Goal 5 - Ecological Education

Hanley Sustainability Institute: Extends the University's sustainability efforts campus-wide and into this community. Our distinctive, highly integrated approach prepares students to meet the growing demand for sustainability skills in the workplace. Leveraging existing programs, degrees and courses, such as the Environmental Biology and Geology degrees, the master’s degree in Renewable and Clean Energy Engineering, and an undergraduate minor in Sustainability, Energy and Environment (SEE), the Institute is making enormous strides to become a leader in sustainability education. Over the last two years, HSI has developed a cross-disciplinary network of innovative people and projects, stimulating and supporting dynamic collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Education and Health Sciences, School of Business Administration, the University of Dayton Research Institute, and within the community.

The Sustainability Program at the University of Dayton provides students an understanding and appreciation of the interdisciplinary aspects of sustainability, energy, and the environment. The goal of the program is to equip students with tools to implement sustainability in their careers. The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees are designed to be part of a double major. Students eyeing environmental protection careers could double major in environmental biology and sustainability. A double major in history or sociology and sustainability could suit future urban planners. Students pursuing nonprofit careers, especially combatting food deserts, could benefit from a philosophy-sustainability double major. Sustainability majors will be marketable for engineering, architecture, agriculture, data analysis, education, facilities management, and public administration, among others.

The Sustainability Program is a multidisciplinary effort to encourage students to explore complex societal sustainability issues that do not fit easily into one traditional academic discipline. The genesis of this program lies in the realization that a scientific and technical knowledge of environmental, ecological, and energy system challenges will not be sufficient to develop viable answers. Many disciplines at the University make contributions to these issues, ranging from ethical, spiritual, and artistic, to economic, political, and sociological approaches. Students will take interdisciplinary courses and will participate in interdisciplinary research.

ETHOS provides students with community-based, solutions-focused, applied learning experiences that address technical sustainability and accessibility challenges on campus, in the greater Dayton community, in the U.S., and abroad. The program serves approximately sixty students annually within the School of Engineering. The immersion program places students with community organizations to co-develop innovative sociotechnical solutions that address sustainability challenges such as environmental justice, food insecurity, global inequality, water stewardship, and climate change. Students collaborate with a hyper-local organization on community-identified needs and aspirations. Their design and implementation work is guided by equity-centered design, principles of just and sustainable technology, cultural humility, and reciprocal partnerships. To assess the success of the projects, ETHOS students develop final presentations, final technical reports, and weekly photo reflections which are assessed based on academic, civic, intercultural, vocational, and personal transformation student learning outcomes. The presentations and reports are currently archived in an internal ETHOS database.

The Sustainability, Energy & the Environment ILLC is for students of any major. Students are invited to think critically about the myriad approaches to sustainability, energy, and the environment by integrating material from several different disciplines throughout two semesters. Humanities Commons courses will share readings and attend events together, and students and faculty in all the courses will interact and integrate activities. The first-year seminar features guest lecturers from across the University and includes community leaders, giving students the opportunity to explore sustainability, energy, and environmental themes from different points of view and to contribute student's own ideas through projects and student-initiated events. The SEE ILLC is part of UD’s Sustainability, Energy & the Environment Initiative for first year students. The program spans the entire academic year.

Incentives for developing courses in Sustainability: In 2018 and 2019, the Sustainability Studies Program regularly convened a group of faculty across the university to support development of UD’s sustainability curriculum. Participants included faculty from multiple disciplines. As a result of these working groups, sustainability faculty and faculty from related disciplines finalized course offerings for the Sustainability Studies Program, incorporated more components of experiential learning in partnership with local community organizations, and developed assessment criteria for program learning outcomes. Several new courses were developed and approved, including SEE 280: Sustainable Communities; SEE 310: Sustainability Scenarios; SEE 325: Sustainable Development Goals, which were all offered in 2020/2021.

The University of Dayton sponsors the annual Stander Symposium recognizing and celebrating academic excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, including multidisciplinary, sustainability-focused research and student projects. This annual event provides an opportunity for students from all disciplines to showcase their intellectual and artistic accomplishments. This event offers a forum for students to present their work to the university and Dayton communities. The 2019 Stander Symposium included dozens of papers and presentations on all seventeen of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals with research coming from students with a variety of majors. One highlight was a partnership of graphic design students crafting supporting signage for UD’s Solar Prairie. The 2020 Symposium and celebration of Earth Day 50 included student research and work on many sustainability themes such as the University of Dayton River Stewards’ 2020 senior capstone project to create a children’s book about the Great Miami Watershed. ‘Into the River’ included drawings, writings, and ideas from local children about how they think of the river. Another presentation was about how the Mission of Mary Cooperative became Dayton’s first net-zero energy organization. The 2021 Symposium included in-person and virtual sessions about many sustainability-related topics such as the tie between religion and approaches to climate change, the adaptation of a youth nutrition and cooking-skill program to a virtual, online format and an exploration of living wages in Dayton. The University of Dayton’s Hanley Sustainability Institute also supports graduate assistants in sustainability research, offering a stipend and tuition waiver. New in Fall 2021 is the graduate fellowship program as four graduate students will complete mentor-guided research with faculty in a one-on-one setting. HSI also supported undergraduates’ work which has resulted in theses and peer-reviewed publications, engagement programs on campus and in the community, and mentoring for undergraduate students. HSI supported three students doing summer research in 2021. UD plans to launch the Sustainability Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, which will include transdisciplinary work which will enhance undergraduate experiences in sustainability and catalyze transdisciplinary research and scholarship."

The University of Dayton is home to more than one hundred faculty members and researchers with scholarly interests in sustainability. The Sustainability Scholars network brings these scholars together to learn about and celebrate one another's work. The initiative seeks to foster new collaborations to understand and respond to humanity's grand challenges in sustainability in ways that are only possible by building bridges between traditional disciplinary departments.

The Urban Farming Plunge is a day-long dive into the local food movement in Dayton. Participants will look at the benefits and challenges to growing local food through visits to a few urban farms, gardens, markets and discussions with the farmers themselves. Plungers will also get their hands dirty by helping out with needed tasks. Meals on this plunge will include the fruits of local labors. Discussion and reflection on food justice, distribution, and the environmental impact of growing and shipping food will provide plungers with a starting point to act toward a more just system and to re-evaluate their own food choices.

Through Dayton Law's partnership with the Hanley Sustainability Institute (HSI), students gain an understanding of the legal issues surrounding climate change and sustainability, while putting that understanding into real-life practice. Students in the Dayton Law-HSI Collaborative pursue a concentration in Law and Sustainability by combining law courses in subjects such as administrative and environmental law with HSI classes in sustainability studies. Applying their classroom knowledge, students advance to solving problems presented in externship and summer environmental law fellowships.