Lauren Ruth – Staff Writer
Chatter among students and faculty in the past few weeks has revolved around the possibility of an additional required credit in the general education curriculum. This is not a novel idea. There has been a large movement of students and faculty passionate about environmental sustainability and education behind this curriculum for several years.
“The sustainability credit was originally designed to be implemented into the challenge curriculum to have a tangible interaction with sustainability in the classroom,” Katie Lillemon, Sophomore Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Major said. The credit requirement ultimately seeks to address the understanding of environmental sustainability through courses from across differences. Students will become more aware of sustainability and explore responses to the challenges that come with it, according to the Sustainability Education Information Sheet.
To begin, it is important to clear up some of the burning and frequently asked questions on the topic of the sustainability credit. Many students are worried how this requirement would affect them. If the resolution is passed to add this credit to the general education curriculum, it would not affect current students. Students graduate based on the curriculum they had as they entered Gustavus. As such, the addition of a credit requirement would only apply to future students in the Challenge curriculum.
Students also worry how future Gusties would be able to fit this into their schedules. In fact, no new courses would need to be added as a result of this credit requirement going into effect. Out of 24 departments, 17 of them have courses that would fit this credit. Students also would have the ability to overlap their general education requirements in one class. For example, taking a science course would count for a GEO and SUS credit. “The credit is designed to be intersectional,” Student Senate Environmental Sustainability Chair Juliet White said.
The groundwork for this movement began three years ago in March 2019. President Bergman urged Gusties to create a student-led movement focused on climate action, justice and sustainability. This movement was named Groundswell where students gathered in the Chapel, marched and engaged in a myriad of activities related to sustainability. The goals of this movement were centered on environmental sustainability on campus. “Students wrote a list of four demands, the first being sustainability education, then institutional investment, infrastructure and behavior and transparency on environmental issues,” Kendra Held, Senior Geography and Environmental Major said. Faculty senate responded with a letter to the curriculum committee to urge them to add a sustainability requirement to the general education curriculum.
Three years passed and with it the introduction of the Challenge curriculum. Missing from this curriculum was the proposed sustainability credit requirement. Two students, Kendra Held and Aviva Meyerhoff, Sustainability Interns for the Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation, have been staunch proponents of the addition of a sustainability credit since Groundswell. “Gustavus’ core values of excellence, service, community, justice and faith compel us to act a certain way,” Held said. The addition of a sustainability credit are these values being manifested by tangible means.
“Without the addition of the sustainability credit, Gustavus is not living up to their core values,” Held said. According to students involved, by adding a sustainability credit Gustavus would be signaling to other schools around the country that they believe environmental sustainability is important for every student to be educated about.
In terms of the average student, their general education is virtually silent about environmental sustainability. “It is a huge detriment for themselves and their futures to not be able to address this on some grounded educational experience,” Held said. By addressing this topic, students are challenged to think critically about sustainability and their role in it. Even if students think they aren’t interested in this topic, this would be a chance to educate those who otherwise wouldn’t be on the subject, according to Held and Meyerhoff. “Students don’t always want to learn things that are important,” Meyerhoff said. However, that does not mean it isn’t worth the time and consideration, according to Held and Meyerhoff.
While there have been committed supporters of the addition of the sustainability credit, there have also been many obstacles in the way of making it a reality. After the faculty responded to Groundswell with an urge for the Curriculum Committee to add the sustainability requirement, it never materialized into something tangible to vote on, in part due to how far in the curriculum process the committee was at the time of the student action. It took the determination and resilience of a handful of students and faculty to keep this on the radar and in discussion.
“This is our fight now, because it wasn’t going in the direction it needed to,” Meyerhoff said. Faculty have been working on top of their already busy schedules for three years to make this credit fit into their departments. Students involved feel frustration at the lack of communication and follow-through from the Provost’s Office and Curriculum Committee. Frustration about the slow process is felt by those involved. “We as students have followed through to the best of our abilities, and I don’t think the Curriculum Committee or the Provost’s Office has done the same,” Meyerhoff said.
Last month the Curriculum Committee took a look at the resolution after three years of promises and voted no. Students working on this project have concerns with the points brought up by the Curriculum Committees rationale. “It is much more complex and nuanced than what is written in that rationale,” Held said.
As a response faculty members Jeff Jeremiason, Professor in Environmental Studies and Co-Director Johnson Center for Environmental Sustainability in Chemistry, and Anna Versluis, Associate Professor in Geography, Environmental Studies, and LALACS led the charge with several Johnson Center interns to urge Student Senate to get involved. Junior Juliet White, Environmental Sustainability Chair, along with Senate Co-Presidents Ben Menke and Regina Olono, created a resolution to endorse the sustainability curriculum and to urge faculty to take a vote.
The Faculty Committee will vote on this resolution on Friday, February 18, 2022. The outcome of this vote will dictate whether the sustainability curriculum is rehashed among the Curriculum Committee or forgotten about. Students involved in this three-year process are worried that if it doesn’t pass, it will be put aside for another decade. “These issues aren’t going to disappear any time soon. If anything, they will continue to get worse as we grow older,” Sophomore Anna Marie Riner said in a comment about the curriculum to the Senate.
The attitude of faculty and students involved is clear: it is now or never. “Listen to the cries of the students and think about how this will impact our campus for the better,” Lillemon said.