Assessment of Outcomes
We identified six specific goals in our 2016 Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) report.
The goals included:
- Continue to roll out BUS 4500: Business Ethics and Sustainability moving from one section to eight sections;
- Identify and provide resources for faculty to help integrate sustainability topics into their courses and to support sustainability research;
Dr. Norm Hawker, teaching the ethics and sustainability course
- Explore innovative opportunities to expose more faculty to sustainability initiatives;
- Collaborate with colleagues across the University to promote a culture that embraces sustainability;
- Continue to promote sustainability study abroad opportunities:
- Promote greater use of service-learning in the Haworth College of Business.
What have we accomplished these past two years?
WMU Faculty-Staff Sustainability Learning Community
A significant task was rolling out the required ethics and sustainability class to all our undergraduate students. Resources have not permitted eight sections per semester. Instead, one large auditorium section is taught each semester along with one small section, capped at 35, targeting students in our Lee Honors College. While teaching an auditorium class is not always desirable, it has allowed us to expose a maximum number of students to leading sustainability professionals from across the Midwestern U.S.
Two goals were aimed at accelerating the rate at which faculty learn how to integrate sustainability into their courses. We believe this is occurring, primarily driven by external forces. For example, the University has created new integrated curricula in freshwater studies and sustainable brewing. The college was asked to provide courses that would support these programs. In response, we now have dedicated classes in sustainability focused on operations, marketing, and accounting.
The Faculty-Staff Sustainability Learning Community continues to reach out to faculty by altering our programming. We have toured local companies who have implemented sustainable practices. We have had common book reads. Faculty have led workshops addressing sustainability topics across our academic departments. Through these tools we have attempted to create opportunities for faculty to consider possibilities of sustainability integration into the classes they teach.
Students on a sustainability focused study abroad trip
Regarding collaborations across the university, we have done an outstanding job continuing to link our sustainability initiatives with colleagues in other colleges. For example, we offer an interdisciplinary sustainability study abroad with WMU’s College of Health and Human Services discussed in this report’s principle 3.
The college has representation in WMU’s Signature Project. The University created WMU Signature for students to intentionally engage on campus and meaningfully reflect on their experiences. To celebrate students' co-curricular achievements, the University will officially recognize students who have successfully completed their WMU Signature by including a WMU Signature Designation on their academic transcripts and diploma. Students can choose from among a dozen signature pathways and one is sustainability. The college has provided leadership in the Sustainability Pathway and regularly offers opportunities for all WMU students to learn about, and engage in, sustainability. Read more about WMU Signature.
Students participating in service learning
Sustainability study abroad continues to have full support across the college and university. Since our last SIP, two sustainability trips were completed in December 2016 and 2017. Our enrollments have increased each year and we are projecting taking 25 more students in December 2018. In addition to increasing the frequency of trips (previously, the study abroad was offered every other year), we now split our two weeks in different regions of the country. This entails seeking out new corporate and NGO hosts, as well as partnership universities. In addition to the India trip that is solely focused on sustainability, other study abroad programs integrate aspects of sustainability into their itineraries. These have included a food marketing trip to Thailand and an advertising trip to the Dominican Republic.
Last, we are successfully meeting our service-learning goal. As described in section 1 and 2 , we have integrated service-learning into the auditorium section of BUS 4500. Indeed, the class is being used as the pilot “large section class” to use service-learning on a large scale at WMU. At 4,000 student contact hours per semester, this initiative is having an impact in the local community. Students have been involved in pre- and after-school elementary programs through the YMCA and Communities in Schools. They have conducted focus groups in neighborhood associations learning about community needs. They have been instrumental in helping area non-profits develop social media platforms. Students are clearly being given the opportunity to engage in experiential learning in the Haworth College of Business. In addition, service-learning is being offered creatively in a number of business classes, many of which are profiled in this report.