The Office of Sustainability Initiatives invites all faculty to the Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) open house and happy hour.  Stop by to learn about opportunities to integrate city-identified sustainability projects into courses in the upcoming 2017-2018 academic year.  Faculty from all disciplines are invited to participate. Happy hour refreshments provided. 

Our 2017-2018 SCP partners are:

• City of Big Lake;
• Freshwater Society's projects with cities and watershed districts;
• Metropolitan Council;
• Mississippi Watershed Management Organization; and
• PLACE, a non-profit organization that collaborates with cities to design and build sustainable, affordable, mixed-use, and transit-orientated developments.

In addition, we are partnering on campus projects with the University of St. Thomas Department of Biology's Greenhouses.

What is SCP?  SCP develops multi-year partnerships with cities and government entities to integrate a set of city-identified sustainability projects into existing St. Thomas courses across disciplines. Our partnerships seek to catalyze systems-level change towards sustainability in the Twin Cities area and prepare students for the complexities of contemporary society by engaging students in real-world problem-solving to advance our partner cities' sustainability goals.

How are projects linked with courses?  SCP facilitates the integration of projects into existing courses.  If you are interested in a project, contact Dr. Maria Dahmus. SCP will facilitate a project scoping meeting with you and our partner to further define the project and ensure that it is a good fit for your course.  A good project match enriches your course's learning objectives through real-world application of course content, is at a level and scale appropriate for your course and time constraints, is logistically feasible, and advances our partner's sustainability goals.  Projects can be of various scopes and scales depending on your course; they can range from a short application unit to a semester-long endeavor.  SCP also provides curricular and logistical support throughout the project.  Since our launch in Spring 2016, SCP has collaborated with partners and St. Thomas faculty on 40 projects across 37 courses and 18 disciplines.

Learn more!  Read about our partners, the project scoping process, current and past projects, and watch project films.  Please contact Dr. Maria Dahmus if you have questions or would like more information about SCP.

“SCP has been essential in showing how our education ties in with the UST mission. This project has allowed us to analyze real-world data, collaborate with classmates, and present solutions to problems that affect real communities. We are applying skills we have cultivated in the classroom to projects that advance the common good.”  Anna Kate '17, Economics Major