Course Descriptions
Sustainability Studies students must complete two core courses and 4 elective courses.
Electives can be taken from SUS designated courses, as well as courses cross-listed through other departments including the Charlton College of Business, SEPPCE, Engineering, CVPA and more.
Required Courses
SUS101: Principles of Sustainability
3 Credits
This course focuses on the fundamental principles of sustainability, providing a larger context for the topics covered in the elective courses. Topics covered include: What is Sustainability?, Climate Change and Environmental Challenges, Systems Thinking/Systems Analysis, "Natural" Systems and Function, Human Interactions with Natural Systems, and Ethics and Values.
- OR -
SUS101: Topics in Sustainability
3 credits
A multidisciplinary introduction to sustainability, defined as balancing present human needs and desires against the future's capacity to support human needs and desires. Faculty and students from various disciplines will explore current and alternative social systems through the lens of a single topic. Topics will change depending on the participating faculty. Past topics include Food, Water, Consumption, Campus Biodiversity, and Green Architecture. May be repeated with change of topic.
SUS450: Advanced Seminar Sustainability
3 credits
An integration study of concepts from various fields in sustainability. Students will critically review how individuals and/or institutions apply knowledge relating to sustainable best practice to restore and enhance natural, human, and financial capital and to create intergenerational value and well-being.
Elective Courses
SUS250: Special Studies Sustainability
3 credits
Investigation of special areas in Sustainable Studies. May be repeated with change of content.
SUS296/396/495/496: Independent/Directed Study
3 credits
Study under the supervision of a faculty member in an area not otherwise part of the discipline's course offerings. Conditions and hours to be arranged.
All Current and Past Sustainability Courses
Click here for a list of current courses.
ANT 420 - Senior Seminar: Dealing with Disaster
3 Credits for class only/ 4 Credits for class plus service - learning trip to New Orleans during Spring Break
This course will introduce students to critical perspectives on disasters, and provide opportunities for them to apply their own knowledge through service learning and community - based or action research. The guiding premises are that all disasters are social and cultural events, and that critical situations often demand that scholars intervene - through engaged research, advocacy and even activism.
BIO 103 - Topics in Biology: Ecology (Rajaniemi,Tara K)
3 Credits
An introduction to the science of ecology as it applies to major environmental issues. Principles of population, community, and ecosystem ecology will be introduced in the context of such problems as invasive species and global climate change. Students will also learn and apply the scientific method through readings, discussion, and on-campus field research.
BIO 143 - Ecology and Environmental Issues
The science of ecology as it applies to major environmental issues. Principles of population, community, and ecosystem ecology will be introduced in the context of such problems as invasive species and global climate change. Students will also learn and apply the scientific method through readings, discussion, and on-campus field research
CEN 304 - Intro Environmental Engineering
Introduction to the sanitary engineering field. The environmental problems of urbanization and the natural cycle of water are discussed. Elementary hydrology, physical, chemical and biological principles of the treatment of water and wastewater are covered. Municipal services - water mains, sanitary sewers and storm water drainage, layout and operation of purification and treatment works are studied in detail. In addition, state and federal regulatory standards are introduced and discussed
CHM 130 - Chemistry and the Environment
Available to anyone in the university, this course provides substantial treatment, with demonstrations, of the chemistry involved in consumer concerns (food additives, medicines, detergents, etc.), air and water pollution, elementary biochemistry, and the general question of power generation and utilization (fuel cells, solar energy conversion, nuclear energy, etc.). No knowledge of chemistry is assumed, but it is hoped the student will have had high school chemistry or its equivalent.
DES 300 - Designing for Environment
3 Credits
This is a team - based, interdisciplinary workshop for Junior and Senior students in Design, Marketing, and Sustainability Studies. It focuses on developing meaningful and sustainable solutions, for real, community - based projects. It incorporates Professional Practice, Experiential Learning, and Service Learning experiences.
ENL 101 – Critical Writing and Reading I – Professor Nadler
Credit: 3.00
Writing in a variety of modes for various purposes and audiences; writing to communicate and to learn in the humanities. Rhetorical choices and revision strategies will be studied. Students will develop skill in critical reading necessary for thinking and writing.
IST 444 - Sustainable Living
3 Credits
Learn to live more lightly on the planet. An introduction to global challenges and practical solutions related to energy, food, land use, water and air, waste, housing, and community health. This class will help students make personal and professional decisions supporting the three interconnected objectives of sustainability; economic vitality, environmental integrity, and social equity
MAR 110 - Natural Hazards and the Ocean
Natural Hazards & the Ocean is primarily a descriptive course that is intended to educate students about the
roles of the oceans in such natural hazards as hurricanes, earthquakes, global warming, and sunamis. The course will address student curiosity about these ocean-related hazards, by presenting a conceptual understanding of the relevant underlying ocean-atmosphere, and earth mediated mechanisms. The students will be presented in lecture and through their readings about how the application of the scientific method (a) overturned historical Misunderstandings of Earth geology; (b) explains the far-reaching effects of ocean stormgenerated waves; (c) relates deep ocean earthquakes to tsunamis; and (d) relates how dust from the North African deserts is related to hurricane generation.
