ARIZONA UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS GUIDELINES

FOR

REQUESTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION AUTHORIZATION

FOR NEW ACADEMIC DEGREE PROGRAM

[UNIQUE PROGRAM]

Requests for Implementation Authorization must be submitted in a timely manner to receive approval by the Chief Academic Officers prior to submission to the Arizona Board of Regents for approval at a regular Board meeting. In each request, please provide the following information.

I.PROGRAM NAME AND DESCRIPTION, AND CIP CODE[*]

  1. DEGREE(S), DEPARTMENT AND COLLEGE AND CIP CODE

Title:B.A. in Sustainability

School:School of Sustainability

CIP Code: 03.0199 Natural Resources Conservation and Research, Other

The degree program is to be implemented by a new School of Sustainability (SOS). The proposed school will embody the principles of the NewAmericanUniversity, in particular collaborative teaching, interdisciplinary approaches, problem-oriented rather than disciplinary-based coursework, and will affect change at the local to global levels. SOS will be independent of all existing colleges at ASU, but will discharge its research and training mission by collaborating closely with existing programs. It will offer the following five degree programs in sustainability: Ph.D., M.S., M.A., B.S., and B.A.

Note: Based upon reviews by the Division of Graduate Studies, the recommendations of visiting consultants, and extensive consultations with partnering academic units across campus, we have been persuaded that the inclusion of the word “studies” in the degree title is unduly restrictive, and fails to capture the breadth of the degree. We therefore request a change in the degree title from B.A.in Sustainability Studies (as approved by ABOR during the planning authorization phase) to B.A. in Sustainability.

  1. PURPOSE AND NATURE OF PROGRAM

The B.A. in Sustainability is an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented program designed to enable students to explore the sustainability of human societies and the natural environment on which they depend. Although the degree programs emphasize the integration of a broad range of expertise in student training, the B.A. degree will be responsive to students whose skills and objectives more closely align with perspectives of the social sciences, planning, and related fields. Thirty years ago, the Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability implies that, as human beings, we place a high value on our own quality of life and that of future generations, and that to protect the interests of future generations, we must be serious environmental stewards.

Using an understanding of the dynamics of coupled social and environmental systems, students will be expected to research alternative strategies for addressing specific problems in sustainability. These sustainability challenges include:

  • Rapid Urban Growth
  • The Transition to Sustainable Energy and Materials Use
  • Water Scarcity and Management
  • The Conservation of Biodiversity to Maintain Ecosystem Services
  • Economic Development and Social Transformation
  • Environmental Resilience and Change

The program is intended to introduce students to the problems of sustainability, and to enable them to understand what it is that determines the sustainability of human institutions, organizations, cultures, and technologies in different environments at the local, national, and international level.

The degree program is anchored by a core set of integrative courses that show students how to use a systems framework to analyze sustainability problems, which disciplines are needed to address sustainability problems, and how they may be integrated (see Figure 1 on the following page). This core clearly distinguishes the program from conventional discipline-based courses. It will be complemented by a set of capstone clustered learning networks that are focused on a set of major sustainability issues, and that engage students in collaborative interdisciplinary research on aspects of those issues. The program will bring students from a wide variety of backgrounds together to work across disciplines at a systems level, and will emphasize factors that determine the resilience of societies to internal and exogenous stresses and shocks, including both the capacity to adapt to change and to take action to mitigate change. Building on the capacity of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESC) to analyze local responses to social and environmental change over long periods of time, the program will collaborate with SHESC to include a deep-time perspective on sustainability that is currently unique.

Through the elective courses students will be able to address issues at a range of spatial and temporal scales. They will also be encouraged to consider sustainability design options that include social and institutional reform, technological change, and management of the natural and built environments at the scale at which those environments are affected (e.g., local in the case of heat island effects, regional in the case of interbasin water transfers).

The dominant feature of both the undergraduate and graduate degree programs is their problem orientation. The disciplines included are those relevant to the problems studied, and the program achieves depth through the rigor with which the many facets of given problems are analyzed. This is quite distinct from traditional discipline-based courses, but is no less rigorous. It also more closely approximates the way that skills are developed and used in wider society. It will include topics in sociology, anthropology, policy, and history, as well as the relevant decision-sciences.

