Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is continuing important and comprehensive work in sustainability by offering its first-ever faculty sustainability fellowship to Dr. Connie Frey-Spurlock, thereby advancing one of the chancellor’s global initiatives.
The associate professor selected to the three-year assignment has already incorporated sustainability into her life and her classroom. “I grow some of my own food, and I started raising chickens,” said Frey-Spurlock, associate professor and graduate program director in the department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies. “This summer, I taught “Humans and the Environment,” a sustainability course offered in my department.
“In the class, I gave my students an assignment to plan a day’s worth of meals with seasonal fruits and vegetables that are locally produced, and to minimize waste and cost. The exercise touches on all three components of sustainability – people, profits and planet. It requires a new and better way of thinking about things, but it can be done.”
The fellowship’s purpose, according to Kevin Adkins, SIUE sustainability officer, is to assist and support the integration of sustainability concepts and practices into SIUE teaching and scholarship.
“The administration’s role is to support these initiatives and practices,” said SIUE Chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe. “We anticipate positive results as our faculty and students put these initiatives into action.”
Frey-Spurlock said she first became interested in sustainability in 2008, when Adkins was a student in one of her classes. “His passion for sustainability reflected in his coursework, and led to my own study of sustainability,” the associate professor wrote in her fellowship application letter. “Since then, I have had opportunities to explore sustainability with students in and out of the classroom.”
The Fellow’s primary responsibilities, Adkins said, will be to increase awareness of sustainability among faculty, promote the inclusion of sustainability into SIUE’s curriculum, encourage original research in related fields and conduct scholarship in the area of sustainability. The Fellow receives funding for a one-course release per semester, a $4,000 summer stipend and a one-time $6,000 allotment for supplies, travel and other expenses related to sustainability research.
Frey-Spurlock plans to accomplish several objectives over the next few years, including:
• Develop a Mississippi Project website where workshop materials can be shared with others. The Mississippi Project is a workshop that is nationally recognized for its innovative approach to curricular change through the integration of sustainability into the classrooms.
• Develop an online sustainability literary assessment for students, faculty and staff.
• Offer assistance to SIUE faculty exploring and or implementing sustainability in their curriculum.
• Work closely with SIUE’s Sustainability Advisory Group (SAG) and Student Organization for Sustainability (SOS).
• Report on research and findings at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conferences.
“Sustainability is about a lifestyle and a quality of life,” Frey-Spurlock said. “My job as a Fellow will be to introduce this message more into the minds and hearts of the SIUE community.”
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi River’s rich bottom land and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 14,000.
Photo Information: Pictured is Dr. Connie Frey-Spurlock, photo courtesy Regina Junk