MAR 545 Stock Assessment of Fishery Resources
3 Credits; Pre - req: MAR 540
The course shows how stock assessment informs fishery management decisions and influences socioeconomics of the fishing industry. A wide range of conventional stock assessment methods are introduced, as well as several advanced topics such as multispecies assessments, ecosystem considerations, spatial structure and risk analysis.
MAR 690 Green Business: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Business
3 Credits
Sustainability is the study and application of knowledge about how individuals and/or institutions direct the course of an organization or community in ways that restore and enhance human, natural, manufactured, and financial capital to generate stakeholder value and contribute to the well-being of current and future generations. Students in this course on Sustainable Business will review its concepts and principles, develop appropriate managerial measures and undertake a facilitated practicum. Class time will be largely spent in lecture, discussion, case studies and experiential exercises. The practicum will enable students to apply learnings from the theoretical literature to a real situation.
MGT 312 - 02/11050 - Legal Framework Business
3 Credits; Pre - req: CCB Standing, CCB Major
Provides students with an overview of the legal environment of business. Topics covered include areas such as contract, tort and criminal law as well as constitutional law, intellectual property law and employment law. Students will develop a general background in the major areas to the law as it affects the daily business environment.
MGT 690 - Innovation and Creativity in Sustainable Management
3 Credits
Innovation and Creativity are the sparks that make good companies great. Sustainability is the disciplined creation of long term inter-generational prosperity through the enhancement of human, natural, manufactured, and financial capital. Combined they encourage a style of behavior comfortable with challenges, new ideas and constant change. This course provides an opportunity for students to integrate Sustainable Business Modeling tools together with creative problem solving techniques. Class time will be spent in lecture, discussion, case studies, experiential exercises and practical workshops. In addition the group auditing project will enable students to apply theoretical learning's to a real organization or community situation.
MTX 110 - Environmental Science and Business
3 Credits
This course provides a substantial treatment of the physical science and environmental issues business leaders should understand when conducting present and future industrial operations. The fundamentals of physical and material science will be covered; topics associated with the interpretation of environmental issues such as operational air quality, water quality, solid/liquid hazardous waste disposal, work place hygiene and in plant noise pollution will be treated. The remediation technology used to manage these environmental issues will also be discussed. Environmental science topics will be presented in the context of the chemistry and physics of the environment, the rules and regulations industry has to follow in fulfilling their responsibility of protecting the environment and the way in which environmental factors may lead to disease.
MTH 120 - Quantitative Reasoning
3 Credits - Applies to certificate program only
Fundamentals of quantitative literacy fully integrated with environmental science topics to illustrate how mathematics is used to describe, model, and analyze data. This will be an introductory level course in applied mathematics. Topics include essential numeracy including estimation, measurement and scaling, and function modeling, which explores the three most important functions used in analyzing and modeling environmental data. Elementary statistics are explored with many practical examples to help students develop an intuitive understanding of descriptive statistics, sampling, and probability based inferential statistics.
PSC/SUS 347 - Environmental Law
3 Credits (online)
Environmental Law explores the foundation of legal principles that apply to U.S. environmental laws. Students will learn the basic premises of environmental law, and then apply these premises to current environmental issues. The goal is to expose students to a broad understanding of the scientific and socio-economic elements that go into environmental regulations. Current environmental issues, such as climate change, will be discussed. The course is meant as an introduction into environmental law.
PHY 162 - Science, Tech & Soc: Environ II
3 Credits, E, S, G
This course studies current environmental issues and their relations to technological choices. For example, air and water quality are examined in relation to the use of various renewable and non-renewable energy resources. The course is non-mathematical and satisfies 3 credits of the Natural Science requirement.
PHY 171 - Earth Science I
3 Credits
An introduction to the fundamentals of earth sciences for the non-science major. Using descriptive instructional techniques, topics introduced will include the origins and history of the earth, plate tectonics, igneous activity, regional glacial history, the geologic time scale, and the origins of life. Students will also engage in weekly laboratory exercises that will produce data and information related to sustainability issues.
PHY 172 - Planet Earth II
3 Credits
A continuation of the Planet Earth sequence. Semester topics include weathering, mass wasting, erosion, groundwater, dug and artesian wells, effects of running water, the hydrologic cycle, mountain types and origins, structure of the ocean floor, plate tectonics, coral reefs and atolls, shoreline features, coastline development, and characteristics of metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks.
PHY 183 - Intro Global Climate Chg
3 credits
What we know about global climate change and how to understand it, and with what certainty we know it, aimed to meet the increasing need for citizens of the world to be scientifically literate about this issue. Using basic physical principles, this course concentrates on the science of climate change and its relationship to a sustainable world.
PSC 235 - Environmental Policy
3 Credits
Environmental Policy will explore the decision making process that underlies most of our current environmental laws and regulations in the U.S. Students will learn about the process of environmental decision-making from an "incentive-based" approach and alternatives analysis. Topics such as air, water, hazardous substances, climate change, and environmental justice will be discussed. Students will interpret a current proposal to use charge systems to implement environmental policies. The course is meant as an introductory theme into environmental policy. There is no course pre-requisite.
