Cal Poly has recently been recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) along with five other California State Universities. This incredible achievement is in honor of Cal Poly’s dedicated efforts to teach about climate change.
This past year, AASHE awarded CSU the highly coveted Campus Sustainability Achievement Award. This accomplishment recognizes the CSU system’s efforts to reshape how nearly half a million students are taught about climate change. The CSU system has raised the standards and expectations of sustainability on college campuses.
Five campuses — Cal Poly, Chico, Humboldt, Monterey Bay, San Marcos and Stanislaus — were recognized in large part for establishing the CSU Faculty Learning Community in Teaching Climate Change and Resilience.
Last spring 62 faculty members covering 30 different disciplines, participated in the first multi-campus Faculty Learning Community (FLC). FLCs are usually a faculty group contained to a single campus, however, with great determination and innovation, CSU campuses challenged themselves to make history. This multi-campus FLC included seven 90-minute sessions in which participants discussed significant ways teaching about climate change could be improved. Discussion included how to incorporate social and environmental justice in the classroom, as well as how to counter climate change with innovative solutions. Faculty members were challenged with how to teach outside the classroom and redesign the curriculum to include civic engagement.
“Having played a lead organizing role in this faculty learning community was a great experience,” said Kylee Singh, Cal Poly’s sustainability coordinator. “At Cal Poly we had over 20 faculty apply for 10 budgeted stipends. Hopefully, we can grow this program in the future since it was such a huge success.”
As the largest public university system in the United States, the CSU makes a great impact on our home state. These new developments will benefit students all over California and the collaborative efforts of CSU sustainability leaders will have a lasting impact as we incorporate events focused on climate justice, environmental racism and intersectional sustainability across campuses. Cal Poly is proud to contribute to this cause.