Saint Mary's College of California
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
Yes, we offer Sustainability Research Internships. These interns focus on research that increases sustainability on campus through a variety of topics - energy, waste, food, climate, etc. The intern(s) works closely with and is supervised by the Sustainability Director.
Does the institution have a program to encourage academic staff from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
Every year the Academic Subcommittee of the President's Sustainability Committee provides a faculty development workshop called "the Annual Sustainability Symposium" intended to increase sustainability research and communities of practice around sustainability.
Has the institution published written policies and procedures that give positive recognition to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions?:
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
See section 2.6 "Promotion and Tenure" of the attached 2019-2020 Faculty Handbook, and specifically subsection 2.6.1 on "Scholarly Interests & Pursuits" and "Service to the college" which reads explicitly states "Scholarship aims not only at expanding the store of knowledge in the disciplines or in an interdisciplinary field, ..." and "Service can include...Participation in activities inside the College such as colloquia, fora, public lectures, reading and study groups, which foster the intellectual community, institutional identity, and interschool/ interdisciplinary collaboration"
Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
The library supports the Environmental & Earth Science and the Environmental Studies undergraduate majors through collection development, library and information literacy instruction, and specialized research support from a dedicated liaison librarian. Examples of this support during the past academic year include the purchase of the 2019 Earth & Environmental Sciences ebook package from SpringerNature, featuring more than 560 DRM-free environmental science titles, as well as library guides and information literacy instruction for courses such as EES-196: Senior Project and EES-110: GIS / Remote Sensing. The library also coordinates with the Sustainability Office to showcase book displays or host student work (e.g., a senior project about seed libraries) in the library.
Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.