Sustainability Studies Minor

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 Rachel Carson College 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 1) facilitate interdisciplinary academic and research collaborations among faculty and students across multiple UC Santa Cruz divisions (drawing on but outside of the divisional structure); 2) teach and train students in the ecology and sustainability of design and application in the built and natural environment, and the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills and social science knowledge to these ends; and 3) meet undergraduate demand for a sustainability curriculum with focuses distinct from those offered in existing UCSC departments.

Program learning objectives are as follows:

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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, coastal and marine conservation, and natural resource management.

• 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.

Course Requirements

Substitutes for any of the required courses must be approved by the program director.

Lower-Division Courses

ECE80S	Sustainability Engineering and Practice	5
CRSN55	Rachel Carson College: Service Learning Practicum	2

ECE 80S is offered in the fall. 

Three quarters of CRSN 55 (2 credits per quarter) are required.

Upper-Division Courses

CRSN 151A is offered in the winter. CRSN 151B and CRSN 161 are offered in the spring. CRSN 151C is offered in the fall, and either in the winter or the spring; some years it is offered in all three academic terms. All four courses are required.

CRSN151A	Sustainability Praxis in the Natural and Built Environment	5
CRSN151B	Innovation and Professionalization for Sustainability Designers, Engineers, and Entrepreneurs	5
CRSN151C	Sustainability Laboratory Tools, Techniques, and Applications	3
CRSN161	Education for Sustainable Living Program	5

Upper-Division Electives

Breadth Electives

Take two (2) breadth electives

or

One (1) breadth elective and three quarters of CRSN 152 (2 credits each for 6 credits total).

NOTE: Lecture/lab combinations count as one course

ANTH110K	Culture Through Food	5
ANTH110W	Land and Waterscapes Entropology	5
ANTH111	Human Ecology	5
ANTH135A	Cities	5
ANTH137	Consuming Culture	5
ANTH146	Anthropology and the Environment	5
ANTH147	Anthropology and the Anthropocene	5
ANTH160	Reproductive and Population Politics	5
ANTH161	The Anthropology of Food	5
ART125	Environmental Art Studio	5
CLTE105	The Making and Influencing of Environmental Policy	5
CMMU133	Making California: Landscapes, People, Politics, Economy	5
CMMU149	Political Economy of Food and Agriculture	5
CMMU156	Politics of Food and Health	5
CMMU162	Community Gardens and Social Change	5
CMMU186	Food and Agriculture Social Movements	5
CMPM80L	Entrepreneurial Organization and Leadership	5
EART107	Remote Sensing of the Environment	5
EART116	Hydrology	5
EART121	The Atmosphere	5
EART142	Engineering Geology for Environmental Scientists	5
EART146	Groundwater	5
EART191A	Climate Change Science and Policy	5
EART191B	Planetary Capstone	5
EART191C	Practical Geophysics	5
BIOE107	Ecology	5
BIOE108	Marine Ecology	5
BIOE145	Plant Ecology	5
BIOE147	Community Ecology	5
BIOE155	Freshwater Ecology	5
ECON170	Environmental Economics	5
ECON171	Natural Resource Economics	5
ECON175	Energy Economics	5
ECE175	Energy Generation and Control	5
ECE175L	Energy Generation and Control Laboratory	2
ECE176	Energy Conservation and Control	5
ECE176L	Energy Conversion and Control Laboratory	2
ECE177	Power Electronics	5
ECE177L	Power Electronics Laboratory	2
ECE180J	Advanced Renewable Energy Sources, Storage, and Smart Grids	5
ENVS149 /LGST 149	Environmental Law and Policy	5
ENVS152 /POLI 170	International Environmental Politics	5
FMST124	Technology, Science, and Race Across the Americas	5
FMST133	Science and the Body	5
HIS101C	Oceans in World History	5
HIS177	Smoke, Smallpox, and the Sublime: Thinking about the Environment in the 19th Century	5
HIS196F	Topics in European Environmental History	5
HAVC141I	Be Here Now: Art, Land, Space	5
HAVC141K	Activist Art Since 1960: Art, Technology, Activism	5
HAVC143B	History of Urban Design	5
LALS152	Consumer Cultures Between the Americas	5
LGST131	Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law	5
LGST137	International Environmental Law and Policy	5
LGST159	Property and the Law	5
METX101	Sources and Fates of Pollutants	5
METX144	Groundwater Contamination	5
OCEA101	The Marine Environment	5
OCEA102	Oceans and Climate: Past, Present, and Future	5
PHIL125	Philosophy of Science	5
POLI132 /LGST 132	California Water Law and Policy	5
POLI174	Global Political Ecology	5
PSYC159E	Peace Psychology	5
SOCY115	Green Governance	5
SOCY119	Sociology of Knowledge	5
SOCY125	Society and Nature	5
SOCY130	Sociology of Food	5
SOCY132	Sociology of Science and Technology	5
SOCY167	Development and Underdevelopment	5
SOCY173	Water	5
SOCY177E	Eco-Metropolis: Research Seminar in Urban and Environmental Studies	5
SOCY177G	Global Cities	5
SOCY179	Nature, Poverty, and Progress: Dilemmas of Development and Environment	5

Substitutes for any of the required classes must be approved by the program director