Columbia’s Earth Institute is bringing its goal of protecting Earth’s ecosystems, oceans, and atmosphere to the undergraduate level. Starting in the fall of 2010, undergraduates will have the opportunity to major in sustainable development.
The Earth Institute, Columbia College, and the School of General Studies officially announced the major in a press release on Monday, though administrators and professors have been discussing the coming major for months.
“While students may continue to undertake a special concentration in sustainable development, they now have the opportunity to complete a major in this cutting-edge interdisciplinary field of study,” the Earth Institute’s website said.
Undergraduates currently have the option to concentrate in sustainable development, and the high level of interest in the concentration spurred the University to develop a full major, the site reported.
Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development Ruth DeFries and Associate Earth and Environmental Studies Professor Kevin Griffin spearheaded the major’s development.
Steven Cohen, executive director of the Earth Institute, said that the College and General Studies Committee on Instruction approved the major a few weeks ago and are now working with Griffin and DeFries to perfect it.
The major will consist of 15 courses and a practicum at the minimum, with 47 points total. Students majoring in sustainable development will be strongly encouraged to study abroad and work in internships.
“It’s going to be a tough major,” Cohen said. “But I think it’s important. The world is getting more complicated. You need a lot of different disciplines.”
In addition to sustainable development foundations courses, students who take on the major will be required to take, among others, a science sequence, social science classes, quantitative courses, and classes in “analysis and solutions to complex problems”—a requirement that includes course titles such as “Climate Solutions” and “Disasters and Development.”
“The pace of the transition from the way we do business now to a more sustainable future is really what this is about. Everybody agrees we have to get to this place, and everyone wants to get there as fast as possible, but for example, if you look at the Columbia campus, you’ve got some very old infrastructure here,” Cohen said. “Retrofitting is going to take time and capital. But we’ll work at it over time.”
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