The environment is receiving significant attention in recent years in light of issues such as climate change, declining energy resources, and other sustainability related issues. A minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies is meant to serve a broad student population and will provide students with an extensive understanding of environmental and sustainability issues. The minor will yield graduates who are truly "men and women for others" by preparing students for careers that will identify and study the causes and effects of current and future environmental challenges, educate others about the environment, and help write and analyze related policy.
Students completing this minor will:
- Develop an understanding of the natural environment as an integrated system of complex biological and physical interactions and how human activities affect that system.
- Develop an understanding of the connections and interdependency of ecology, economics, society, governmental regulation, and politics in the modern world and the implications of this for environmental problem solving.
- Develop skills in addressing moral and social dilemmas implicit to solving environmental problems.
Requirements for the Minor
Students must take six courses for the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Courses taken to fulfill requirements of the minor may also fulfill the GEP or overlay (Ethics, Globalization /Diversity) requirements.
All students will take (in this sequence):
ENV 101 Environmental Science and
ENV 102 Environmental Theory and Ethics Seminar
These two courses are currently offered every other year.
Students are required to take 4 additional courses from the following three groups (Groups A-C). Courses do not need to be taken in any particular order, but some courses may require prerequisites. No more than 2 courses can be taken from each group. One of the four courses must have an experiential component (lab-based natural science course, or director-approved internship or independent research). In the event that a student cannot fulfill the minor requirements from the selection of courses in Groups A-C, the student will be able to fulfill the minor by taking up to 2 auxiliary courses.
Note for Natural Science majors: Students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, Chemical Biology, or Physics may minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. These students should fulfill the Group A requirement with a natural science course not normally required for their major. This excludes courses that normally satisfy the natural science GEP. Students should consult the Auxiliary Course List.
Group A Natural Sciences
BIO 160 Heredity and Evolution
CHM 100 Chemistry for the Consumer
ENV 103 Introduction to Planet Earth
ENV 150 Global Change Biology
PHY 205 Energy: Problems and Promise
Group B Economics and Business
ECN 370 Economic Development
ECN 406 African Economics
MKT 150 People, Planet, Profit
MKT 401 Marketing Strategy (selected sections)
MKT 450 Environmental Sustainability and Green Marketing Study Tour
Group C Societal Issues
ENG 150 Nature in America
ENG 426 Nature Writing in America
HIS 386 American Environmental History
IHS 325 Theories: Disease Prevention and Management
IHS 458 Epidemiology
PHL 316 Food and Justice
POL 327 Environmental Politics in America
THE 368/IHS 368 Just Health Care in Developing Nations