Congratulations to Dr. Fariborz Tehrani (Civil and Geomatics Engineering Department) for receiving the "Best Practice" Award for Sustainability in Academics: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math at the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference.

Dr. Tehrani was recognized for the implementation of sustainability in "Engineering Literacy and Pedagogy" class for liberal studies majors with STEM concentration. The three-unit combined laboratory and lecture course fills a need for improved science learning experience for future elementary teachers using sustainability.

In this course, students experience the development of an engineering project from inception to deployment in order to gain a critical understanding of how engineering solutions work across multidisciplinary constraints.

As of 2017, the first class of 40 college students has completed this course and began to implement sustainability into their K-6 classrooms.

Dr. Andrew Fiala (Philosophy Department) has been recognized by the American Philosophical Association for his weekly Fresno Bee column published June 3, 2016, “Without faith in humanity, cynicism grows and democracy becomes mob-rule.”

Dr. Fiala is director of the Ethics Center and chair of the Philosophy Department. He was one of five essayists recognized by the association in its 2017 awards.