SUBJECT:

Environment and Sustainability Website

Last year UCSD established an Advisory Committee on Sustainability with faculty, staff, and student representation, reporting to the Associate Vice Chancellor-Academic Planning and Resources, and the Vice Chancellor-Business Affairs. This group has overseen the development of a web site to consolidate information about education, research, and our campus environment. The web site provides access to courses, student groups, faculty, and other campus programs and activities related to the environment and sustainability. It also includes a place for news and a calendar of events related to sustainability and environment at UCSD. Please visit the web site at http://sustain.ucsd.edu for more information or choose the Environment and Sustainability "Quick Link" off the home page at UCSD.edu.

In addition, in June 2005, I had asked Charlie Kennel, Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, to lead the development of a campus-wide initiative in environment and sustainability. The initiative takes into account UCSD's unique strengths, integrating information technology across all academic disciplines to contribute to practical, economically desirable, and environmentally sustainable solutions. As part of this initiative, an Environment and Sustainability Steering Committee will be formed to guide the campus in creating a meaningful interdisciplinary program including teaching, research, and external partnership efforts, bringing together the strengths of UCSD to contribute to sustainability solutions. The faculty steering committee will be chaired by Charlie Kennel and report to the Vice Chancellor for Research. Integrating the work of UCSD's biological, physical, and environmental sciences and technology with basic and applied research in the social sciences, humanities, and management is essential to developing practical approaches to the challenge of sustainability - one of the key issues facing world civilization in the 21st century.

As new research, teaching, and partnership activities develop under the auspices of the campus-wide initiative, information will be available through this new campus-wide web site.

Marye Anne Fox Chancellor