Academics is at the heart of the MCC mission. The world around us is changing as individuals, organizations and cities work to change systems and processes to make them less harmful to the environment and humans. At MCC, our goal is to increase education on sustainability issues so that our students are prepared and equipped to tackle the sustainability challenges of today and the future.
Explore Programs
A course inventory is completed every two to three years for the AASHE STARS report to gather information on how many of the MCC credit classes contain sustainability. The 2021 report showed that 8% of credit classes contain sustainability, the same percentage as in 2018.
This section of the sustainability report focuses on credit classes. MCC also offers a number of noncredit sustainability classes throughout the year, which can be found in the Community Education program.
There are seven credits as a part of the Academics section of the STARS report, which is the majority of the STAR potential credits.
2022 Action Plan
MCC is working on the following actions for 2022 Academics:
- Host a webinar for faculty on sustainability in the curriculum
- Host a summer curriculum series in the summer for faculty
- Distribute one sustainability literacy assessment
| STARS Credit | Summary | Potential points |
|---|---|---|
| Academic Courses |
|
14.0 |
| Learning Outcomes |
|
8.0 |
| Undergrad Program | Institution have formal undergraduate-level degree programs focused on sustainability | 3.0 |
| Immersive Experience | Institution offers sustainability-focused immersive experience programs. Ex. internships, study abroad | 2.0 |
| Sustainability Literacy Assessment |
|
4.0 |
| Incentives for Developing Courses | Ongoing program(s) that offer incentives to academic staff in multiple disciplines to develop new sustainability courses and/or incorporate sustainability to increase student learning of sustainability. | 2.0 |
| Campus as a Living Laboratory | Institution utilizes infrastructure and operations as living environments for multidisciplinary learning and applied research that advances sustainability on campus. | 4.0 |
Faculty
Before diving into adding sustainability to your course, we highly recommend reading this short resource from Vanderbilt University. It is full of information to consider and help guide how to include sustainability into your classroom.
Sustainability education is on the rise and there are an abundance of resources available to incorporate sustainability learning in the classroom.
MCC Resources
- Recorded webinars are a simple way to integrate sustainability in the classroom. See the Sustainability Leadership Presentation Series and the Claire. M. Hubbard page for recorded presentations.
- Guest speakers: Contact the Coordinator of Sustainable Practices at sustainability@mccneb.edu if you are looking for a local speaker for one of your classes.
Other resources:
- The Sustainable Development Goals Academy: has high-quality resources for a variety of subjects. The U.N. Sustainable Development goals can be used as a framework for education in a variety of topics.
- The NOAA website offers a wide variety of resources on a number of sustainability issues
- Dallas College has compiled sustainability teaching topics and associated resources
- Student lessons from the United Nations on the 2030 Sustainability Development Goals.
- Project Sharp from Ithaca College. A free account opens up access to lessons plans on a wide-variety of sustainability issues.
Not seeing what you need? Contact the Coordinator of Sustainable Practices for more resources and support at sustainability@mccneb.edu or the MCC curriculum and instruction team.