READY OR NOT
Global Challenges, College Learning, and America’s Promise
Pre-Meeting Symposium
Wednesday, January 21, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
SUSTAINABILITY: Place, Responsibilities, and the Curriculum
In the pre-meeting symposium, AAC&U locates sustainability at the intersection of place, social responsibility, and undergraduate learning. Such an approach requires perspectives that cut across disciplines, the curriculum, and student life. Educating for sustainability, in other words, is a case study for liberal education.
A review of the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes makes this connection clear. Students should prepare for 21st century challenges by gaining:
- Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World— focused by engagement with big questions
- Intellectual and Practical Skills—practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards of performance
- Personal and Social Responsibility—anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges
- Integrative Learning—demonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to new settings and complex problems
Institutions increasingly recognize the need to engage the challenges of sustainability. As they pursue goals of linking student learning, place, and social responsibility, however, they often find the pathways are poorly mapped. Participants of the symposium are invited to join in exploring and mapping this exciting integrative endeavor.
The symposium will provide participants opportunities to the explore sustainability through:
High Impact Educational Practices: First Year Seminars, Learning Communities, Writing Intensive Courses, and Collaborative Projects.
Science as Science is Done: Students experience science “in the making” and tie scholarship to public policy choices.
Advanced Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry: Big questions focus students work across disciplines, with faculty, on problems that require multiple perspectives and investigation for their solution.
Curricular and Co-Curricular integration around sustainability
Keynote Speaker
Stephanie Pfirman
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Stephanie Pfirman
Hirschorn Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College
Education for Sustainability:
Engaging Understanding, Self-Efficacy, and Responsibility in Faculty and Students
Preparing our diverse students with the means and the will to meet the challenge of sustainability requires stimulating their desire to learn, designing experiences that are meaningful, and promoting entrepreneurship in tackling problems. Much can be done by individual faculty working within current curricular structures: general education requirements, first year seminars, capstone experiences, civic engagement, extra- or co-curricular programming. But it is equally important to address the faculty themselves – engaging their understanding, self-efficacy, and sense of responsibility for educating the next generation. High intensity, place-based community learning activities can be transformational for both faculty and students.
Throughout her career, Stephanie Pfirman has been involved with researching the Arctic environment, undergraduate education, interdisciplinary curriculum development, environmental policy strategies, and public outreach. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Polar Research Board, President-elect of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, and a member of Project Kaleidoscope’s Faculty for the 21st Century. Pfirman’s current interests include environmental aspects of sea ice in the Arctic, and the development of women scientists and interdisciplinary scholars.
Schedule of Events
8:30-8:45 a.m.
Welcome
Kevin Hovland, Director of Global Learning and Curricular Change, AAC&U
8:45- 10:15 a.m.
Opening Panel: Sustainability, Integrative Learning, and Liberal Education
Geoffrey Chase, Dean, Division of Undergraduate Studies, San Diego State University; Jean MacGregor, Senior Scholar and Director, “Curriculum for the Bioregion” Initiative, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, The Evergreen State University, and Senior Council Member, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
10:30-11:45 a.m.
Panel Presentation: Engaging Place/Engaging Students: Bridging Academic and Student Affairs
Ann Groves Lloyd, Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs, College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Member, Sustainability Task Force, ACPA - College Student Educators International; Susan Mendoza-Jones, Director of Integrative Learning, Grand Valley State University; Member, Sustainability Task Force, ACPA - College Student Educators International; Jeanne L. Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL)
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Luncheon Keynote Address
Education for Sustainability: Engaging Understanding, Self-Efficacy, and Responsibility in Faculty and Students
Stephanie Pfirman, Hirschorn Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College
1:45-2:45 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Taking Responsibility: Promising Practices
Promising Practices: Sustainability in the Curriculum
Geoffrey Chase, Dean, Division of Undergraduate Studies, San Diego State University
The Sustainable Learning Community: The University of New Hampshire’s Journey to the Future
Mark Huddleston, President; and Tom Kelly, Chief Sustainability Officer and Director of the University Office of Sustainability– both of the University of New Hampshire
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Taking Responsibility: Promising Practices
Curriculum for the Bioregion
Jean MacGregor, Senior Scholar and Director, “Curriculum for the Bioregion” Initiative, Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, The Evergreen State University, and Senior Council Member, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
Sustainability: Liberal Learning Across Institutional Types
Troy J. Goodnough, Campus Sustainability Coordinator, and Jacqueline Johnson, Chancellor – both of the University of Minnesota, Morris
4:15-5:00 p.m.
Closing Session: Next Steps: Sustainability and Educational Reform
Jeanne L. Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL)
Co-Sponsors of the Symposium
AAC&U’s thanks the following co-sponsors of the Symposium:
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
Project Kaleidoscope
ACPA College Student Educators International
The Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education
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