Sustainability in the Global Community

Description - Most environmental questions are not limited to national boundaries or regions, and consequently, students, faculty and staff should view these matters in broader dimensions if they are to be fully understood. ACS institutions have the interest, talent and expertise to address global environmental issues in an interdisciplinary fashion, linking the international experience to the experience on campus. For these reasons, the Alliance for Sustainability in the Global Community (GC) focused on broad environmental issues and problems that transcend national boundaries.

Foundation - Results from a survey by the ACS Global Partners Program indicated in 2001 that, on average, 37% of the graduating class at each ACS institution had participated in a travel abroad experience, with the figure running up to 60% at some institutions. Some 86 international programs were offered by the 16 institutions at that time. Of those, 10 had major and 8 had minor environmental components. These factors made it clear that Global Citizenship was already an institutional commitment that could and should be mined by the ACS Environmental Initiative. In addition to the individual institutional programs, ACS developed 19 overseas opportunities for students, and collaborated with 2 other consortia to create 3 overseas study centers in Turkey, East Africa and Central Europe.

Global environmental citizenship was an active area of the original Environmental Program since its inception. After 1997, several programs emerged (for more information about these programs, please go to http://www.colleges.org/enviro/workshops/summer.html):

• Sustainable Development in Costa Rica (University of the South and Rollins College) - At a total cost of $80,500, this program finished its fifth year involving a dozen faculty from 7 ACS institutions, 2 faculty from the Universidad de Costa Rica, and 73 students.
  
  
• Living in the Yucatan (Millsaps College) - Supported by six different non-governmental organizations (NGOs), this program developed educational and research-centered relationships with the Universidad de Yucatan and Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. In its third year, through ACS support, this program grew from one institution in 1999 to 5 in 2000. For those years, the program involved 6 ACS faculty, 3 non-ACS faculty, and 58 students at a cost of $71,000.
  
  
• Appropriate Water Purification Technology for Rural Communities: The Dominican Republic (Rollins College) - In its second year, $25,000 was expended to support 3 faculty from Rollins college and 7 students from Rollins College, Emory University and the University of Virginia Medical School. As a result, 1500 water filter units were distributed in 33 Dominican communities, and the program was institutionalized as part of the Sustainable Development Minor at Rollins College.

Program Areas - The Sustainability in the Global Community Alliance continued its summer programming and expanded its influence by tapping into the wealth of international programming already established throughout the consortium. It offered valuable study abroad opportunities, joint international conferences and new experiential opportunities for students. Specific program features included:

• Summer Programs - The GC Alliance initially supported 4 international programs that immersed students in complex, real-world settings; related research to real-world concerns; and sought to inform the development of sustainable alternatives in a global setting. Funds were distributed as scholarships to students to supplement the costs of program participation and were gradually reduced as the Alliance developed mechanisms to institutionalize the programs.
  
  
• Global Environmental Conferences - The majority of study abroad experiences are multidisciplinary programs that emphasize language, culture, literature, history, art and religion. The GC Alliance worked closely with international shareholders (that is, coordinators of international programs, the ACS Global Partners Program and Faculty sponsors) to develop environmentally-based academic modules that were integrated into the existing framework of international programming. To this end, a Global Environmental Conference was held in spring 2002, which brought together faculty and staff with vested interests in international programming, to develop an environmental lens for each international program.
  
  
• Global Participation Surveys - GC devised and administered instruments to collect data on all aspects of activities pertinent to the Sustainability in the Global Community Alliance. These surveys provided a means to gauge interest in program features, measure participation in Alliance initiatives and measure progress in world citizenship.