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Sustainability Studies

2014-15 General Catalog

College Eight Office
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Faculty

Program Statement

Among the most critical societal challenges of the next 50 years are the rapidly-growing and linked ecological and social crises arising from stresses on supplies of energy, water and food.  These crises are not simply about the adequacy of supply relative to demand, however; they are also the result of the complex social relations within and among societies, in the past, present and future. Dealing with such socio-ecological problems therefore requires robust interdisciplinary collaborations among engineers, social scientists and natural scientists. Moreover, in today’s rapidly-changing economy, college graduates will need to be flexible and adaptable, able to learn new knowledge and skills rapidly, and cognizant of the complex organization of society and technology.  The minor in Sustainability studies is administered by College Eight and is designed to foster both analytical ability and provide necessary learning.

The pedagogical underpinnings of this minor are premised on relationships between classroom learning, service learning, and research and application. Broad interdisciplinarity and individual facility in both STEM and social sciences are critical, elements at the center of the minor’s core courses. The curriculum is therefore structured to (I) facilitate interdisciplinary academic and research collaborations among faculty and students across multiple UCSC divisions (drawing on but outside of the divisional structure); (II) teach and train students in the ecology and sustainability of design and application in the built environment, and the use of STEM skills and social science knowledge to these ends; and (III) meet undergraduate demand for a sustainability curriculum with focuses distinct from those offered in existing UCSC departments.

Program learning objectives are as follows:

  • a) Students will understand the causes, features, data, complexities, policies and practices giving rise to and needed to address the contemporary global socioecological crisis; the role of production, consumption, politics, policies, markets and behavior in this crisis; and options and alternatives for moving toward and achieving sustainability.

  • b) Students will learn basic applied STEM skills needed for dealing with real-world applications including assessments, measurements, technologies, behavior and other factors related to objective a.

  • c)  Students will become cognizant of appropriate social science knowledge and methods needed to design and implement social enterprise and service learning projects in sustainability and ecological design and practice.

  • d) Students will design and conduct interdisciplinary research projects in issues and topics that are related to sustainability, including energy, food, water, the built environment, life-cycle analysis, waste disposal and recycling.

  • e) Students will design and participate in service-learning projects in collaboration with on- and off-campus units, agencies and organizations, and apply the knowledge and skills acquired through the minor

No specific prior preparation or prerequisites are required for entry to the minor.

Requirements of the minor

Two lower-division courses:

Electrical Engineering 80S, Sustainability Engineering and Design

and one of the following:

  • College Eight 81B/Earth and Planetary Sciences 81B, Fundamentals of Environmental Science
  • College Eight 81C/EE 81C, Designing a Sustainable Future
  • Physics 2, Elementary Physics of Energy
  • Electical Engineering 80J, Renewable Energy Sources

Environmental Studies majors may substitute one of the following for the second lower-division course requirement: Environmental Studies 23, 24 or 25.

Service learning sustainability internship (three 2-credit courses required), one quarter of CLEI 55, Introduction to Service Learning for Sustainability, and two quarters of College Eight 155, College Eight Sustainability Internship.

Sustainability research and green enterprise practicum (three 2-credit courses required), one quarter each of

College Eight 150A, Sustainability Praxis in the Built Environment

College Eight 150B, Tools of the Trade

College Eight 150C, Green Enterprise & Social Entrepreneurship

Education for Sustainable Living Program, one quarter of College Eight 161, Education for Sustainable Living (5-credit section)

Upper-division courses, either

Electrical Engineering 122A, B, C, Impact Designs: Engineering and Sustainability through Student Service (all three quarters)

or

Two breadth electives from the list below

  • Anthropology 146, Anthropology and the Environment.

  • Anthropology 160, Reproductive and Population Politics.

  • Anthropology 173, Origins of Farming

  • Anthropology 194, Consumption and Consumerism

  • Biomolecular Engineering 122, Environmental Virus Bioinformatics

  • College Ten 105, The Making and Influencing of Environmental Policy

  • Community Studies 149, Political Economy of Food and Agriculture

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 107, Ecology

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 108, Marine Ecology

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 145, Plant Ecology

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 147, Community Ecology

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 155, Freshwater Ecology

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences 17, Remote Sensing of the Environment

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences 116, Hydrology

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences 121, The Atmosphere

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences 142, Engineering Geology for Environmental Scientists

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences 146, Ground Water

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences 191, Climate Change Science and Policy

  • Economics 170, Environmental Economics

  • Economics 171, Natural Resource Economics

  • Electrical Engineering 175/L, Energy Generation and Control

  • Electrical Engineering 176/L, Energy Conservation and Control

  • Electrical Engineering 177/L, Power Electronics

  • Feminist Studies 133, Science and the Body

  • History of Art and Visual Culture 141I, Environments, Installations and Sites

  • History 101C, Oceans in World History

  • History 177, Smoke, Smallpox and the Sublime

  • History 196F, European Environmental History

  • Latin American and Latino Studies 164, Environmental Justice.

  • Legal Studies 131, Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law

  • Legal Studies 132, California Water Law and Policy.

  • Legal Studies 137, International Environmental Law and Policy

  • Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology 101, Sources and Fates of Pollutants

  • Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology 144, Groundwater Contamination

  • Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology 160, Coastal Environmental Toxicology and Policy

  • Ocean Sciences 101, The Marine Environment

  • Ocean Sciences 102, Oceans and Climate

  • Politics 174, Political Economy of Global Energy, Environment, and Resources.

  • Psychology 159E, Peace Psychology

  • Sociology 115, Sustainable Design as Social Change

  • Socilogy 125, Society and Nature

  • Sociology 130, Sociology of Food

  • Sociology 132, Sociology of Science and Technology

  • Sociology 173, Water

  • Sociology 177G, Global Cities

  • Sociology 179, Nature, Poverty, and Progress

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Revised: 09/01/14