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Surveying a campus community about sexual harassment can be a daunting task during normal times. It’s especially daunting during a pandemic. Institutional leaders may balk at committing scarce resources to survey efforts. Some may wonder how to interpret results that look dramatically different from prior assessments. Also, they may worry about adding to the burdens of already stressed staff, faculty, and students. Indeed, these concerns and complexities came up recently within the work of the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education (1). This Action Collaborative grew out of the 2018 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) consensus study report on sexual harassment in academic science, engineering, and medicine (2). Over 60 academic and research institutions and key stakeholders sought to work together to identify, develop, implement, and evaluate ways of preventing and addressing sexual harassment in higher education. Action Collaboratives are a relatively new type of activity at the National Academies [others include Clinician Well-Being and Resilience (3) and Countering the US Opioid Epidemic (4)]. Building on the National Academies’ long history of convening stakeholders and gathering research to inform decision makers and the public, Action Collaboratives provide a space for organizations and individuals to exchange information, ideas, and strategies around topics of mutual interest and concern, create new and innovative solutions, and take collective action. When COVID-19 disrupted plans for learning and work in higher education, representatives from member institutions in our Action Collaborative asked whether they should continue campus climate surveys, and if so, how they should proceed. Here we address these questions using our extensive experience with sexual harassment research and policy. Three of us are members of the Action Collaborative’s Advisory Committee (K.J.H., L.M.C., and V.J.M.) and specialize in the psychological study of sexual harassment and violence. Two … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: kholland4{at}unl.edu or FBenya{at}nas.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS) is a research-coordination network supported by the National Science Foundation that is currently in its third year of activities. Individual and institutional members, representing a wide range of fields and interests, are devoted to addressing social sustainability as an important, understudied issue under the broader rubric of sustainability and sustainable development. The INSS has developed a number of affinity groups and a set of activities to facilitate its development. An annual conference draws members together to review and report on their efforts. At the first conference, a group interested in developing a research agenda formed. This Community Essay shares its members’ perspectives about priorities for future research and education on social sustainability, highlighting efforts for greater inclusion of marginalized populations in research.

Substantial global changes in energy production and use are occurring at present and will continue to occur for decades to come, with widespread ramifications for the distribution of wealth and power and humanity’s social and environmental future. This raises important ethical considerations that should be addressed in the education of engineers, whose research and practice will assuredly involve energy to some degree. The Energy Ethics in Science and Engineering Education Project, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, sought to enhance attention to and projects in energy ethics in graduate research education concerning energy. The partners, the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society (CEES) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), conducted a number of research, educational, and outreach activities to develop a foundational intellectual basis for understanding the ethics of energy transitions, to provide opportunities for students to learn about energy ethics, and to disseminate ideas and materials broadly. Evaluation results indicate the project has been successful in engaging students in various formats; additionally the project has illuminated a number of fundamental ideas about the interrelationships among energy, ethics, and society.