The main portion of this tip is brought to you by Dr. Mark Stemen, from Geography and Planning.
Over Spring 2022, 65 CSU faculty redesigned over 75 courses to include greater engagement of climate change and resilience, immediately affecting the education of thousands of students across the CSU the following year, including over 900 students on our campus alone.
The CSU Teaching Climate Change & Resilience (TCCR) Faculty Learning Community (FLC) was first offered in Spring 2022 through the Office of Faculty Development.
Since then, the FLC has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and has received the Campus Sustainability Achievement Award by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), and most recently received recognition from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
In Spring 2024 the FLC will be offered again, with the support of Chico State’s Office of the President, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, and the Office of the Chancellor’s Innovative Teaching & Learning Programs. The FLC will be open to all 23 CSU campuses and aligns with the California State University Sustainability Policy, which “is intended to position the nation’s largest university system as a leader in the teaching and use of applied research to educate climate literate students.”
This FLC is designed with busy and burdened faculty in mind. The five sessions are only 90 minutes long, and each will help faculty step by step to easily incorporate climate change and resilience into a course they teach. Our goal is to connect faculty with a broad range of approaches and ideas, as well as resources that are well-researched, relevant, and relatable to their discipline; lots of resources.
The five Zoom sessions on Tuesdays from 9:00-10:30 a.m.
This FLC also offers the rare opportunity to connect with colleagues across the system. The FLC will be entirely over Zoom, allowing us to organize breakout rooms based on discipline. We found when we used disciplinary breakout rooms, the sessions became more productive and transformative for faculty. As one participant remarked, “It felt like the department I always wanted. Everyone believed in climate change and they all wanted to help.”
The FLC application is due by December 15, 2023. All faculty are welcome to apply.
Additionally, we in FDEV want to point you toward a timely NCFDD resource. Many faculty have been personally impacted by the tragic situation in Israel and Gaza. In addition, many faculty are encountering conversations about this situation in the classroom. In 2020 Dr. Chavella Pittman was featured in a webinar on Preparing for Difficult or Controversial Conversations as part of their Empowered Teaching Toolkit. You have to sign up for NCFDD (which you have free access to for this year), but once you do you will have access to an incredible catalog of useful resources for your classroom and professional development.
Zach Justus
Interim Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150
