The university sustainability minor is designed to prepare undergraduate students to understand and address complex issues of environmental, economic, and social sustainability from a variety of perspectives utilizing a systems thinking or systems theory framework. Because environmental and social systems are connected, issues like climate change, pollution, sustainable development, racial and economic inequality, and ecosystem health cannot be studied in isolation. Students completing the university minor in sustainability in conjunction with their disciplinary major leave Willamette prepared to live lives of meaning and service reflecting the University’s motto, “Not Unto Ourselves Alone are We Born.”
Requirements for the Sustainability Minor (20 semester hours)
- Students may not count more than two courses in any one area.
- Students may not count more than two courses with the same prefix.
Choose twenty (20) semester hours from these areas:
Area 1: Natural Systems
- BIOL 120 Introduction to Biological Inquiry (4)
- CHEM 230 Environmental Chemistry (4)
- ENVS 121 Earth Systems Science (4)
- ENVS 358 Principles of Hydrology (4)
- ENVS 340 Biogeochemistry (4)
- ENVS 385 Research in Urban Geochemistry (4)
- ENVS 347 Earth’s Climate (4)
Area 2: Economic and Social Sustainability
- ENVS 321 Environmental Policymaking (4)
- ENVS 334 Political Ecology (4)
- ENVS 327W Water Resources of the Western US (4)
- ECON 345 Environmental Economics (4)
Area 3: Equity and Community
- CCM 260 Communicating Environmental and Climate Justice (4)
- ENVS 304W Politics of Environmental Science (4)
- HIST 315 Western Civilization and Sustainability: Beginnings to 1600 (4)
- IDS 208 Sustainability and Design (4)
- IDS 214 Food Justice (4)
Area 4: Graduate School Offerings
- LW 348 Environmental Law and Policy: Sustainable Natural Resources (4)
- LW 386 Global Sustainability (3)
- LW 387 Energy & Climate Law (4)
Indicators of Achievement
Upon completion of the minor students will be given an exit interview by one faculty member and the director of the Sustainability Institute.
Student Learning Outcomes for the Sustainability Minor
- Define sustainability and assess the ways that sustainability topics are approached by a diversity of academic disciplines
- Explain how natural, economic, and social systems interact to foster or prevent sustainability
- Learn how to address large-scale problems using a multitude of tools and approaches
- Consider sustainability principles while developing personal and professional values
CAS Faculty
- Joe Bowersox III, Professor of Environmental Science, Dempsey Endowed Chair
- Nathan Sivers Boyce, Associate Professor of Economics
- Karen Arabas, Professor Emerita of Environmental Science
- Wendy Petersen Boring, Associate Professor of History,
- Melinda Butterworth, Associate Professor of Environmental Science
- Janet Lorenzen, Associate Professor of Sociology
- Katja Meyer, Associate Professor of Environmental Science
- Scott Pike, Professor of Environmental Science and Archaeology, Environmental Science
- Rachel Kinsman Steck, Faculty Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Professor of Theatre and Women's & Gender Studies
AGSM Faculty
- Fred Thompson, Emeritus Professor of Public Management and Public Policy