November/December 2010
Around the Quads
College Offers New Major in Sustainable Development
Beginning this year, graduates of the College have another option to develop dynamic tools that will not only help them get jobs but also will help the planet stay green.
Partnering with the Earth Institute at Columbia, the College now offers a degree in sustainable development. The program provides a diverse array of classes in several disciplines that will prepare students to deal with complex issues of development related to the interactions of natural and social systems.
“We’re not teaching a single discipline or skill,” says Columbia economist Jeffrey Sachs, who directs the Earth Institute. “We’re teaching a way to view the complexity of the human situation. In the 21st century, this means the complexity of a crowded planet in an environment that’s under great stress, and economic and ecological systems that are at a crossroads.”
This new major is one of three added for the new academic year. Students can now also major in financial economics (replaces economics and operations research) and ethnicity and race studies (replaces comparative ethnic studies, Latino studies and Asian American studies). Three new majors also were added last year (Latin American and Caribbean studies, African studies and information studies). College students have more than 70 majors and concentrations from which to choose.
Kathryn B. Yatrakis, dean of academic affairs, notes, “The major in sustainable development reflects the heightened interest in issues of sustainability amongst students and the commitment of faculty in the field to undergraduate education. We are very fortunate to have world-class faculty in this area, led by the Denning Professor of Sustainable Development Ruth DeFries, so that we can capitalize on this interest and offer this exciting new major.”
The major requirements include classes from departments such as economics, biology, earth science and mathematics.
Sachs, who is a special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, says that “systems-oriented thinking” is increasingly in demand by employers in the development community. “Both in the public sector and the private sector,” he says, “there’s a huge premium on talent that can understand these issues and look across them to come up with creative solutions.”
DeFries and Kevin Griffin, associate professor of earth and environmental science, led the program’s development. Faculty from the College, the Earth Institute, SIPA, Teachers College and the Mailman School of Public Health will provide instruction.
The major will equip students with a strong theoretical foundation and ample practical skills that are in demand in the public, private and nonprofit sectors as well as in graduate programs.
Ethan Rouen ’04J