(Credit: Carnegie Mellon University)Carnegie Mellon University is conducting a review of its teaching, research and practices in terms of how they align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CMU says its “Voluntary University Review” is the first in the world, adding that it “sends a strong signal that universities are a critical partner” in achieving the SDGs.
To conduct the review, the university pulled together a team including students, professors and staff who reviewed published information about Carnegie Mellon’s activities, writes Inside Higher Ed. The review included 17 Zoom meetings, each organized around one of the SDGs. Initial findings will be supplemented by additional information provided by CMU community members over the 2020/2021 academic year.
The intention is for CMU’s Voluntary University Review to be “a framework for us to track what we are doing across the 17 Global Goals and where we might find opportunities to do more. We also hope that by issuing this VUR, we will spark action at other institutions of higher education to do the same.”
Carnegie Mellon calls the review a stepping stone. With the initial review complete, the university plans to work on enhancing its progress toward the SDGs by working within the CMU community as well as within the higher education community at large.
In September, 2019, CMU launched its Sustainability Initiative, which it says builds on its committed to enhancing its sustainability practices within the framework of theSDGs. One of the public commitments made in conjunction with the Sustainability Initiative was to conducting the Voluntary University Review and to publish the results in 2020.
