He writes the following about sustainability more generally:
- “‘One’ is not likely to sustain anything. Sustainability requires a group effort and an institutional commitment over time. ‘One’ can gain a foothold, but in working alone, ‘one’ cannot sustain” (1).
- He argues that sustainability is surviving and ethics together. “Sustainability certainly includes the notion of survivability. Thus, an initiative that is sustainable endures, it lasts, it has continuity. Survivability is the capacity of an organization, program, or group to maintain its operations, its financial base, and its institutional resources, and to develop, change, and adapt those operations to suit changing circumstances over time…Sustainable development means surviving, growing, and changing without depleting resources, without exploiting people or natural resources and without damaging the environment (i.e., the institution). In other words, sustainability adds an ethical component to survivability” (2).
- Porter also lists “the following criteria as critical to any notion of sustainability: the ability to continue functioning effectively and successfully at a desired level of operation and activity and; the ability to grow, change, and adapt to meet changing needs while not; depleting resources or oppressing the people involved in the effort (e.g., without relying on free or undersupported faculty and graduate student labor), but while; prioritizing the needs of those who most need help (“the poor”), and; protecting fiscal continuity and/or administrative commitment from year to year (nothing is forever, but the funding commitment is ongoing and ‘expected’ rather than ad hoc)” (3).
- “the critical component of achieving academic program sustainability is faculty lines -dedicated tenure-stream commitments to an area of research. A tenure-line faculty appointment is the longest and strongest form of institutional commitment possible at any university” (5).