Jessica Nicholson, one of the authors of ISG Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement Resolution, sent the following updates on 5/12/21:

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Good Morning,

I hope you all are well. Thank you all for expressing interest in the resolution to create a Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement. Towards the beginning of the semester, I shared this resolution with each of you and most of you let me know that you would like to stay updated on the status of the resolution. Many of you have endorsed this resolution as faculty members, sponsored as members of ISG or UC senate, or provided additional support and guidance. That being said, I appreciate all of your support and involvement.

I have a few updates on the progress of our resolution and I want to invite you all to participate in a working group that will draft a formal proposal based on our original resolution. The purpose of this proposal is explained below, so please read through and fill out the attached form if you are interested in being involved. Feel free to share this message and this form with anyone else who you think may be interested as well.

Sustainability Gen-Ed Proposal Working Group Interest Form: https://forms.gle/dfKfTKwaocMpKovi8 

We have added some supporting materials to the appendix of our original Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement resolution, so the updated resolution is attached below for your reference. I also recently gave a brief informational presentation to the UC senate about our initiative. This presentation contains some valuable information about our next steps and plan to write a proposal, so I have attached the slides for your reference if you want to take a look.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rMDHj0NpwaJR8TSPg7o9WsONWnnXDGEoEvWIFHwvXK4/edit?usp=sharing

ISG Senators Dana, Creen, Tyeese and I have consulted with iSEE, the Gen-Ed Board, and the Educational Policy and Senate Executive Committees of the UC Senate to determine how best to bring our Sustainability Gen-Ed resolution to the UC senate floor as a binding piece of legislation. Based on input from all of these groups, we have decided to draft a formal proposal that adds critical information to our original resolution.

Unlike our original resolution, this proposal will contain sections that detail steps the University must take to implement the Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement. Our proposal will include logistical considerations such as resource reallocation to courses that fulfill the requirement and the needs of each academic unit. These additional sections should minimize confusion and concerns over the implementability of our Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement. In order to write these sections into our full proposal, we need to meet with each academic unit to understand their specific needs and determine how this requirement should be implemented within their unit. We also need to determine factors such as current capacity, estimated seat demand, and additional seats needed among courses that fulfill the Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement.

These considerations are critical for a new Gen-Ed requirement, so they will be the main focus of our working group when we write the proposal. We welcome you all to join our working group, and we particularly value any experience you can share regarding course logistics to help with the considerations above. Please fill out the form above if you want to get involved in our working group or are interested. Let me know if you have any questions or comments, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you!

Jessica

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Jessica J Nicholson

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Class of 2022

College of Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Illinois Student Government | Engineering Senator, Chair of Internal Affairs

Illini Rotaract Service Organization | District Rotaract Representative