While the focus of the program will be on sustainability challenges in Arizona and the Southwest (i.e., California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and northern Mexico), students will also be exposed to the national and global trends within which local sustainability problems need to be addressed, and will be encouraged to apply lessons learned locally to the solution of sustainability problems in areas of the world that share at least some of the characteristics of the Southwest (e.g., rapid urban growth in a water-constrained semi-arid environment). In addition, students will gain a generic set of sustainability skills and knowledge that will be applicable to a wide variety of employers (local, state, and national public, non-profit, and private enterprises). A review of employers that recruit people in this field indicates that these generic skills are becoming increasingly important.

The program will respect the general requirements of the B.A. degree in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). In addition to the major, sustainability will be offered as a minor available to students taking other arts or science degrees.

  1. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS—List the program requirements, including minimum number of credit hours, required courses, and any special requirements, including theses, internships, etc.

PROGRAM OF STUDY: A minimum of 120 semester hours are required for the B.A. in Sustainability, of which at least 45 semester hours must be in upper-division courses.

THE MAJOR (45 hours)

A major in sustainability consists of a minimum of 45 semester hours in sustainability-related fields of which at least 24 semester hours must be in upper-division courses.

In summary:

Semester Hours
Required Core Courses / 15
Required General Studies Courses / 6
Elective Courses / 24
Total Semester Hours Required / 45 (24 upper-division courses)

The required core courses will explore both the link between concepts of sustainability and systems approaches to knowledge, and will develop the integrative methodological tools needed to work across disciplines on sustainability problems.

Required Core Courses (15 hours)

Required courses for the major comprise:

SOS 100 / Introduction to Sustainability (3)
PUP 190 / SOS 201 / Sustainable Cities (3)
SOS 400 / Sustainable Use of Renewable and Non-Renewable Environmental Resources (3)
Plus two of the following clustered learning network courses, the capstone learning networks developed to address each of the main sustainability challenges.
SOS 430 / Sustainable Economic Development and Social Transformation (3)
SOS 431 / Resilience and Sustainability (3)
SOS 432 / Sustainable Urban Growth (3)
SOS 433 / Sustainable Water Use (3)
SOS 434 / Sustainable Energy and Material Use (3)
SOS 435 / Sustainable Ecosystems (3)

Note:

In addition to the 15 hours, students in the BarrettHonorsCollege should also take:

HON 493 SOS 493 / Honors Thesis (3)
HON 494 SOS 494 / COURS Seminar (4)
Required General Studies Courses (6 hours)
At least 6 hours are required from the following list of courses. However, students are encourage to satisfy as many of their University General Study Requirements with these courses as possible:
BIO 187 / General Biology I, SG (4)
CHM 113 / General Chemistry, SQ (4)
ECN 112 / Microeconomic Principles, SB (3)
GCU 102 / Introduction to Human Geography, SB (3)
GLG 1XX / Habitable World: An Introduction to Environmental Science
GPH 111 / Introduction to Physical Geography, SQ (4)
MAT 119 / Finite Mathematics, MA (3)
PUP 100 / Introduction to Environmental Design, HU, G, H (3)
STP 231 / Statistics for Biosciences (3)
STP 420 / Introductory Applied Statistics, CS (3)

Electives (24 hours)

Students should, in addition, select 24 semester hours in electives. In the student handbook electives will be grouped by the sustainability challenges and approaches to make selection of courses easier for the student.

