SUSTAINABLITY LITERACY INSTITUTE GRADUATE SUSTAINABILITY SCHOLARS PROGRAM

Student & Faculty Manual

Introduction

The Sustainability Literacy Scholars Program (SLSP) exemplifies the College’s commitment to sustainability literacy and its belief in the enhancement of student learning through education, expression, and empowerment.

Sustainability is defined as the integration of social, economic, and environmental systems in ways that allow for individual, institutional, community, regional, and planetary resilience. To be sustainability literate one has the knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic, and environmental systems.

Guided by a paradigm of resilience and building upon a holistic foundation of environmental, economic, and social sustainability literacy, the SLSP will help prepare students to be forceful advocates for, and innovative future leaders towards, a sustainable existence.

The goal of the SLSP is to equip students and their respective staff/community/faculty mentors with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to promote sustainability literacy in all forms. This will be accomplished by:

increasing sustainability literacy through coursework, volunteer experiences, and leadership events

engaging in real-world sustainability literacy focused experience cultivating leadership skills, as well as critical and creative thinking building systems thinking competencies and the understanding of how these relate to

resiliency inspiring commitment and involvement in the College of Charleston becoming a

sustainability literate community.

Upon successful completion of the SLSP, students will possess the ability to take sustainability literacy forward in their personal and professional lives, as well as future communities of habitation.

Graduate Requirements for the Sustainability Literacy Scholars Program Students must apply for the SLSP prior to completing 50% of their respective Graduate Program. In order to apply, students must meet the requirements outlined below and fill out an application form (link needed).

Complete at least one course with either a Sustainability Focused (SF) or Sustainability Related (SR) Student Learning Outcome (SLO). (The SLO may be a preexisting one already within the course, which must be approved by the SLI Student Engagement Fellow or Director according to the triple bottom line sustainability definition.)

Attend one or more campus events or campus organization-sponsored community service projects with a sustainability-related theme. These could include events/projects organized by the SLI, Career Center, graduate student clubs, 3MT® Competition, etc., as approved by the Student Engagement Fellow or SLI Director.

Demonstration of triple bottom line comprehension and its application in relation to the student’s degree program either within:

o An artifact designed by a student’s respective graduate program that can be evaluated to ascertain that the student understands sustainability in relation to their program of study that synthesizes their curricular and co-curricular experiences, or

o In the event a graduate program does not have a specifically designed artifact, the respective degree program’s terminating research experience integrated with the triple bottom line sustainability theme as a topic, or

o A second class with either a Sustainability Focused (SF) or Sustainability Related (SR) Student Learning Outcome (SLO).

o a 12-page research-based essay that demonstrates that the student understands sustainability in relation to their program of study, and synthesizes their curricular and co-curricular experiences.

Students are also encouraged upon completion of being a Scholar that they present to the SLI Director and SLI Student Engagement Fellow a self-authored cover letter that explains their sustainability literacy skills and knowledge and how these make the student a value-added asset to future employers. The Director and Outreach Fellow will provide constructive feedback on this wording. It is understood that the feedback will help to make the student a more competitive candidate for the job market or further studies.

SF/SR courses can be found at http://sustain.cofc.edu/courses-and-projects/index.php or in Appendix II.

Application Instructions

Students will be required to apply to the SLSP via the online application at www.sustain.cofc.edu

Any work submitted in order to apply to the SLS program should be kept in a digital file and saved as a word text document.  Once accepted into the program, students will be asked to

upload their application essay responses to their sustainability portfolio.  This process will be covered during an entry consultation with the SLSP director.

Students should complete the below entrance essay and provide answers to SLI Student Engagement Fellow Dr. Barry Stiefel at stiefelB@cofc.edu. It is important to note that there are no “right” or “wrong” answers to the below questions.  It is preferred that students do not undertake any research for answering the prompts; rather, the questions are aimed to be answered to the best of the student’s ability based on current level of knowledge. 

The essay answer should be typed using 12 pt. font, Times New Roman, and should be double spaced with a completed edit and spell check.  Note that there is no word limit for answering this essay. 

