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Another FaCTS Mellon Project

INFUSING SUSTAINABILITY PEDOGAGY IN THE DILLARD UNIVERSITY GENERAL EDUCATION CORE

by Dr. Yolanda W. Page

Over the last ten years, Dillard University has quietly and deliberately become a part of the higher education sustainability movement. For example, the university is the only active campus in the United States that is a university partner in the Melton Foundation, an international academic and social organization whose purpose is to teach Melton Fellows to become global citizens, to improve understanding among culturally diverse populations and to make positive changes within the global society. An aspect of the Melton Fellows experience is they work on local aspects of global issues at their university and surrounding local community. Dillard University Fellows have worked on projects such as campus waste reduction and campus energy efficiency, which embrace sustainability ideology. A second example is in 2010 the university opened the Professional Schools and Sciences building which is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) registered and the hub of academic activity. And, in 2014, dining services implemented "Tray less Tuesday" and "Green to Go" programs to encourage faculty, staff and students to observe sustainable behavior when they dine.

Given the aforementioned activities, the obvious next step is for the university to consider sustainability from an academic perspective. Hence, this project will examine ways the university can infuse sustainability topics in the general education core curriculum.

Start date: Monday, March 30, 2015
Finish date: Sunday, May 1, 2016