PSC 251 - World Political Issues and Ideas: Politics of Everyday Things
Description - World politics often seems to be a distant, abstract phenomenon, far removed from our daily lives. Yet, to a historically unprecedented degree, global politics in the 21st century is driven by the everyday decisions that everyday people make about everyday things - above all, by our decisions about what and how much to consume. Taken individually, our daily decisions are of little global import. But when our decisions are added together with those of millions or billions of other people, the consequences are truly momentous: wars are waged to secure access to valuable natural resources; national economies rise and fall; long-established cultural and economic practices are threatened or destroyed; and our planet's natural environment is irreversibly transformed. The fact that most people neither intend nor know about these consequences makes them no less real. The purpose of this course is to explore the interface between global politics and our everyday lives. What is the origin of the foods that we eat, the clothes and jewelry that we wear, the electronics and appliances that we buy? Who produced them, where, under what conditions, and for how much money? How did these goods get to us? What alternative patterns of production and consumption did we forego in the process? Where does our garbage go after we dispose of it? Who waged war to secure control over the scarce resources used to produce the things we consume? What could we do differently? And why is it so difficult to change our individual and collective behavior?
PSC 348 - Ocean Policy and Law (Staff)
3 credits
Laws and policies associated with marine resource management. The declining status and productivity of many of our marine resources has led to growing concern about human activities such as pollution, overfishing, and environmental degradation. The course explores the fundamentals of policy analysis in order to gain insights into issues including jurisdiction, harvest regulation, ecosystem approaches, and environmental protection.
PSC 400-12863-02 - Seminar in American Politics & Ideas
3 Credits
Pre PSC 101 and Upper Division Standing
Students will learn about how state and local governments make policy and how to analyze the outcomes of those policy making decisions. In addition, students will complete an applied policy analysis for the town of Dartmouth. They will read about sustainable practices in local government and survey other Massachusetts communities about sustainability initiatives that are underway. Based on their readings and research, they will make recommendations to the town of Dartmouth about what initiatives the town might pursue to make local government operations more sustainable.
PST 650 - Sustainability Education and Public Policy: Connecting for Change
3 Credits
This three-credit interdisciplinary course is designed to give candidates for the Master of Public Policy degree an understanding of how institutions such as schools, industries, businesses and local governments are reinventing themselves to meet the interrelated environmental, economic and ethical challenges we face in this era of crisis and change.
Assigned readings will focus on topics such as no-waste systems, renewable energy and industrial design; nature-based education, civic engagement and public health; biodiversity, cultural diversity and the arts. Emphasis will be on writing, critical thinking, and problem-solving through collaboration on projects that combine visionary ideas with practical strategies for living sustainable lives through the acquisition of 21st century skills.
SOC 381 - 01 - Social Impact of Science and Technologyy
3 Credits
What are the obligations of a scientist? What is the meaning of progress? What can and can not be quantified? Students whose primary interests lie in science and technology themselves have a need to consider the social, ethical, philosophical, and epistemological impact of their activities. The course provides students, from both arenas, with an understanding of the scientific and technological world - view, and allows students to reflect upon issues such as: value neutrality of tools, quantification of social and natural reality, the ownership of knowledge and information, knowledge as power, and technological development as progress. By examining some of the history, philosophy, and sociology of science and technology, the students can assess their role in government, business, and society.
SUS 201 - 01/17053 - Topics in Sustainability
3 Credits; no prereqs
This course changes from semester to semester. Click here to see the past selections.
SUS 211 - Principles of Sustainability (Required course for Certificate)
3 Credits
This course focuses on the fundamental principles of Sustainability, providing a larger context for the topics covered in the elective courses. Principle Topics covered include: What is Sustainability?, Climate Change and Environmental Challenges, Systems Thinking/Systems Analysis, "Natural" Systems and Function, Human Interactions with Natural Systems, Ethics and Values
SUS 250 - Readings in Sustainability (Pending Approval)
3 Credits
This course will take a mosaic approach to understanding "sustainability". We will read across a wide variety of genres, from mainstream essays, to scientific studies, to technical reports, and more. We will read non-controversial works, such as Rachel Carson's "The Edge of the Sea", as well as highly controversial works, such as "The Limits to Growth." We will look at sustainability from "the wilderness" to the city; from the history of garbage to the future of waste; from nature's destruction to nature's instruction. Students will be expected to read all texts and be able to contribute to an ongoing discussion of the texts, how they contribute to the notion of "sustainability," and what, in the end, sustainability may mean.
WMS 210: Topics in Women’s Studies: Women’s Health and the Environment
In this course we will investigate the complex relationship between our environment and women's health and bodies. We will be examining theoretical concepts such as environmental justice, environmental racism, cancer prevention, the precautionary principle, and ecological feminism. We will be focusing our attention on a few key women's health issues such as reproductive health, lung disease, and cancer. In addition we will be exploring various activist and political responses to environmental and women's health issues.