SLSP Application .

__________________________ __________________________ ___________________ Student Name Email Student ID # __________________________ __________________________ ___________________ Student’s Degree Program Student Concentration Expected Graduation

(if applicable) Date

Application Essay.  You can systematically address these as stand-alone questions, or weave them into an overall narrative, although a coherent opening paragraph and closing paragraph should be provided regardless of how you choose to answer the question prompts.

1)      Why are you interested in becoming a sustainability literacy scholar? 

2)      How will being a scholar impact your career at the College, and your post-graduation plans?

3)      Briefly describe what the term “sustainability” means to you.

4)      Briefly describe what the term “resiliency” means to you.

5)      Briefly describe what “systems thinking” means to you.

6)      What is the “triple bottom line?”

7)      Do you think interdisciplinary knowledge is important?  Why or why not?

Sustainability Literacy Scholars Portfolio

The purpose of this document is to help accepted students understand, track, and assess their portfolio of work as a student in the sustainability literacy scholar program (SLSP) at the College of Charleston. It is considered a living document and its content should be updated as needed and appropriate.

Student’s digital portfolio is created via google docs through student’s CofC email. Students are to then work with their mentor through shared access to finalize portfolios before official submission. They are to organize it with the aid of the Student Engagement Fellow and their mentor.

Students must read through this document carefully, and each student is responsible for keeping an electronic copy of it on permanent record. It is the studentsstudent’s responsibility to understand requirements for and to track completion of the SLSP items needed to be completed in order to be considered a Sustainability Literacy Scholar. Further details can be found at sustain.cofc.edu.Any questions about this document can be addressed at any time to the Sustainability Literacy Institute (SLI) director, Dr. Todd LeVasseur (levasseurtj@cofc.edu) and also to the SLI Student Engagement Fellow, Dr. Barry Stiefel (stiefelb@cofc.edu)

Documentation of Requirements :

COURSE REQUIREMENT.. Record SF/SR course(s) below. Scholars must complete at least one Sustainability Focused or Sustainability Related course prior to graduation.

Course Number Course Name Fall / Spring Year Number of

Credits

FA / SP

FA / SP

FA / SP

SUSTAINABILITY FOCUSED CAMPUS EVENTS OR CAMPUS ORGANIZATION-SPONSORED COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS. Record attendance of one or more sustainability literacy-focused events.

Event Name Event Date Event Location

Rewards

Upon completion of the Sustainability Literacy GradauteGraduate Scholars Program students will receive honorable recognitions at graduation. Connected to the award will be the creation of a website to allow scholars to appear in web searches regarding the Scholars Program as well as a Certificate of Completion and pin for graduates of the program.

The goal of the SLSP is to prepare students with the knowledge and skills to be leaders in addressing 21st-century problems, cognizant of the triple bottom line, as well as advocates for sustainability in both their personal and professional lives.

Sustainability is an emerging concept in all aspects of business and professional work. Employers recognize the value of sustainability literacy because companies have been recognizing that addressing complex, systemic problems is necessary for maintaining competitiveness. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest Global CEO survey found that 76% of CEOs agree that in the 21st-century, success can only be achieved by seeking more than just profits, that is, companies need to create social and/ or environmental benefits as well (PwC 2016). According to a recent KPMG study, nearly three out of four of the largest 100 companies in 45

countries (4,500 companies) and more than nine in ten of the 250 largest companies across the globe report their sustainability performance (KPMG 2015). Among the Fortune 500 companies, 89% report sustainability performance (GreenBiz.com 2016).

More generally the U.N. International Labor Organization concluded that a greener economy, in which countries “can achieve economic benefits (in particular employment gains) and environmental improvements at the same time” (ILO 2013), could lead to a net gain of up to 60 million jobs worldwide.

So whereas in previous advancements, such as switching from paper to electronic documents (which required knowledge of basic office programs) or moving customer engagement to social media (which required basic knowledge of social media), both of which were skills students excelled at upon graduation, sustainability literacy is not something most graduates have when they enter the job market. Students completing the Sustainability Literacy Graduate Scholars Program will be equipped with skills that will appeal in the emerging world of sustainability.

