The Sustainable Learning Community: One University’s Journey to the Future

4: Creating the Intellectual Basis for Sustainability: Research and Scholarship

Research and scholarship on university campuses result more from the interests , experiences, and abilities of the faculty than from university policies. The questions and ideas that faculty choose to pursue are less subject to overall university guidance than issues of the curriculum, operations, or even engagement . More contact and interaction with faculty at other campuses and institutions tends to occur in areas of scholarship than the other three CORE activities. How then does sustainability-related inquiry happen on campuses and how can research support the goal of campus sustainability? The research portfolio of a university is perhaps the most valid expression of the research interests, abilities, and passions of the faculty. Conversely, the intensity of activity generated by focused research programs, through engagement of faculty , staff, and students, helps to generate a campus culture that emphasizes those areas where research is most active. However, it is certainly the case that universities can encourage or inhibit faculty initiative by creating, or failing to create, supportive administrative structures and budget models. University Strengths The University of New Hampshire has a long history in environmentally oriented research. Initiatives undertaken reflect both the coastal location of c h a p t e r 4 Creating the Intellectual Basis for Sustainability Research and Scholarship John Aber and Cameron Wake photo: Students are engaged actively in research across campus. These students are part of the CREAM program described in the Food and Society sections of this chapter and chapter 2. Photo courtesy of UNH Photographic Services. 154 the sustainable lear ning community the campus and national trends in environmental research, as well as a solid national standing in environmental research in general. For example, the Institute for Scientific Information recently ranked universities in terms of publication impact in different fields by measuring the frequency with which publications of university faculty were cited by their peers. By this metric, UNH was ranked among the top five universities in the country in both Geosciences , and Ecology and Environmental Science. No other university was present in the top five in both lists. UNH is also heavily focused in environmental areas in terms of externally funded research. Over the last ten years, well more than half of total grant funding was in the area of environmental sciences, defined broadly to include terrestrial, atmospheric, aquatic, and marine environments. Few institutions would list NASA and NOAA as their two largest sources of external research funds. UNH also has been represented in several national and international study groups aimed at defining either the future course of environmental research or the application of knowledge to policy. UNH faculty have held leadership roles in the Millennium Study, the first national and sector-based environmental assessment, and policy-setting studies on the future of global research for both NASA and NOAA. These efforts extend to emerging or nontraditional areas as well, such as organic dairy culture, open ocean aquaculture, and to policy and educational efforts, as outlined in the sections that follow. Unique Characteristics While UNH has clear strengths in environmental and sustainability research, many other universities could claim this distinction as well. Are there characteristics of this type of research that are unique to UNH, or that represent best-practice approaches to increasing the impact of the work that is done, in terms of application to sustainability? What lessons might there be here for the broader university community? Universities express their goals and aspirations in part by the structures and organizations established to lead the university forward. UNH has made accelerating commitments in research on sustainability and the environment over several decades. These include the second-oldest Hydrology program in the country, and a university-wide Marine Program established and first funded in 1973. More recently, UNH established its first University Institute in 2006, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (see the section on Climate and Energy in this chapter), which houses several major envi- Creating the Intellectual Basis for Sustainability: Research & Scholarship 155 ronmental research initiatives. A university-wide Ph.D. program in Natural Resources and Earth System Science, formed in 1989 on the basis of faculty enthusiasm, has become the largest doctoral program on campus, and spans the disciplines from biogeochemistry and remote sensing to environmental policy and ethics (see the Climate and Energy section in chapter 2). The most direct institutional statement in support of sustainability-related programs was the formation of the nation’s first...