The Faculty Senate's Program for Engaging Ideas

The Faculty Senate promotes open deliberation and discussion on important issues of our time. We invite participation by all.

Bring It Home Cover
(2020-2021)
CIRCE: Select Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency

CIRCE:  The Faculty Senate Select Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency

Engagement with ideas of the moment lies at the heart of the Faculty Senate’s work.  This year, the critical matter of climate change comes to the forefront.  How can the various disciplines and forms of expertise at Penn, both within and without climate science, contribute to meeting the challenges of global warming?

Some initiatives have already gotten underway, and others will be introduced throughout the academic year.  To get involved, please write the Senate office.

FEATURED:

"How Penn Faculty and Staff Can Reduce their Carbon Footprint at Home"
Part of Penn Climate Week 2020
Friday, September 25, 2:00-3:00pm EDT

Faculty Senate's December 2019 CSAP Discussion
Linked are a list of questions submitted in advance.

"Careers Fighting Climate Change"
Thursday, December 5, 6:00-8:00pm
Huntsman Hall #350
Learn from speakers in diverse disciplines about how their sectors participate in creating a sustainable society

Penn Sustainability Course Inventory

Penn Arts & Sciences' "1.5 Minute Climate Lectures"
--Article on Lectures from The Daily Pennsylvanian

 

Centers at Penn whose work prominently focuses on Climate Change efforts include:

Local and regional initiatives include:

Your Big Idea Wellness
Enhancing Wellness at Penn (2018-2019)
Your Big Idea: Wellness

In response to a Your Big Idea crowdsourcing challenge, individuals from across the University submitted more than 400 ideas to enhance wellness at Penn.

Fourteen ideas were identified as finalists, and their creators "pitched" those ideas to the Penn community on Thursday, April 25, 2019.

Teach-In banner 2018
"The Production, Use, and Dissemination of Knowledge"
Teach-In 2018

Penn students, faculty, and staff, together with the greater Philadelphia community, convened 32 events across five days in March 2018 on "the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge." Events were free and open to the public at locations all around campus. This was Penn's first Teach-In since March 1969.  A follow-up event was held in April 2019 at the Free Library of Philadelphia.