About the Sustainaility Sustainability Literacy Institute (SLI)

The College of Charleston’s current Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), “Sustainability Literacy as a Bridge to Addressing 21st-Century Problems”, began implementation in academic year 2017-18 and is housed in the Sustainability Literacy Institute (SLI). This QEP adds to the storied history of the College of Charleston and recognizes that addressing 21st-century problems will require the cultivation of sustainability literacy in CofC students. To do so, this QEP uses sustainability literacy as a systems framework for conceptualizing and cultivating problem-solving skills in students.

Sustainability literacy is having the knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic and environmental systems. The key to sustainability literacy is what is called the “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) of sustainability, where 21st-century problems are understood as social (for example, institutional racism, sexism, LGBTQ + rights), economic (increasing debt, wage disparity between men and women, poverty) and environmental (climate change, sea level rise, biodiversity loss). A majority of 21st-century problems cannot be solved within a single domain of the TBL, nor are they mutually exclusive. That is, they are often a combination of social, economic and/or environmental issues, making them complex problems. Skills such as critical thinking, synthesis, analytical reasoning and problem solving are central in teaching students to address sustainability literacy problems.

The College recognizes that many of its students are currently deficient in these sustainability literacy competency areas. Thus, by pursuing this QEP, the College is focusing on providing students the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge to become citizens who advocate for solving 21st-century problems.

Appendix I

Glossary

Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP): The College’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is sustainability literacy as a bridge to addressing 21st-century problems. The College is a member of SACSCOC, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. This is a regional body that accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in the southern states. In order to gain accreditation from SACSCOC (a process that the College must undergo every 10 years), there are certain requirements. Among those is the need to generate an enhanced learning project that impacts all enrolled students in some way.

The enhanced learning project, or QEP, is customarily presented by way of a 100-page document that will be evaluated by representatives from SACSOC during an on-site visit. (The College’s previous QEP was the First Year Experience.) The next QEP topic, sustainability literacy as a bridge to addressing 21st-century problems, is scheduled to officially begin in fall 2017.

Sustainability: The integration of social, economic and environmental systems in ways that allow for individual, institutional, community, regional and planetary resilience.

Sustainability Literacy: having the knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic and environmental systems.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL): A framework for conceiving of sustainability by analyzing the systemic links between the three core domains of human life: social, environmental and economic. (The TBL dimensions are also commonly called the three Ps: people, planet and profit/prosperity.)

Every activity that humans undertake, whether that’s generating electrical power, growing food, or taking a trip, has costs associated with it. We are most accustomed to understanding the financial costs, but there social and environmental costs involved in everything we do as well.

For example, if a country or state decides to build a dam, there will be financial costs, but there will also be costs to anyone who is displaced by the dam and its future reservoir (a social cost) as well as costs to the ecosystems affected by that reservoir (an environmental cost).

When we acknowledge the non-financial impacts (often called “external costs”) and place equal emphasis on their importance, then we demonstrate awareness of the Triple Bottom Line, and consequently sustainability literacy.

It’s helpful to know that over two thirds of global Fortune 500 companies publish sustainability reports. In recent years, those reports have evolved from mere environmental impact statements to include social and economic performance metrics for these companies.

Resilience: The capability to anticipate risk, limit impact and bounce back rapidly through survival, adaptability, evolution and growth in the face of turbulent change.

Systems Thinking: A set of analytic skills used to improve the capability of identifying and understanding systems, predicting their behaviors and devising modifications to them in order to produce desired effects. In the context of this QEP, systems thinking will focus on the system interactions of the economy, society and the environment, at individual to global scales.

Sustainability Focused Courses (SF): courses that the primary and explicit focus is on sustainability as an integrated concept with the Triple Bottom Line. OR Course that the primary and explicit focus is on the application of sustainability within a field (iei.e.: sustainable agriculture, architecture for sustainability, or sustainable business). OR Courses where the primary focus is directly connected to understanding or solving one or more major sustainability challenges (related to the theme of the year).

