Professors from 13 colleges became activists last week and set aside part of their syllabi to teach about environmental crisis and sustainability.
“We believe we have to have a campus that is committed to producing graduates that are dedicated to solving the issues of sustainability when they graduate,” said Craig Forster, director of the U Office of Sustainability. “We should be introducing our students to these properties whenever we can.”
Forster organized a week of sustainability teach-ins that ended Friday. Participating instructors committed one class period to a presentation on sustainability and discussed how the issue intersects with their course material. The teach-ins are a part of the Universities Presidents Climate Commitment signed by U President Michael Young on Earth Day earlier this year. According to the commitment, the U needs to address sustainability in its curriculum.
“The teach-ins focused on three themes of sustainability: environmental stewardship, economic security and social equity,” Forster said.
Fifty-six courses at the U participated this year. The Office of Sustainability modeled this year’s teach-in after last spring’s Focus the Nation event, which was a nationwide teach-in designed to stimulate discussion around the issue of global warming. Eighty-six courses participated last spring.
The Office of Sustainability plans to host Focus the Nation again this spring.
“Our goal is to keep increasing the number of participants,” Forster said. “It will all depend on the inclinations of faculty. They are busy people and we’re saying, “We’ll add one more thing to your workload.’ It’s easy to set that aside.”
Susie Porter, a history professor who participated last year, said her students told her that spaces for dialogue, such as teach-ins, are critical to understanding these profound issues.
“Students and faculty and all working people are overburdened with work responsibilities, and thus often cut off from opportunities to talk with others. The university is an invaluable space for dialogue,” she said.
Some professors want to see more dedication to educating the student body about this issue. Hans Ehrbar, an economics professor, taught two teach-in sessions this year.
“(The teach-in) allows us to make bridges between our individual topics and the environment, but much more should be done,” Ehrbar said. “I am participating in the teach-in because the lack of social awareness of the environmental crisis is very much also a failure of our educational system. Every class which is taught today should have the environment as co-topic.”
The Office of Sustainability will team up with the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence for the teach-in next year and promises more support and preparation for instructors who decide to participate. The Office of Sustainability is pursuing funding for other projects that integrate environmental issues in the U’s curriculum.