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 Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) 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 three, 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 have attended AASHE Sustainability across the Curriculum Leadership trainings (one in CA in 2018, the other in 2023 vitrually). Another of the faculty currently serving as facilitator was a participant in a previous SUS CoP. In the 2023-24 academic year the facilitators are from Geography, Botany and English.

The SUS CoP meets eight times (usually for 1.5 hours) over the semester. Since the SUS CoP program began there have been 30 faculty participants (not counting the co-facilitators). Through the program sustainability has been included into a variety of departments including Math and Botany, Theater, Art, 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, Diversity in Education MED 6020. 

Each CoP group is also expected to submit an executive summary and reflective analysis of their COP participation.. The group also does something to share their learning, activities, and their reflections at the Thrive 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.