Archive:

Student Evaluations of University Sustainability: Improving Student Involvement Through a Service-Learning Experience

By Adam Hepworth

Abstract: Universities are sustainability trailblazers, achieving a more sustainable future through research, community, and education. Critical to their pursuit of sustainability is ensuring that university stakeholders are supportive of university sustainability priorities. As a large stakeholder group, undergraduate students can exert a significant impact on sustainability priorities at the university and thus play a pivotal role in its sustainable development. However, research finds this group is often underutilized in university sustainable development. This paper accordingly examines opportunities to enhance student involvement in university sustainability. Over two research phases, the inquiry explores student evaluations of university sustainability initiatives through a classroom assignment and focus group interviews. Findings reveal that students’ perspectives of the university’s sustainability priorities do not align with what they feel is essential for the student experience. In the focus groups, students provide insight for how to create “buy-in” for university sustainability. The final phase of the inquiry applies the research findings in a service-learning consulting experience. Student teams work on a sustainability consulting project to implement suggestions for connecting university sustainability initiatives to the student experience. The service-learning consulting project allows students to apply their knowledge and skills to real sustainability challenges and, in turn, helps the university connect important sustainability initiatives to the student experience.

Continue Reading

Using Sustainability as a Framework for Marketing Curricula and Pedagogy

By Shikha Upadhyaya, Mine Üçok Hughes and H. Rika Houston

Abstract: As noted by a growing number of marketing scholars, the importance of educating marketing students on sustainability should be an important objective for marketing educators and business schools alike. The focus of sustainability-based marketing education is on the greater good of the environment and society, while adjusting internal and related external processes to sustainability principles. In this conceptual paper, we adopt a broadened definition of sustainability distinct from the narrow understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) adopted by the business world in general and make recommendations for using this broadened definition to reframe marketing curricula and pedagogy. We give specific examples of assignments and pedagogical approaches for four core marketing courses as well as four marketing electives. By doing so, we hope to foster a new marketing mindset and a new generation of marketing practitioners who embrace, internalize, and practice sustainability holistically.

Continue Reading