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FROSTBURG — Students who plan to attend Frostburg State University in the fall can pursue a minor in sustainability studies.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The interdisciplinary program will focus on helping students find real-world answers and solutions, with an emphasis on interaction among individuals, government agencies and businesses that are impacted by or depend on sustainability trends. It is designed to encourage students to explore environmental, economic and social equity issues relating to sustainability in modern societies.
The minor will be housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a steering committee from participating departments.
“The university already offers a variety of great courses and majors that focus on environmental education. This new minor complements the strengths of those areas and also ensures that our students will have the knowledge they need to be ready to take advantage of ‘green collar’ jobs,” said President Jonathan Gibralter. “This academic focus on sustainability is also very much in line with FSU’s overall commitment to becoming a more sustainable campus with academic programs that respond to the world’s problems.”
The program will use existing courses from a number of departments and incorporate two new courses that will be created for the minor.
“The sustainability studies minor offers a truly interdisciplinary minor that will appeal to students in all the disciplines,” said Sydney Duncan, assistant professor of English and member of the advisory group that leads the “Learning Green, Living Green” sustainability committee.
With the leadership of “Learning Green, Living Green,” FSU successfully submitted a Climate Action Plan in September as part of the pledge it made to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The plan will guide FSU to climate neutrality by 2030.
FSU has developed a variety of activities and programs to help the campus learn about sustainability, including “E=(LG)2,” a student-written and edited publication on sustainability, the only one of its kind.
The department of physics and engineering is moving forward with building a Sustainable Energy Research Facility with grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. SERF will be a green, self-sufficient, off-the-grid building and an educational research center for renewable energy connected to the Allegany Business Center at FSU.
The university was recently listed in Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges, a new publication designed to “recognize the impressive environmental and sustainability programs at universities and colleges across the country.”
To learn more about FSU’s focus on sustainability, visit www.frostburg.edu/lglg, e-mail lglg@frostburg.edu or log on to facebook.com/frostburglglg.
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