Sustainability Designations

This Spring, the Office of Sustainability Initiatives in the Center for Global and Local Engagement has launched sustainability designations for undergraduate and graduate courses across disciplines at the University of St. Thomas. Any undergraduate or graduate course at St. Thomas that examines interconnections between human and environmental well-being is eligible for the SUST designation.

Maria Dahmus, the Assistant Director for the Office of Sustainability Initiatives, explains that, “Students across majors who are interested in a career in sustainability or learning more about how human and environmental well-being relate to their major will be able to identify sustainability-related courses in ClassFinder, Murphy, or on our website.”

Examples of such courses include College of Arts and Sciences’ Environmental Communication, Engineering’s Sustainable Development Strategies, and Operations and Supply Chain Management’s Operations Management.

Elise Amel, faculty director of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives, says that she thinks that it is important that everyone understands sustainability as it relates to their field of study, and that the course designations will provide a convenient method for communicating about relevant courses.

Mechanical Engineering major Andrew Heitzman agrees.

“I think that that will be a really great way for students to learn more about how their major impacts sustainability and will provide some great perspective on what we can all do to make the world a little bit better,” said Heitzman.

Other students echo Heitzman’s approval. Business major Maria Mishek sees opportunity in the new program as well.

“It would be beneficial in the sense that it would be great for real world applications,” Mishek said.

English major Zachary McLain agrees.

“It’s important to see how what we do interconnects with the world that we live in,” McLain said.

SUST courses for J-Term and Spring 2016 can be found here.

Faculty whose courses incorporate interconnections of human and environmental well-being are encouraged to apply for the SUST designation for upcoming semesters. The short application for Summer and Fall courses is due by April 1, 2016. Please consider designating your sustainability-related courses!