Sustainability Related Courses (SR): courses which include sustainability but is primarily focused on a topic other than sustainability. It should incorporate a unit or module on sustainability or one or more sustainability- focused activity. It also could integrate sustainability issues throughout the course.

Appendix II

List of Approved Sustainability Related Courses

Faculty Dept FocusCourse Section Title Semester Taught

Affonso, Lancie HONS economic HONS 205

Entrepreneurship

Theory and Practice Fall 2018

Bidwell, Deb

BIOL

environmental FYSE 108

Biomimicry: Nature as

Mentor Fall 218

Bidwell, Deb BIOL environmental BIOL 112 TBD Spring 2019

Bidwell, Deb

BIOL

environmental

ENVT

352/BIOL

453/ENTR 360

Special Topics:

Biomimicry Thinking Spring 2019

Bourdier,

Juliette FREN 

social,

economic FREN 380

Marketing, Strategies

and Communication Fall 2018

Carrico, Alexis

MGMT,

MKTG

economic,

social MGMT 301

Management and

Organizational

Behavior

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Chaffin,

LaTasha POLI

social,

economic POL 211

Introduction to Public

Policy Fall 2018

De Welde, Kris WGST social WGS 401 Senior Capstone Spring 2019

Gilmore, Joanna

social,

economic ANTH 109

Introduction to

Museum Studies

ONLINE; spring

2019

Greene,

Anthony AAST social AAST 300

Special Topics: Racism

in America Fall 2018

Hagood,

Margaret TEDU social EDEE 378

 Instructional Strategies

for Teaching Reading Fall 2018

Kaufmann,

Kathy

FREN,

FRCS, ITST social FREN 202 TBD

Fall, Spring,

Maymester,

Summer I

Klein, Susan ARTS social ARTS 331 Painting IV Fall 2018

Kollath-Cattano,

Christy HEAL social HEAL 230 Global Health

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Jaume, Steve GEOL environmental GEOL 103

Environmental

Geology

Fall, Spring,

Summer

Lacroix, Celeste COMM

social,

economic COMM 336

Addressing Problems

in Context:

Representation,

Identity and Culture Fall 2018

Lacroix, Celeste COMM social COMM 480 Capstone in

Communication:

Experiencing and

Investigating

Communication and

Fall 2018

Culture (Study

Abroad--Florence,

Italy)

Malek, Amy INTL social INTL 100

Introduction to

International Studies

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Sapp, Robert

FREN,

FRCS, ITST social FREN 453

Francophone Literature

and/or Cultures of the

Americas Spring 2019

Scott, Blake INTL

social,

environmental INTL 350

Global Environmental

Challenges: Past,

Present, Future Fall 2018

Stiefel, Barry URST

social,

environmental URST 310 Urban Planning Fall 2018

Stiefel, Barry URST

social,

environmental URST 310 Sustainable Urbanism Summer II 2018

Stiefel, Barry URST

social,

environmental URST 320

Town and Country

Planning Spring 2019

Teixiera, Rafael MKTG economic SCIM 424

Supply Chain and

Operations Strategy Spring 2019

Tonks, Neal CHEM environmental CHEM 101 General Chemistry Fall 2018

Welch, Allison BIOL environmental BIOL 211

Biodiversity, Ecology,

and Conservation

Biology Fall 2018

Spade, Thomas ACLS economic ACCT 204 Managerial Accounting

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Mir, Saif SCIM economic DSCI 373

