Weber State University
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Since the 2018-19 academic year the Sustainability Practices and Research Center (SPARC), with additional financial support from the Teaching and Learning Forum (TLF) has offered each year (with the exception of 2020-21) a Sustainability Across the Curriculum Community of Practice (SUS CoP) that runs through the academic year. It is open to any faculty member. Faculty join who are interested in meeting with peers from across campus and working with a team of faculty facilitators from different departments (currently four, including the director of the SPARC) to discuss sustainability education and work on plans/syllabi for incorporating sustainability learning outcomes and content into one or more of their classes. The goal is for participating faculty to submit an application for at least one of their classes to be designated as a sustainability course and carry the SUS attribute.

Two of the co-facilitators attended a training at the AASHE Sustainability across the Curriculum Leadership Workshop in CA (in 2018). Another two faculty currently serving as facilitators were participants in a previous SUS CoP. In the 2021-22 academic year the facilitators are from Geography, Math, Sociology and Education.

The SUS CoP meets eight times (usually for 1.5 hours) over the semester. Since the SUS CoP program began there have been 17 faculty participants (not counting the co-facilitators). Through the program sustainability has been included into
a variety of departments including Math and Botany, Economics, English, Outdoor and Community Recreation Education, Nursing, and Sociology and Anthropology, for example. Some specific courses are:

QL SUS Intro To Statistics Math 1040
Advanced Statistical Methods Math 3450
Repair as a Radical Act Honors 2050
SUS CEL Population Health in Nursing NRSG 4400
Collaborative Approaches in Population Health NRSG 6140
Intermediate College Writing ENG 1010
Principles of Environmental Science BTNY 1403
Peoples and Cultures of the World ANTH 1020
Nature Interpretation OCRE4020
Leisure in Society OCRE 3050
Diversity in Education MED 6020

Each CoP group is also expected to submit an executive summary and reflective analysis of their COP participation by May 1. The group also does something to share their learning, activities, and their reflections at the Teaching and Learning Forum's Faculty Symposium during Spring Semester.

Faculty who sign up and participate in at least 7 of the 8 sessions of the SUS CoP over the academic year AND have at least one successful course proposal for the SUS course attribute are awarded a $750 stipend.

Faculty who would like to also receive one or more books or other resources to support their teaching sustainability, such as "Drawdown" or "Regeneration" by Paul Hawken.

Faculty who participate in the Sustainability Across the Curriculum Community of Practice apply to have one or more of their courses approved to use the SUS course attribute, indicating that there are at least two sustainability learning outcomes included in the course. Information on the SUS attribute can be found here: https://www.weber.edu/sustainability/sus-attribute.html.