Lincoln, Neb. —The UNL sustainability Initiative seeks 20 instructors who want to infuse sustainability and resilience concepts into their courses. Interested instructors must apply by Jan. 22, 2022.
UNL is working to expand sustainability concepts into the classroom as a part of the Chancellor’s Environment, Resilience and Sustainability Master Plan, which was adopted in 2020. Among other goals, the plan calls for the university to become a net-zero campus in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and energy use by the year 2050, as well as for the adoption of sustainability concepts into teaching, learning and outreach.
Instructors selected for the program will receive training via four two-hour workshops during the spring 2022 semester.
Sustainability is a framework concept that aligns with the UN Sustainability Development Goals, many of which relate to issues of environmental justice, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). By bringing together the challenges and solutions to living sustainably and creating resilient systems, teachers can readily connect students to important societal issues including human population, increased resource needs (food, energy, water, etc.), and human impacts on the environment.
Goals are the program are:
- To increase sustainability and resilience literacy among UNL students.
- To connect students and faculty to social issues at the local to international levels.
- To create a community of faculty who have an improved knowledge and awareness of sustainability, resilience, DEI, and social justice issues.
- To create work, learning, and service environments that promotes a mindset that every student can reach their full potential.
Participating instructors will develop an activity, unit, or module that incorporates sustainability and DEI competencies into a discipline-specific current course plan during the Academic Year 2022-2023. They will also become part of a growing community of faculty who have knowledge and awareness of sustainability and resilience.
Participants will use four monthly, two-hour workshops to create curricular materials during the spring 2022 semester. Workshops will take place on Jan. 28, Feb. 18, March 18 and April 15, as well as a date to be determined in May. Workshops will be facilitated by Dave Gosselin, director of the UNL Sustainability Initiative and Katherine Nashleanas, lecturer in the School of Global Integrative Studies, in collaboration with the Center for Transformative Teaching.
To apply, send the following materials to Gosselin (dgosselin2@unl.edu) by Jan. 22: Statement of interest in the workshop; a paragraph that outlines teaching experience; and class (es) that you plan to use for the module in the Fall 2022 semester.