APH 414 PUP 412 / History of the City, H (3)
ASB 326 / Human Impacts on Ancient Environments, SB, H (3)
ASB 416 / Economic Anthropology, L/SB (3)
ASB 417 / Political Anthropology (3)
ASB 4XX / City and Environment
BIO 311
HPS 340 / Biology and Society (3)
BIO 498 / Environmental History
BIO 498 / Environmental Ethics
BIO 498 / Environmental Ethics and Policy Goals
ECN 314 / Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, SB (3)
GCU 351 / Population Geography, SB, G (3)
GCU 357 / Social Geography, SB (3)
GCU 359 / Cities of the World I, SB, G, H (3)
GCU 360 / Cities of the World II SB, G (3)
GCU 361 / Urban Geography, SB (3)
GCU 441 / Economic Geography, SB (3)
GCU 444 / Geographic Studies in Urban Transportation, SB (3)
GCU 474 / PublicLand Policy, SB (3)
GCU 494 / Geography of Phoenix (3)
GPH 210 / Society and Environment.
HPS 402 / Technology, Society, and Human Values (3)
IND 243 / Design for Ecology and Social Equity (3)
HST 306 / American Environmental History
JUS 444 / Environment and Justice L, C (3)
LAW 1XX / Law and Governance for Sustainability
POS 426 / Elements of Public Policy, SB (3)
PUP 425 / Urban Housing Analysis (3)
PUP 434 / Urban Land Economics (3)
PUP 442 / Environmental Planning (3)
PUP 444 / Preservation Planning (3)
PUP 475 / Environmental Impact Assessment (3)
SGS 394 / Introduction to Environment and Urban Systems
SOS 484 / Sustainability Community Internship and Seminar (1 - 3)
SOS 498 / Planning and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty (3)
SOS 498 / Environmental Resource Economics (3)
SOS 498 / Economics of Ecosystem Services (3)
SOS 498 / Valuation of Environmental Goods and Services (3)
SOS 430 / Sustainable Economic Development and Social Transformation (3)
SOS 431 / Resilience and Sustainability (3)
SOS 432 / Sustainable Urban Growth (3)
SOS 433 / Sustainable Water Use (3)
SOS 434 / Sustainable Energy and Material Use (3)

THE MINOR (18 hours)

A minor in sustainability consists of a minimum of 18 semester hours in sustainability-related fields of which at least 12 semester hours are in upper-division courses.

Required courses for the minor comprise:

SOS 100 / Introduction to Sustainability (3)
SOS 200 or PUP 190 / SOS 201 / Sustainability Science (3)
or
Sustainable Cities (3)
SOS 400 / Sustainable Use of Renewable and Non-Renewable Environmental Resources (3)

Plus one of the following clustered learning network courses:

SOS 430 / Sustainable Economic Development and Social Transformation (3)
SOS 431 / Resilience and Sustainability (3)
SOS 432 / Sustainable Urban Growth (3)
SOS 433 / Sustainable Water Use (3)
SOS 434 / Sustainable Energy and Material Use (3)
SOS 435 / Sustainable Ecosystems (3)

In addition, students should take 6 semester hours in the electives listed above.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS: Students will be expected to satisfy the same foreign language requirement as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

  1. CURRENT COURSES AND EXISTING PROGRAMS—List current course and existing university programs which will give strengths to the proposed program.

Students will be able to select courses from a wide range of existing programs, and from some new programs currently under development. Existing programs include bachelors’ programs in anthropology, urban and metropolitan studies, justice studies, and global studies. Programs currently under development in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (in environmental social science) will be partly designed to meet the needs of the new degree programs in sustainability. See Appendix A for a list of existing courses.

  1. NEW COURSES NEEDED—List any new courses which must be added to initiate the program; include a catalog description for each of these courses.

In the future, many of these courses may be cross-listed with relevant units.

New Core Courses

SOS 100 / Introduction to Sustainability: Introduction to basic concepts, global trends and local responses, philosophical, ethical and cultural dimensions.
SOS 400 / Sustainable Use of Renewable and Non-Renewable Environmental Resources: Application of economic principles to the allocation of environmental goods and services, external environmental effects and environmental public goods; decision-making under uncertainty, adaptation to and mitigation of environmental change.
SOS 430 / Sustainable Economic Development and Social Transformation: A clustered learning network on the application of sustainability principles to the evaluation of economic development strategies at the national, regional, and local levels, using case studies.
SOS 431 / Resilience and Sustainability: A clustered learning network on the application of resilience analysis to the evaluation and management of the sustainability of coupled social-ecological systems using case studies.
SOS 432 / Sustainable Urban Growth: A clustered learning network on the sustainable development of cities covering design, materials, transport, planning, regulation and using Phoenix as a case study.
SOS 433 / Sustainable Water Use: A clustered learning network on the problem of water use in water scarce regions, includes insights from hydrology, engineering, biology, economics and public policy.
SOS 434 / Sustainable Energy and Material Use: A clustered learning network on the problem of energy and material use, sustainable energy systems; design principles; planning codes.
SOS 435 / Sustainable Ecosystems: A clustered learning network on the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystem services, based on particular cases.

