TO:          All Members of the Academic Senate and Unit 18 Lecturers

FROM:    Academic Senate Sustainability Work Group

Re:           Faculty Sustainability and/or Climate Action Champion Award

 

We are pleased to announce the 2017-2018 Faculty Sustainability and/or Climate Action Champion call for proposals.  The purpose of the Sustainability/Climate Action Champion award is to highlight and support the work of faculty whose scholarship demonstrates a commitment to sustainability and/or climate action.  The award may be used to fund graduate and/or undergraduate assistantships and institutional opportunities that will allow the selected Champion to build upon his or her area of scholarship, to educate the campus and community about the significance of that work, and to explore its application to advancing sustainability/climate action at levels spanning from the campus to the planet.

The selected champion will be expected to work at the campus, community, state, national, and/or global level in addressing sustainability and/or climate action and to present their work to the campus by either developing and providing a seminar on the Champion’s area of expertise and its potential applications to issues of sustainability/climate change, or by infusing sustainability/climate change into an existing course,  and by giving a public lecture at the end of the Championship tenure to discuss their work and activities as Champion.

Each Champion will be awarded $25,000 for support in meeting the goals listed above.

Academic Senate faculty and Unit 18 members are eligible to apply. Interested faculty are invited to submit a program plan as Climate Action Champion and a Curriculum Vitae to the Academic Senate Work Group on Sustainability.  The program plan should be 5-8 single space pages and include:

  • Biography of the proposed Champion highlighting their past leadership efforts in sustainability / climate action.
  • Plan for engagement of the campus community including students, staff, and faculty.
  • Plan for engagement of off-campus stakeholders including local community members (such as climate, social justice, and environmental organizations), non-profit leaders, government agencies, and/or business leaders.
  • Research plan that will have broad interdisciplinary scope and applications and will give the Champion an opportunity to pursue a new direction in scholarship or a new project in their area of expertise.
  • Description of teaching or other curricular innovations such as a seminar (targeted towards undergraduate and/or graduate students), proposed new course or set of courses, and/or significant infusion of climate action into an existing course or courses.
  • Description of how his or her activities would be influenced by being selected as a Champion.
  • Plan for a public talk towards the end of the tenure.

At the end of the Champion’s tenure, the committee will compare the expected activities listed in this plan with the final report to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, so it is important that these plans are practical in describing what can be accomplished.

The tenure of the selected sustainability/climate action champion will commence in Summer 2018 (though most activities are likely to begin in Fall 2018 or later in the year) through the end of Summer 2019. A public talk should be planned for the Spring of 2019. Any costs associated with the public talk would come from the $25,000 award.

Proposals received on or before February 16th, 2018 will receive full consideration.  Please submit proposals to Katie Maynard, kmaynard@geog.ucsb.edu.  For questions, please contact Katie at 805-448-5111 or via email.

Further requirements and guidelines:

Awarded funds must be spent according to UC and State of California guidelines.  Additional restrictions include that the funding must be spent within the time of the Champion’s tenure and that funds must be spent on materials directly applicable to activities as Champion and cannot be spent on general purpose equipment or any form of overhead.  Champions will be expected to submit an interim report on December 14th, 2018 and a final report by September 13th, 2019. The interim report should include a description of the Champion’s accomplishments to date.  The interim report does not need to include an update on expenditures.  The final report should include a description of accomplishments and a summary of expenditures. The Champion must return any unspent dollars October 1st, 2019.