Students hoping to work sustainability into their education at UW-Madison may see relevant classes flagged in the course guide for the fall 2019 semester, as the Associated Students of Madison moves closer to proposing a sustainability requirement for all students on campus.
The committee had been working on a sustainability requirement, similar to the one currently in place for ethnic studies, for the past two years including planned legislation last February that would require UW-Madison students to take an environmental science course for graduation.
After proposing the idea of the requirement to the administration, Sustainability Chair Leah Johnson said they suggested giving classes a descriptor as the first part of the process, letting students know that the class would focus on sustainability education.
While Johnson said it was a “step down” from the initial goal of a requirement, the courses would have needed this distinction to get the eventual requirement in the first place since the campaign was very broad.
“In the short-term, this is a good intermediate step,” Johnson said.
The legislation highlighted Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s dedication to sustainability, quoting her saying, “Perhaps our most important long-term contribution to sustainability is educating the students.”
“This is a really good time to write this legislation to show that ASM as a whole is focused on sustainability,” Johnson said. “It just kind of made sense that right now we would ask for something that is very tangible and concrete.”
Johnson said that adding the descriptor was much simpler than adding the requirement and while she thinks adding an educational requirement is “ambitious” for now, she believes it could work in the future.
Some faculty on campus have been working on similar programs that involve measuring the effectiveness of sustainable practices on campus as well as adding curriculum. ASM’s sustainability committee will collaborate with those professors to push forward ideas, Johnson said.
“We’re trying to figure out how to kill both those birds with one stone,” Johnson said.
Johnson hopes they can introduce the plan in January 2019 to the administration, which was also included in the legislation.
