CUNY Sustainability Curriculum Review
From Urban Earth
CUNY Sustainability Curriculum:
Draft Proposal for Action
CUNY Institute for Sustainable CitiesJanuary 22, 2008 Draft
Contact:
lpatrick@hunter.cuny.edu
wsolecki@hunter.cuny.edu
Contents |
Objective and Rationale:
The objective of this document is to propose a set of steps which will enable CUNY to restructure its curriculum to promote increased awareness and facility among university students with the issue of sustainability. The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities (cunysustainablecities.org; 212-650-3456) is actively seeking to work with CUNY partners in developing this proposal for action.
The examination of sustainability as a theoretical concept or as an area of applied knowledge has emerged in the past twenty years as an arena for new educational advancement within universities and colleges. Universities historically have been responsive to major shifts in scientific understanding and societal pressures. Responses have included reform of required curricula and development of new degree programs. In many most cases, the impetus for curricula changes comes from individual academic programs and departments and in other cases this pressure is meet and enhanced by support from university central administration.
Sustainability can be associated with a multitude of issues and concerns; however, its central focus is on the promotion of resource use reduction, pollution prevention, and enhancement of ecological function and services. Within many campuses at CUNY, a growing number of courses and programs examine these issues. These efforts are points of exciting curricula advancements. At the university level, CUNY has positioned itself as lead adopter of the City’s ambitious long-term planning and sustainability effort embodied by PLANYC2030 document. Given these developments, it is clear that obvious next steps within CUNY should be a comprehensive review of existing sustainability-related curriculum and an effort to nurture the existing activities and to foster a wider set of actions within the University.
Each semester, CUNY serves over 400,000 students who become a large segment of the future workforce of city. As a led institution of higher learning in New York City, CUNY must play an integral role in preparing future graduates by providing them with the skill sets necessary to navigate issues of sustainability in both the private and public sectors. It is through this transformation that opportunities for a sustainability New York and long term increases in quality of life and economic development will be enhanced.
CUNY students are increasingly facing a comparative disadvantage in terms of their educational and professional training in sustainability questions. Many major universities in the past decade have carried out system wide curriculum reviews in an effort to determine ways to integrate sustainability. As a result, many of these universities have dramatically restructured their programs to provide enhanced exposure for students in sustainability science and sustainability practices. In fact in M.B.A. programs alone the number of reported courses that focus on sustainability jumped from 13 in 2001 to 154 in 2007[1]. In communication with colleagues at CISC, at related CUNY centers and institutes, and at non-CUNY schools, it has become clear that CUNY needs to develop a new generation of courses and curricula that address the emerging challenges and opportunities of urban sustainability, which includes topics as diverse as climate law, ecological services, green design and engineering, industrial ecology, sustainable business practices, alternative energy development and use, and civic environmentalism.
Goals:
To achieve these curriculum objectives, we propose the following development goals:
- Integrate cutting-edge sustainability ideas and practices into the curriculum of CUNY;
- Respond to student demands for training in sustainable business, resource development, and sustainable systems;
- Enhance the ability of CUNY graduates to be involved in a workforce increasingly focused on aspects of sustainability and related approaches to management;
- Increase campus-wide awareness of our environmental impact and encourage participation in sustainable practices; and,
- Create opportunities for cross-campus collaboration amongst faculty for curriculum development and research
We propose to undertake the following analysis of existing resources in order to develop recommendations for the integration of sustainability curriculum at CUNY:
- Inventory existing sustainability-related courses and programs within CUNY
- Review the sustainability-related programs of other universities, particularly large, urban public institutions similar to CUNY
- Review background literature of sustainability curriculum and their applicability to CUNY
- Create a Sustainability Curriculum Committee within CUNY responsible for the oversight of the curriculum development process
We feel the most effective planning efforts should focus on both undergraduate and graduate curriculum. We recognize that graduate programs often by necessity adjust their curriculum to reflect the dynamic nature of scientific and technological developments and job market shifts. Undergraduate programs however are at times less flexible and harder to change given the student credit hour demands that undergraduate students face. We also strongly feel that areas not traditionally associated with sustainability science such as the business and management programs and the social sciences should be targeted in this review to ensure a comprehensive evaluation and prescription.
Products and Outcomes:
We would like this work to culminate in the following products and outcomes:
- Recommendations for new courses on sustainability within CUNY
- Recommendations for new curriculum programs on sustainability within CUNY associated with integrating existing or new courses
- An action plan for developing new curriculum initiatives within CUNY
- An action plan for staff and faculty training on the new curriculum
- Development of a National Science Foundation IGERT initiative submission
Timeline:
We define several specific tasks to be performed during Spring 2008:
- Comprehensive review of existing sustainability curriculum and associated programs within higher education institutions
- Complete and distribute inventory of sustainability-related courses and programs CUNY wide
- Creation of Sustainability Curriculum Committee
- Specification of Committee mission statement and plan of action
