Saint Louis University will establish a new Center for Sustainability after receiving a $5 million grant from the Alberici Foundation. The center will focus on environmental education, research and community outreach, along with operating a new master’s degree in sustainability that will begin fall 2010.

“I am really glad the University is looking for ways to be relevant with what we can teach students,” Vice President for Research Ray Tait said.

SLU is the first of 28 Jesuit Institutions in the nation to incorporate a Center for Sustainability. The Alberici Foundation is a supporting foundation of the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation, and it makes grants reflecting the charitable interests of the Alberici family and corporation.

“This [Center for Sustainability] puts SLU on the map,” Manoj Patankar, interim vice president for Frost Campus, said. “The Alberici Foundation was excited that this was an opportunity to strengthen our efforts and that it was aligned with their efforts to promote sustainability.”

The $5 million grant will go toward funding personnel for the center and research, and $1.5 million will go to the University’s endowment to support the center’s operations in the future. A national search will be conducted for an expert in the field of sustainability to direct the new center. An advisory board consisting of sustainable professional leaders from the University, local businesses and the community will be formed to offer insight and expertise for the center.

“This center is a very applied opportunity for SLU to stand out and answer some questions regarding sustainability,” Tim Keane, assistant professor of Management and Director of Emerson Ethics Center, said. “It connects very directly to our mission to others, and we believe we need to take a leadership role with sustainability. We can’t be passive anymore.”

According to a University press release, the mission of the center will be “to develop creative, collaborative solutions to pressing environmental challenges facing society today.”

Jimmy Meiners, president of the Environmental Task Force, is very hopeful for the mission set forth for the center and hopes that it will play a bigger role once the University acquires more sustainable resources.

“It will help us promote resources, which we don’t have right now,” Meiners said. “It would be cool if SLU was a leader in sustainability, and now with this new center, hopefully it will be a place where we can take our ideas.”

The center will be collaborating with the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Public Service, John Cook School of Business and Parks College of Engineering, Aviation & Technology to provide further education on sustainability.

“The center will cross traditional boundaries, uniting a multidisciplinary team of researchers, professors and students in a singular mission: making the world a better, more sustainable place,” SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J. said in a University press release.

The new master’s in sustainability will require a minimum of 35 credit hours and will incorporate core courses from across the colleges that will cover general sustainability topics. In the second year of the program, students pick a specific track within the individual disciplines, including business, engineering/technology and public policy/social work.

Potential candidates for the program will be graduate and qualified upper-level undergraduate students and professionals from various industry sectors interested in ways to incorporate sustainability in their specific fields. Tuition for the program will be $895 per credit hour.

“With millions of new sustainability-related jobs on the horizon, our innovative degree program couldn’t come at a more opportune time,” Patankar said in a University press release.