Carnegie Mellon University positions around UN sustainable development goals

Making higher education relevant in an age of populist politicians who actively denigrate the contributions of higher education is a challenge. One of the ways to assert relevance is relating institutional goals and initiatives to a recognizable framework that is commonly embraced as representing public good.

Carnegie Mellon University, with campuses in several places around the world, undertook the question of relevance by using the UN sustainable development goals as a template. Krista Rasmussen, senior research associate of policy planning at the UN Foundation, lauded Carnegie Mellon by saying that the "community-driven approach to achieving the SDGs... is a great model for other universities to use." Rasmussen went on to say that, although the SDGs are complicated, finding ways to translate them into meaningful outcomes that impact students, professors, teaching/learning, and research is commendable.