What Have We Done So Far? Academics
Units at The 草榴社区 have to date been actively engaged in sustainability efforts, most of which do not get the attention of the campus community. Here is what the University has done so far.
ACADEMICS | PHYSICAL PLANT | COMMUNITY AWARENESS
Academics
Infusion Across the Curriculum - As one of the major initiatives in sustainability at 草榴社区, the University is committed to the infusion of the issues of sustainability across the curriculum. Our vision is to inculcate sustainability into existing and new courses throughout all the disciplines from theology, to business, to philosophy, to the natural sciences, to sociology, to political science, to history, to health, to education, to…
- Exposure of our students to sustainability from all these perspective will result in citizens that are able to see sustainability not only from an environmental viewpoint, but also from the societal and economic perspectives. This "triple bottom line" frames sustainability as a major issue of social justice.
- In conjunction with the 2005 United Nation's "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development," in June 2005 the first of yearly workshops to infuse sustainability throughout the University curriculum was held.
Prior to this program there were a few faculty who discussed sustainability in their courses, however, there was no concerted effort to promote the discussion of sustainability across the disciplines on a University wide basis. The ultimate goal of this project is to educate our students in the area of sustainability. To achieve this we will 1) broaden faculty knowledge of sustainability, 2) train faculty to integrate environmental sustainability into their courses, and 3) implement the infusion of environmental sustainability into courses throughout our curriculum. It is our intention to serve as an example for other institutions to infuse sustainability across their curriculum. Thus we are pleased to provide information about our workshop activities as well as course module/syllabi for courses where sustainability has been infused.
- Individual Courses - The University offers the following courses:
- Biology - General Biology, African Photo Safari, Tropical Biology, Ecology, Marine Ecology, Applied Ecology and Estuarine Ecology
- Chemistry - Global Change, Environmental Chemistry and Environmental Geochemistry. In addition, "green chemistry" has been infused into a number of chemistry courses, an approach that fosters sustainable approaches to the discipline.
- Geography - World Regional Geography
- Physics - Energy and the Environment
- Economics - The Economics of Environmental Issues, Development Economics
- Management -Responsibility, Sustainability & Justice (MGT 501); Business and the Environment
- Marketing - Sustainable Marketing (MKT 484)
- Social Justice
This listing, of course, does not capture the discussions of sustainability that are imbedded in the lectures and case studies of other courses.