workshop, travel to attend the AASHE workshop at Emory University, and stipends for completing course designs to infuse sustainability into the curriculum. In 2013, 11 faculty and the Provost and Vice-Chancellor For Academic Affairs attended the AASHE workshop. Funded Professor Mary Wright’s half of the UWRF presentation at AASHE concerning the Sustainability Learning Outcomes Project (SLOP).

The SWG is a Faculty Senate committee consisting of 11 voting members (2 of which are students) chaired by a qualifying member as appointed by Faculty Senate. There is one ex officio, non-voting member from the River Falls community. The SWG has no standing sub-committees, however, it will augment non-voting members as needed to address the scope of sustainability goals and initiatives.

The Sustainability Working Group (SWG) is the primary shared-governance group for promoting and coordinating sustainability values, principles, and practices at UW-River Falls. The SWG addresses the planning, design, implementation, and assessment of sustainable campus community programs and policies as well as documentation, such as the Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS®), the Climate Action Plan (CAPlan), and the Sustainable Campus Community Plan (SCCPlan). The SWG is a conduit through which the campus community can recommend curricular, co-curricular, operational, financial, and other sustainable campus initiatives and policies to the appropriate faculty, student, and/or administrative governance or operational units. The duties of the SWG are to 1.) facilitate the continual refinement of a holistic vision for UWRF as a premier sustainable campus community model that fully and systemically integrates inclusivity, global literacy, leadership, and sustainability, as a culture of learning and living, and 2.) recommend campus sustainability projects, monitor their progress, and submit budget requests on behalf of the entire campus for sustainability related projects and programs. Recommendations of the SWG will be forwarded to the appropriate governance group and the chair will consult with these groups as necessary.

Because SWG is a standing committee of faculty senate, there is no institutional financial support. SWG is generally funded by The St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development & Office of Sustainability. There is a $10k expense account but no directed funding.

Participants were trained through the Office of Student Life in multiple areas throughout the academic year. Please refer to the website for more information on the workshops, the training team, and other general info: http://www.uwrf.edu/StudentLife/SocioculturalProgramming/PEACE.cfm

Three unique Workshop series were offered during the academic year through the Office of Student Life. See the website for more information on the workshops: http://www.uwrf.edu/StudentLife/SocioculturalProgramming/PEACE.cfm

One staff member in Student Life served as the main organizer. Generally all other trainers/facilitators were student staff who assisted in the faculty/staff/student training workshops.