University Center Program Focus: Sustainability

The University of Maryland, College Park, in partnership with Morgan State University, has chosen to base its University Center program around the broad concept of Sustainability. Through sustainability the University Center will achieve its goals of

1. targeting distressed areas and identifying their key industries in which UC programs will be focused and

2. identifying, fostering, and promoting growth of the state economy through the resources at the University of Maryland and Morgan State, including basic and applied research, innovation/networking incubation, and educational tools.

3. [insert more goals of the UC]

In order to accomplish these goals, sustainability must be clearly defined so that goals can be shaped in a way that promotes this concept. Sustainability is therefore defined in three ways:

a. Environmental Sustainability: Promoting products and methods that utilize renewable, healthy, and efficient processes. These processes must also discourage negative environment impacts and have a long-lasting, positive impact throughout the region.

b. Economical Sustainability: Producing and retaining quality jobs which will create a sustainable base for further economic development. This portion of sustainability will also work toward developing strong networks and communications amongst community based corporations in order to further strengthen their relationships in a sustained way.

c. Programmatical Sustainability: Creating a program that, through the combined efforts of the networked partners, is sustainable for the long term. By looking to already established best practices to help create this framework, the UMD-MSU UC program will ultimately serve as a reference for future programs, not only throughout the region, but also across the country.