Supply Chain Planning

and Analysis

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Colomina-

Garrigos, Lola LACS social LACS 101

Introduction to Latin

American and

Caribbean Studies Spring 2019

List of Approved Sustainability Focused Courses

Faculty Dept Focus Course Section Title Semester Taught

Brian, Kristi WGST social AAST Race, Gender, and the Fall 2018

300/ENVT

352/WGST 320 Environment

Callicott, Burton LIBR social LIBR 105

Resources for

Research--SUST

Equipping Non-Profits Spring 2019

Crabtree, Mari AAST social AAST 300 

The Life and Writings

of James Baldwin Fall 2018

Doire, Louise RELS social FYE

You Are What You

Wear: Just Fashion Fall 2018

Finnan,

Christine

SOCY,

ANTH social ANTH 319 ST

Cultural Sustainability

and Social Justice in

Schools Fall 2018

Garrett, Victoria

HISP,

SPAN social FYSE 125

Greening Cinematic

Narratives: Latin

America at the

Forefront of

Environmental and

Social Justice Fall 2018

Gilmore, Joanna ANTH social ANTH 319 ST

Exhibition Planning &

Design Fall 2018

Hall, Cynthia

and Hunter-

Doniger, Tracey TBD social TBD

Exploring

Environmental Issues

through Culture and

Art Spring 2019

Hall, Cynthia

and Hunter-

Doniger, Tracey TBD environmental TBD

Exploring

Environmental Issues

through Culture and

Art (study abroad to

Costa Rica)

Spring 2019--

Spring Break

Study Abroad

Jaume, Steve GEOL environmental GEOL 213 Natural Hazards Fall 2018

LeVasseur,

Todd RELS social HONS 381

Approaches to

Religion: Sacred Sites

and Sustainability Fall 2018

Nowlin, Matt POLI social POLI 307 Environmental Policy Spring 2019

Perrault, Elise MGMT, economic MGMT 350 Business, Leadership, Spring 2019

MKTG & Society

Pritchard, Seth BIOL environmental ENVT 200

Introduction to

Environmental and

Sustainability Studies

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Saunders,

Jennifer ENSS

environmental,

social,

economic ENVT 200

Introduction to

Environmental and

Sustainability Studies

Fall 2018, Spring

2019

Stiefel, Barry HPCP

social,

economic HPCP 222

Heritage Preservation

& Environmental

Conservation

Extended

Summer

Sotka, Carolyn

MGMT,

MKTG

social,

economic

POLI

319/ENVT 352

Environmental

Sustainability and

Policy: An

International

Comparison of Best

Practices,

Opportunities, and

Challenges Fall 2018

Turner, Laura

THTR,

DANC social THRE 712

Community and

Theatrical Classroom Spring 2019

Verlinden,

Marianne

HISP,

SPAN

social,

economic SPAN 390

ST: Sustainability and

Health in the Spanish-

speaking World Spring 2019

Watson, Annette POLI 

environmental,

social   POLI 397

Environmental

Geography Spring 2019

Welch, Allison BIOL

social,

economic,

environmental ENVT 200

Introduction to

Environmental and

Sustainability Studies Spring 2019

Wright, Jen HONS social

HONS 163:

Honors

Pyschology TBD Fall 2018

Wright, Jen PSYC

PSYC

315/ENVT 352

Psychology of Social

Change Summer II 2018

Hansen, David MGMT economic,

environmental

ENTR 407,

Ecopreneurship

business solutions to

environmental

Fall 2018

problems

Hansen, David MGMT

economic,

social

ENTR 406,

Social

Entreprenuershi

p

business solutions to

social problems Spring 2019

Mack, Rhonda MGMK

economic,

social

MKTG 329,

Consumer

Behavior

buyer behavoir and

sustainable business

practices Fall 2018

Sabater, Silvia

Rodriguez SPAN social

SOAN 313,

Spanish

Composition TBD Spring 2019

List of Approved SR/SF Learning Community Courses

Faculty Department Focus Course Section Title Semester Taught

Brian, Kristi ANTH social WGST 320

ST: Feminist

Jiujitsu Spring 2019

McGuigan, Pat HEAL social PEAC 120 TBD TDB

McManus,

Miranda BIOL environmental   BIOL 102

Concepts and

Applications in

Biology II Spring 2019

Brown, Ashley HEAL

environmental,

social

HEHP--PEAC

126 (?)

Introduction to

Coastal

Kayaking Spring 2019

Yvete Dede ARTS ARTS 119.07 Drawing 1 Fall 2018

Joey Van

Arnhem LIBR ARTS 220.07 Scultpure 1 Fall 2018