Academic entrepreneurship, in its
narrowest sense, involves the creation of new business
ventures by university and college faculty, administrators,
and students. More broadly, academic entrepreneurship
seeks to establish connections across disciplines, between
student and academic affairs, and between the campus
and community. It draws on the spirit of innovation,
creativity, and opportunity that animates entrepreneurial
activity in the business world to provide the richest
learning experience possible for students.
Academic entrepreneurship has been
part of Ithaca College's institutional DNA since its
founding in 1892 as a music conservatory. Ithaca, an
independent, predominantly undergraduate college of
6,400 students in the Finger Lakes region of New York,
offers a diverse curriculum in more than one hundred
degree programs in business, communications, health
sciences and human performance, humanities and sciences,
music, and interdisciplinary studies. The music program's
original emphasis on performance and hands-on learning
spread throughout the curriculum as the college grew,
influencing other programs in theater arts, physical
education, physical therapy, radio, and television.
As a founding member of Associated
New American Colleges, a national consortium of about
twenty small and mid-sized institutions, Ithaca is committed
to Ernest Boyer's vision of an undergraduate education
that combines liberal and professional learning with
a strong emphasis on experiential learning and civic
engagement. This marriage of pragmatism and idealism
equips Ithaca students with the ability to solve real-world
problems in ways that advance the college's core values:
intellect, character, creativity, community, and global
citizenship. The recent campus-wide sustainability initiative
is but the latest manifestation of Ithaca's distinctive
brand of undergraduate education.
What is sustainability? In 1987
the United Nation's Brundtland Report defined sustainability
as development that meets the "needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs." Sustainability acknowledges
the interdependence of society, the economy, and the
environment, and it encourages long-term, strategic
thinking that promotes effective stewardship of our
natural, social, and economic resources. The growing
global crisis in sustainability has led the United Nations
to declare 2005–2014 the Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development. This initiative seeks to raise
awareness about future challenges and how individual
and collective choices regarding the allocation of resources
affect the quality of life of people around the world.
Ithaca College has been exploring
and applying the concept of sustainability for several
years. Our sustainability initiative involves three
dimensions: the curriculum, college operations, and
community outreach. The framework supplied by sustainability
thinking--with its emphasis on interconnectedness, the
dynamic nature of complex systems, and the importance
of taking the long view--has much in common with the
strategic approach adopted by the college's institutional
plan. Indeed, the move towards sustainability has emerged
organically out of the priorities established by the
institutional plan.
One of the priorities, for example,
is to expand "field-based, experiential, and performance-based
learning." Specifically, the plan seeks to promote "student
engagement in and out of the classroom and . . . student
commitment to service and community involvement." In
pursuit of these goals, the environmental studies faculty
forged a unique collaboration in 2002 with EcoVillage
of Ithaca, an intentional community dedicated to modeling
innovative approaches to ecological, economic, and social
sustainability. The one-hundred-and-seventy-six acre
EcoVillage encompasses not only co-housing and an education
center but also habitat for land conservation and restoration
as well as organic agriculture.
Funded in part by the National
Science Foundation (NSF), the partnership between Ithaca
and EcoVillage seeks to advance undergraduate learning
in sustainability and encourage students to become involved
in science-based community ecological projects. In particular,
it has led to the development of four new interdisciplinary
courses in environmental studies. The NSF grant also
supported the incorporation of sustainability principles
across the curriculum, in such disciplines as recreation
management, philosophy, business administration, history,
health policy, and physics.
Heeding the institutional plan's
call "to foster an awareness of, appreciation of, and
respect for our physical environment," the college has
begun on several fronts to manage its campus in an environmentally
sensitive manner. The Resources and Environmental Management
Program, comprised of faculty, staff, and students,
has provided significant leadership, resulting in the
adoption of recycled paper for office copier and printer
use, a nationally recognized recycling and composting
program, collection and redistribution of reusable office
supplies, a "buy green, buy socially responsible program"
in the college's purchasing department, and the addition
of a hybrid car to the campus fleet.
The Natural Areas Stewardship Committee,
made up of faculty and operational managers, also plays
an important role in encouraging sustainable management.
The committee is developing a plan that will appropriately
balance the use of the college's land for academic research
and teaching with the need to generate revenue. An Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) grant recently awarded to Ithaca
undergraduates supports part of this effort. The grant
is facilitating research on ways to enhance the biodiversity
of South Hill, where the campus is located, and the
development of an interactive Web-based biodiversity
mapping program. In addition, students are working with
faculty to assess the feasibility of installing wind-power
generators on the hill overlooking the campus.
Perhaps the most dramatic symbol
of Ithaca's commitment to sustainable management is
the decision to build a new high-performance business
school facility. The building, when completed in 2008,
will house not just a school, but a way of thinking
and being that exemplifies ethical business practices,
an understanding of organizations as citizens in their
communities, and the responsible use of natural resources.
As the fundraising, planning, and design for the new
facility proceeds, a group of business faculty is exploring
how to integrate sustainability into the school's curriculum.
Under the umbrella of the Ithaca College Business Forum,
faculty are also developing collaborations with corporations
such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ernest & Julio
Gallo Wineries to study and facilitate the transfer
of knowledge both within and between organizations,
and to offer students and faculty opportunities for
internships and access to business leaders who have
adopted sustainability practices and policies.
Other outreach efforts have resulted
in the creation of Sustainable Tompkins, a regional
development initiative. Funded by Ithaca College, the
Park Foundation, Cornell University, and several area
businesses, Sustainable Tompkins launched a series of
study circles last spring on such topics as renewable
energy, sustainable design, and community well-being.
More informal gatherings, known as "Sustainability Salons,"
also occurred weekly in five coffeehouse locations around
the county. Students from Ithaca and Tompkins Cortland
Community College helped to organize and facilitate
both series.
Sustainable Tompkins project teams
are now working on a green-building resource hub, sustainable
land use and planning, alternative fuels and public
transit, and sustainable landscape design. Most recently,
in partnership with the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce,
Sustainable Tompkins mounted a very successful sustainable
technology showcase. Geared to the local business community,
this event highlighted the benefits of sustainable operating
practices and environmentally friendly products through
presentations and product exhibitions by two dozen firms.
Another important vehicle for outreach
on sustainability issues has been the Finger Lakes Environmental
Film Festival (FLEFF). Originally sponsored by Cornell,
FLEFF began in 1998. Ithaca College became a major venue
for FLEFF over the past few years, and has provided
increasingly significant funding. This past fall, for
the first time, Ithaca took on primary sponsorship.
The opening night of FLEFF at the Park School of Communications
attracted several hundred people from the campus and
community, and the festival was an unqualified hit.
Sustainability thinking and entrepreneurship,
then, have become inextricably linked at Ithaca College.
The institution's long history of innovation and pragmatism
has furnished a fertile seedbed for the growth of the
sustainability initiative, which in turn has helped
to facilitate the integration of liberal education and
professional studies, with a strong emphasis on civic
engagement. As a result, Ithaca is helping to forge
a unique approach to undergraduate learning, an approach
that represents the cutting edge of U.S. higher education
in the twenty-first century.
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