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

ECE 80S	Sustainability Engineering and Practice	5
CRSN 55	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.

CRSN 151A	Sustainability Praxis in the Natural and Built Environment	5
CRSN 151B	Innovation and Professionalization for Sustainability Designers, Engineers, and Entrepreneurs	5
CRSN 151C	Sustainability Laboratory Tools, Techniques, and Applications	3
CRSN 161	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

ANTH 110K	Culture Through Food	5
ANTH 110W	Land and Waterscapes Entropology	5
ANTH 111	Human Ecology	5
ANTH 135A	Cities	5
ANTH 137	Consuming Culture	5
ANTH 146	Anthropology and the Environment	5
ANTH 147	Anthropology and the Anthropocene	5
ANTH 160	Reproductive and Population Politics	5
ANTH 161	The Anthropology of Food	5
ART 125	Environmental Art Studio	5
CLTE 105	The Making and Influencing of Environmental Policy	5
CMMU 133	Making California: Landscapes, People, Politics, Economy	5
CMMU 149	Political Economy of Food and Agriculture	5
CMMU 156	Politics of Food and Health	5
CMMU 162	Community Gardens and Social Change	5
CMMU 186	Food and Agriculture Social Movements	5
CMPM 80L	Entrepreneurial Organization and Leadership	5
EART 107	Remote Sensing of the Environment	5
EART 116	Hydrology	5
EART 121	The Atmosphere	5
EART 142	Engineering Geology for Environmental Scientists	5
EART 146	Groundwater	5
EART 191A	Climate Change Science and Policy	5
EART 191B	Planetary Capstone	5
EART 191C	Practical Geophysics	5
BIOE 107	Ecology	5
BIOE 108	Marine Ecology	5
BIOE 145	Plant Ecology	5
BIOE 147	Community Ecology	5
BIOE 155	Freshwater Ecology	5
ECON 170	Environmental Economics	5
ECON 171	Natural Resource Economics	5
ECON 175	Energy Economics	5
ECE 175	Energy Generation and Control	5
ECE 175L	Energy Generation and Control Laboratory	2
ECE 176	Energy Conservation and Control	5
ECE 176L	Energy Conversion and Control Laboratory	2
ECE 177	Power Electronics	5
ECE 177L	Power Electronics Laboratory	2
ECE 180J	Advanced Renewable Energy Sources, Storage, and Smart Grids	5
ENVS 149 /LGST 149	Environmental Law and Policy	5
ENVS 152 /POLI 170	International Environmental Politics	5
FMST 124	Technology, Science, and Race Across the Americas	5
FMST 133	Science and the Body	5
HIS 101C	Oceans in World History	5
HIS 177	Smoke, Smallpox, and the Sublime: Thinking about the Environment in the 19th Century	5
HIS 196F	Topics in European Environmental History	5
HAVC 141I	Be Here Now: Art, Land, Space	5
HAVC 141K	Activist Art Since 1960: Art, Technology, Activism	5
HAVC 143B	History of Urban Design	5
LALS 152	Consumer Cultures Between the Americas	5
LGST 131	Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law	5
LGST 137	International Environmental Law and Policy	5
LGST 159	Property and the Law	5
METX 101	Sources and Fates of Pollutants	5
METX 144	Groundwater Contamination	5
OCEA 101	The Marine Environment	5
OCEA 102	Oceans and Climate: Past, Present, and Future	5
PHIL 125	Philosophy of Science	5
POLI 132 /LGST 132	California Water Law and Policy	5
POLI 174	Global Political Ecology	5
PSYC 159E	Peace Psychology	5
SOCY115	Green Governance	5
SOCY 119	Sociology of Knowledge	5
SOCY 125	Society and Nature	5
SOCY 130	Sociology of Food	5
SOCY 132	Sociology of Science and Technology	5
SOCY 167	Development and Underdevelopment	5
SOCY 173	Water	5
SOCY 177E	Eco-Metropolis: Research Seminar in Urban and Environmental Studies	5
SOCY 177G	Global Cities	5
SOCY 179	Nature, Poverty, and Progress: Dilemmas of Development and Environment	5

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