In May the Office of Sustainability (OoS), in collaboration with the Lehigh Sustainability Committee (LSC) Education Subcommittee, hosted its 5th Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum workshop.
The workshop, titled, “Educating Future Leaders: Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum” was attended by 12 faculty and was co-facilitated by Audrey McSain, Sustainability Director and LSC Chair, and Karen Pooley, Professor of Practice in Political Science and LSC Co-Chair.
First established in 2018 by OoS and LSC, the programming for integrating sustainability into the curriculum is now part of Lehigh's Sustainability Strategic Plan 2030 goals. Faculty receive incentives to develop new sustainability courses and/or to incorporate sustainability into their existing courses. Upon completion of the workshop and successful revision of their syllabus, faculty receive a $500 stipend.
The 1-day workshop is designed to educate and empower faculty in an interdisciplinary effort to ensure that the themes of environmental sustainability, social equity, and financial inclusion are introduced and reinforced throughout students’ educational experiences at Lehigh. It is the hope that through the workshop faculty are further enabled to empower students with tools they can take into their future leadership roles. McSain and Pooley seek to help faculty develop a shared sustainability language, spark ideas for how they can integrate sustainability into their course(s), and provide resource materials, guidance, and support to achieve all of these goals.
In an effort to help better illustrate these concepts, McSain and Pooley brought in several guest speakers including Almut Hupbach, Professor in the Department of Psychology, and Allison Mickel, Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, and Director of Global Studies. Both Hupbach and Mickel were able to share their first-hand experiences of how they have incorporated sustainability into their curricula after having previously attended the workshop.
Bill Hunter, the Director of Fellowship Advising and UN Programs, and Elena Reiss, Assistant Director of Fellowship Advising, also gave a presentation titled, “Achieving the UN SDGs in 90-Minutes”. After the presentation, participants were divided into two groups and challenged with solving a UN SDG (United Nations Sustainable Development Goal).
The interaction between the workshop attendees and the guest speakers was a highlight for Pooley, who said “I loved watching this year's group interact with our guest speakers - all professors who found creative ways to bring sustainability into their courses."
Pooley is passionate about integrating sustainability into Lehigh’s curriculum across disciplines because, "This is content that students really want, and when they see it across different courses in different departments they realize that sustainability can be an important part of anything that they do".
At this time, only 11% of Lehigh’s courses contain sustainability content, yet The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges echos Pooley’s thoughts on student’s interest noting that 77% of students said information about a college's commitment to the environment would affect their decision to apply to or attend the school. Furthermore, The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges said that 37% of students indicated it would contribute “strongly” or “very much” to their decision. It is clear that Gen Z sees sustainability as integral to their values, lifestyle, and career.
McSain further states, “Universities are uniquely positioned to make significant contributions to address global challenges such as climate change and the health of our environment. Lehigh inspires, develops, and empowers the leaders of tomorrow. By integrating sustainability into the university’s educational experience, we prepare our students to solve today’s challenges, while identifying opportunities to create a healthier and more sustainable future”.
If you are a Faculty member at Lehigh, stay tuned for future workshop dates. Learn more about sustainability in Lehigh’s Academics and Research and if you have any questions, please contact sustainability@lehigh.edu.
