Across the country, ivory towers are getting a whole lot greener.
College students are increasingly setting their sights on careers in reliable, growing industries, and whereas traditionally that would entail majoring in a subject like finance or pre-law, these days it means green studies—and not the kind which you may have undertaken in a dorm room underneath a Bob Marley poster during your own undergrad days.
Colleges nationwide are adding majors, minors and certificate programs in ecology, energy, and environmental sustainability at an ever-increasing clip—even as schools deal with significant budget cuts and financial worries of their own. That continued dedication to green education is something we should all be very, very thankful for, because ecological issues are going to be among the most important challenges we’ll all need to face in the coming years—and the more well-educated, highly-trained people on the front lines, the better chance we’ll stand.
The popularity of both graduate and undergraduate green programs among future-looking students is easy to understand. The White House estimates jobs in energy and environmental occupations will have surged by more than 50 percent between 2000 and 2016, while other fields will see just a 14 percent uptick. Meanwhile, consider the tax benefits and other financial incentives offered to companies that go green, along with government efforts to spur the creation of “green collar” jobs, and it seems pretty clear that green studies in college lead to greenbacks in the real world.
Contrary to common characterizations of Generation Y as apathetic, disengaged, and entitled slackers, today’s students are facing the future head-on.
But let’s not focus only on the cold practicalities. Eco-consciousness and a genuine concern for the environment also play a major role in student demand for green programs. After all, today’s college students have grown up in a time when environmental issues are among the most important and visible concerns facing the world. From oil spills and natural disasters, to recycling programs and An Inconvenient Truth, today’s students have seen eco-issues play out front and center on the global stage.. And contrary to common characterizations of Generation Y as apathetic, disengaged, and entitled slackers, today’s students are facing the future head-on, taking an active role in being leaders and change-makers for a better tomorrow.
But just what exactly are these green programs all about? What ideas and issues do they explore? And what knowledge and skills do they impart to students? The answers to these questions are as many and varied as the myriad ecological challenges currently facing the planet. This complexity is a good thing. Colleges aren’t taking a “one size fits all” approach to green education and training, which means that the movement is diversified and therefore stronger as a whole. Green topics, rather than being just another field of study, are being recognized as vital underpinnings of nearly all disciplines—ranging from business and industry to politics to medicine, on scales from the global to the civic to the individual.
Certainly much of the credit for this sophisticated approach can be attributed to the colleges themselves, who have—when it comes to green education—largely lived up to the traditional role of academia as a fomenter of new ideas and innovative problem solving. But student demand is certainly also a factor. As young people grow increasingly well-informed on green issues, and ever-more appreciative of the efforts necessary to help ensure the planet’s continued well-being, it’s only logical that they’re demanding correspondingly rigorous and sophisticated programs. One can imagine a time in the not-too-distant future when colleges compete over which institutions are most effectively incorporating eco-issues into their curriculum, much as they do now over endowment sizes, average SAT scores, and victories on the football field.
While that day isn’t here quite yet, but today’s college student looking for a truly green education has infinitely more options than he or she would have had a decade ago.
This complexity is a good thing. Colleges aren’t taking a “one size fits all” approach to green education and training.
One area that’s been rapidly gaining traction is renewable energy studies. In the past few years, new programs have been launched at institutions like Illinois State University, which used a $1 million Department of Energy grant to fund a renewable energy major. Students in the major opt to take either a technical- or public policy-focused course of study, with classes covering topics from materials technology to anti-trust regulations. Graduates of the program are often hired by nearby wind energy companies. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, meanwhile, began offering a minor in energy studies in 2008, and has seen enrollment in its student energy club jump to nearly 2,000 members from just a few hundred not long ago. Even schools that have offered courses in renewable energy for a while have seen increased interest in those classes. At UC Berkeley, for instance, enrollment in an introductory energy class has spiked from 40 or so students a decade ago, to around 300 in recent semesters.
Unless perhaps you’re an executive at an oil company, the growing popularity of renewable energy studies is surely cause for excitement. After all, the more bright young minds focusing on achieving energy sustainability, the more likely we as a society will one day actually achieve it.
Other universities are retrofitting established programs to suit a new environmentally-conscious era. Urban studies have been traditionally housed within architecture programs, focusing on how people interact with cities. An urban studies major might study resource use, industrial architecture, the flow of people into or out of cities at different points in history. Arizona State University, however, houses it’s urban studies program under their Global Institute of Sustainability. The institute focuses on rapid urbanization and the growth of cities and the consequent effects on the surrounding ecosystems, including water and energy consumption, and pollution. This means that the traditional study of urbanization has been turned on its head, with sustainability as the focus instead of an area of specialization.
For students focused on the hard sciences another major ecological issue, climate change, is also gaining ground in the academic arena. In 2009, the University of Montana established one of the nation’s first programs in climate change studies, which combines hard-core science education with courses in ethics and public policy to give students all the necessary tools to affect change: how to go about it scientifically, how to justify it on ethical grounds, and how to enact it in the political arena. These actionable scientific goals and clear political messages are a powerful antidote to those who continue to deny climate change exists or use the complexity of environmental problems as an excuse to drag their feet.
Unless perhaps you’re an executive at an oil company, the growing popularity of renewable energy studies is surely cause for excitement.
One trend that links all of these new programs is a multi-disciplinary approach. This is a key element to green programs because green issues touch on nearly all aspects of academia. Nevertheless, a few schools stand out in their embrace of this polyamorous method. The University of Michigan’s Program in the Environment offers classes ranging from environmental literature to marine ecology—as well as partnering with the university’s business and law schools. The law schools themselves encourage students to become involved with the ever expanding arenas of green business and environmental law. In the past six years, MU has seen enrollment in it’s “green” programs balloon, from 128 students in 2005 to more than 300 this fall.
The interdisciplinary ethos is taken to the max at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, where environmental studies are part of the curricula across all majors. The college’s Natural Resources Department, for instance, focuses on ecological restoration and fisheries and wildlife ecology. The Humanity and Nature Studies Department, meanwhile, allows students to explore environmental issues through the lens of the humanities, religion, and social sciences.
Another significant change has been the spread of green programs beyond campus walls. Schools such as Oberlin College have worked to transfer the ideas taught in the classroom to the surrounding community. The school’s Oberlin Project, launched in 2009, sees the entire town of Oberlin, Ohio as it’s classroom. It’s experience-based approach means students and administrators have made efforts to create green jobs, improve infrastructure, and establish a large-scale environmental “green belt,” including a green arts district. Northland College’s Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute establishes working partnerships between students, faculty, civic and business leaders, and citizens. By extending such efforts into the community, these colleges are serving not only as incubators of ideas, but as vehicles through which solutions are actually implemented into the larger world.
It’s clear then, that in both equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge to affect change, as well acting as institutional agents of that change themselves, America’s colleges and universities are increasingly well-prepared to take on a major role in combating the ecological challenges facing the country and the world. By training a new generation of environmental leaders and becoming leaders themselves, colleges are making great strides toward a greener and more sustainable future. And that’s a development truly deserving of some school spirit.
— ADAM PERROTTA
