Academic Requirements

The mission statement of Southwestern College states that the college “strives to live by and teach a sustainable way of life.” The sustainability and environmental studies minor offers a curriculum that provides students with the opportunity to study the basic tenets of sustainability; examine the obstacles to achieving a more sustainable society; and envision, design, and implement an individual project involving sustainability practices.

Minor in Sustainability and Environmental Studies

• NSCI201 Environmental Issues (3 hours)
• SES 103 Sustainability: Concepts and Applications (3 hours)
• SES 359 Practicum in Sustainability (3 hours)

Choose one course from the following: 

• NSCI180 Science, Society, and the Environment (3 hours)
• BIOL112 Biology 2 (4 hours)

Choose two courses from the following: 

• PHIL322 Ecology and Ethics (3 hours)
• ECON334 Environmental Economics (3 hours)
• ENG 203 Literature and the Environment (3 hours)
• POLS322 Climate Change, Global Warming, and Politics (3 hours)

Course Descriptions

SES 103 Sustainability: Concepts and Applications
This course will provide meaning to the term “sustainability” in terms of its basic principles and it applications. It will provide a broad overview of challenges posed by environmental degradation, resource depletion, overpopulation, and energy consumption. The course will examine the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development by looking into relevant local, regional, and global environmental issues. It will focus on potential ways that societies can respond to ensure that these problems are not neglected and allowed to grow for future generations to solve. A keystone component of the course will be for students to investigate sustainable solutions to environmental problems and present them through a variety of media formats. Credit 3 hours

POLS322 Climate Change, Global Warming, and Politics
This course examines the basic science of climate change, the evidence for its human fingerprint, and the role or politics in its origins, public perception and mitigation. It will analyze the role of politics for questions concerning climate, ecology and the environment, with special emphasis on the debates and differences across the various schools of thought on environmental affairs. Credit 3 hours

PHIL322 Ecology and Ethics
This course introduces students to the discipline of environmental ethics. In particular, this course provides philosophical reflections on human and non-human animals, nature, and technology. We will consider what it means to act and think morally within the natural world, and we will explore models and narratives aimed to provoke our moral imaginations. Credit 3 hours