Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.91
Liaison Julie Hopper
Submission Date Dec. 20, 2023

STARS v2.2

University of Southern California
AC-7: Incentives for Developing Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Julie Hopper
Data Analyst
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have an ongoing program that offers incentives for academic staff in multiple disciplines or departments to develop new sustainability courses and/or incorporate sustainability into existing courses? :
Yes

A brief description of the incentive program(s):

Created and led by the USC President’s Working Group on Sustainability and Office of Academic Programs, the Sustainability Across the Curriculum Initiative (SACI) supports the development of new courses, programs, and curricular approaches that focus on sustainability.
The Sustainability Across the Curriculum Initiative offers a financial incentive for USC faculty to incorporate sustainability content into their already existing courses, and to create new courses focused on sustainability.

The program partners faculty that are looking to integrate sustainability into their courses with faculty that are experts in various areas of sustainability. Together they develop content (modules, assignments, lab exercises, etc.) for these classes. The program was launched in 2020 and has had 32 successful grant applicants and participants to date.

Several examples are listed below.
1. New material was incorporated into ‘Introduction to East Asian Ethical Thought’ - examples about climate change and sustainability were used to demonstrate ethical principles.

2. A new course on climate and art was created called’ Ideas in Intermedia: Climate Emergency’

3. A new course called’ Sustainability and Self Care’ was created in the Physical Education & Mind Body Health Department, which helps students learn how to care for themselves in order to be able to care for the planet.


A brief description of the incentives that academic staff who participate in the program(s) receive:

Grant Type 1: Integrating Sustainability into Existing Courses
An award in the amount of $5,000 in course development funds will be allocated for each collaborative project, with $3,500 going to the course instructor and $1,500 to the development partner.

Grant Type 2: New Sustainability-Themed Course Proposals
An award in the amount of $10,000 in course development funds will be allocated for each new course being developed.

Grant Type 3: New Sustainability Minors, Graduate and Undergraduate Certificates
Grants of this type are variable, in support of developing a new minor, graduate certificate, or undergraduate certificate that explicitly focuses on sustainability through a disciplinary or interdisciplinary lens.

Grant Type 4: Revision or Updating of Existing Programs
Grants of this type are variable, in support of revising existing majors, minors, or graduate programs to prioritize material that explicitly focuses on sustainability through a disciplinary or interdisciplinary lens.


Website URL where information about the incentives for developing sustainability course content is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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