While the international community has a direct responsibility towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as outlined in the?, stakeholders such as institutions of higher education are also called to implement such Goals. to measure progress at the country level, aimed at enhancing decision-making and the development of more robust sustainable policies, have been showcased annually during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Along those lines, though, voluntary reviews by universities and colleges are far less common. This is, however, the case of the?, a UNAI member institution in the United States that, in compliance with the UNAI principle of promoting sustainability through higher education and building on the experience of the mechanisms referred to above, released in September this year its first campus?, becoming one of the first tertiary education entities in doing so.
UC Davis looked to document contributions to the SDGs, connect individuals and projects to facilitate collaborations, build a community of practice on the SDGs, and catalyze new and transformative actions. “The SDGs provide us with a globally-recognized framework and common language for collaboratively addressing global challenges,” said Joanna Regulska, Vice Provost and Dean of Global Affairs at the university. “Universities are a critical part in building global and local partnerships to address planetary challenges,” she added.
The UC Davis VUR builds on several years of increasing involvement in and a strong commitment to the Goals seen on campus. The SDGs resonate with UC Davis’ role as a public, land grant university and align with its strategic vision, plans, and priorities. According to the institution, increasingly, faculty are seeking to connect their teaching and research to the SDGs, and students are looking for real opportunities to take meaningful action to adequately address a wide range of global challenges.?
“The intrinsic connections between all SDGs give them galvanizing power. Given the recent campus sustainability assessment in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System or STARS -a program of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education-, we wanted to further assess UC Davis expertise and experience with the SDGs through a voluntary review, to stimulate more collaborative and interconnected campus efforts,” commented Camille Kirk, Director of Sustainability.
The process has been led by a partnership of three units at UC Davis that bring their expertise to the SDG efforts on campus and beyond: Global Affairs, Sustainability, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This collaboration builds on two years of close partnership in supporting SDG engagement, including co-hosting a series of forums to facilitate a community of practice and co-funding grants for advancing the SDGs to support faculty efforts, and conference grants for the SDGs, open to faculty, staff and students.?
The VUR highlights UC Davis research, teaching, and learning, service, and operations activities that contribute to all 17 SDGs. The VUR includes input from faculty, researchers, scholars, staff, students, centers, institutes, and other campus units, as well as student clubs and organizations. The input provided by the UC Davis community will be used to design new opportunities for engagement and action. The information for the VUR was collected from a mixture of online surveys, forums on the SDGs, and informal conversations.
The team also did substantial desk research and targeted outreach to all schools and colleges as well as centers and institutes at UC Davis. In addition to this, two Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows with expertise in the SDGs conducted an assessment of over 2,600 courses for the VUR. “We are looking forward to highlighting our campus strengths and to elevating the growing diversity of people contributing to those strengths. Such attention can lead to a more equitable future for all,” explained Renetta Garrison Tull, Vice-Chancellor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.?