Colleges work together to create new minor is sustainability

The College of Business and Innovation is planning on housing a sustainability minor starting in the fall semester of 2017. The introduction of this minor is the product of a combined effort between several colleges including the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the College of Engineering, the College of Business and Innovation as well as the Jesup Scott Honors College.

According to Joseph Cooper, an assistant professor at the College of Business and Innovation, the College of Business was chosen to host the minor because it had lenient guidelines regarding the number of credits a potential minor requires. The plan is for the sustainability minor to have 15 credit hours while other colleges, such as the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, require minors to have at least 21 hours.

“The college of business was willing and able to take that on and we have the resources to just help manage that minor moving forward,” Cooper said.

Before creating the minor, the University gauged the level of student interest by sending out a survey at the end of the 2016 spring semester. A total of 374 students responded to the survey, saying that they would be interested in a sustainability minor.

“We were surprised at the number of responses that we got,” said Andrew Solocha, associate professor at the Collee of Business and Innovation. “We’re talking about right before graduation we sent this out and we had 370 something responses.”

According to Andy Jorgenson, associate professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, faculty from the involved colleges have been working together to devise the structure of the minor. New classes including “Sustainable Living” from the College of Engineering and “Sustainable Business Practices” from the College of Business, will be offered. The new minor will consist of four required core classes as well as an elective.

“The elective should be in another college, so they get a broader perspective,” Cooper said.

Many institutions across the country already have sustainability majors and minors so, according to Jorgenson, the sustainability minor is expected to receive a strong student response at the University of Toledo, as well. It is expected for the minor to be finalized by early February 2017, at the latest.

“Sustainability minors and majors are very common at hundreds of other schools. We’re a little late to the game, to tell you the truth,” Jorgenson said. “In fact what we hope for, within two years, our goal is to have a major in sustainability.”

According to Solocha, businesses have started to value sustainability in their projects, since sustainability is becoming related to long term financial success. Therefore, it is essential to produce students with a working background in sustainability.

“If you go to work in a business, they want to make sure the business is efficient in terms of sustainability,” Jorgenson said. “Because being sustainable means that you’re spending less money on things, better use of electricity, better use of vehicles, better use of all sorts of things. It’s an economic as well as an environmental consideration.”