New Elective Courses

ASB 4XX / City and Environment: Investigates major issues and themes on the urban environment.
GLG 1XX / Habitable World: An Introduction to Environmental Science: Provides introductory answers to introductory answers to three questions: "How do habitable worlds form and evolve?"; "How does an inhabited planet work?"; "How are we affecting the habitability of the Earth"
LAW 1XX / Law and Governance for Sustainability: An introduction to the legal and governance structures required for the sustainability of communities at different scales.
SOS 484 / Sustainability Community Internship and Seminar: Application of academic course work in a community work place with a sustainability focus, a seminar will support students in reflecting upon their experiences.
SOS 498 / Environmental Resource Economics: The economics of renewable and non-renewable natural resources, focusing on water, minerals, fisheries and forestry; economics of pollution control.
SOS 498 / Economics of Ecosystem Services: The optimal provision of ecosystem services as local and global public goods; theory and applications.
SOS 498 / Valuation of Environmental Goods and Services: Valuation techniques to estimate willingness to pay and willingness to accept compensation for non-marketed environmental goods and services; natural resource accounting.
SOS 498 / Planning and Decision Making Under Uncertainty: Key types of uncertainty facing national and sub-national regions, approaches and methods to planning under uncertainty, e.g., scenarios, SWOT, risk analysis, contingency planning, anticipation-foresight techniques.
  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCREDITATION—Describe the requirements for accreditation if the program will seek to become accredited. Assess the eligibility of the proposed program for accreditation.

At this time, accreditation does not exist for this type of program.

  1. STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENT
  1. What are the intended student outcomes, describing what students should know, understand, and/or be able to do at the conclusion of this program of study?

Both the B.A. and B.S. in Sustainability should satisfy all of the standard learning outcomes expected of new programs at ASU, but the programs will satisfy some in greater measure than other programs. In particular, they will:

  • Expose students to a broad range of methods of inquiry, and help them understand the role and effectiveness of different methods.
  • Include courses of study designed to help students understand the concepts and methods of different disciplines, and the way in which these can be brought to bear in the solution of sustainability problems.
  • Develop the critical thinking required in a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary program; students being required to evaluate critically the arguments deriving from particular disciplinary perspectives.
  • Encourage students to develop creative solutions to problems in environmental and social sustainability drawing on the insights from different disciplines, but transcending those disciplines.
  • Confront students with the intra-generational and inter-generational ethical issues associated with the conservation and sustainable use of resources.

Students in both programs will be encouraged to participate in the Community of Undergraduate Research Scholars (COURS) program for students with research assistantships (academic year REUs – Research Experience for Undergraduates) which:

  • Exposes students to the research environment in broader terms than can be acquired in a single department or discipline.
  • Helps students through the steps of research as practiced across sciences.
  • Encourages students to develop a professional identity and voice.
  • Encourages professional participation and leadership in the science community.
  • Teaches students how to formulate an effective professional presentation (primarily a poster).
  • Provides students with at least one opportunity to present their ideas in a local or national forum.

Students in the B.A. in Sustainability should, in addition, acquire a number of subject specific skills, including the ability to:

  • Understand the concepts and methods of, inter alia, environmental sociology, environmental politics, ethics, and human geography relevant to the sustainability of society’s use of environmental resources, and the institutions established to govern that use.
  • Evaluate the sustainability of environmental institutions, legal frameworks, property rights and culture.
  • Apply these concepts and methods to the development of local sustainable institutions for water, land, and air management.
  • Research a particular problem in the sustainability of social institutions.

More generally, students coming out of the program should be able to think in a holistic way about sustainability problems using a dynamic systems framework. They should be adaptable, capable of both communicating and learning across a number of disciplines, and with a strong orientation towards problem solving. They should also be quantitatively more adept than students in many other fields of study.