Academics
Academics is at the heart of our mission here at Santa Clara University.
This goal connects directly with our university mission statement and vision, particularly in relationship to student leadership and social justice. By building a more intentional set of learning experiences around sustainability and justice in the classroom and in the co-curriculum, we will ensure that our graduates have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and commitment to take leadership roles that have an impact as they move into their careers and future life paths. SCU is already known as a national leader in sustainability across the curriculum pedagogy and faculty training; this goal builds on those strengths while focusing on student outcomes and also providing the opportunity to build stronger connections with the local community over concrete, pressing issues.
Additionally, sharpening our academic focus on integral ecology creates a common goal that unifies all SCU stakeholders, through stronger interdisciplinary links and community for faculty, staff, and students. By providing central sustainability resources, departments will engage with sustainability through their unique discipline-specific lenses in robust course offerings taught by trained faculty. This plan ensures universal exposure for students to the core academic principles of sustainability that address critical integral ecology and justice issues in all fields.
“It is not enough to think only of balances of power but also of the need to provide a response to new problems and to react with global mechanisms to the environmental, public health, cultural and social challenges, especially in order to consolidate respect for the most elementary human rights, social rights and the protection of our common home.”
– Laudate Deum paragraph 42
Goal
Santa Clara University will be recognized for scholarship, research, and thought leadership around integral ecology, and equip all of our graduates to contribute to building a sustainable world through their academic experiences.
Strategies
AC 1: Learning Outcomes
By 2032, all undergraduate and graduate students will fulfill at least one sustainability learning requirement.
Sub-strategies include identifying and funding faculty expertise and further resource development, identifying new programs relevant to sustainability and justice, integrating and assessing sustainability learning outcomes across campus, and updating discipline-specific sustainability courses.
AC 2: High-Impact Experience
By 2030, all undergraduate students will have at least one formational high-impact learning experience centered on sustainability and justice.
Sub-strategies include defining and measuring high-impact learning practices across campus, scaling professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, offering and assessing interdisciplinary high-impact opportunities, and assessing sustainability student learning outcomes.
AC 3: Thought Leadership
By 2030, all schools and 90% of all academic departments will be engaged in advancing integral ecology through scholarship, professional activity, partnerships, and/or thought leadership.
Sub-strategies include defining and measuring thought leadership activities across campus, creating a signature project, and increasing the amount of external funding related to sustainability.