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Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Additional Major

Additional Major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies

Overview

The additional major is designed to allow students from any college at CMU to build on the depth of their primary major and address the breadth of intrinsically interdisciplinary issues associated with the environment and sustainability. 

The Additional Major combines natural science, social science, and humanistic studies. These are co-equal. How Earth functions as a system is fundamental: key topics include climate, ecosystems, environmental chemistry (the behavior of molecules within the environment) and energy systems. Human interactions with the environment, and so the details of how cultural, political, and social systems function, are critical to understand, with an emphasis on sustainability and the environment. Issues of ethics, equity, and justice, situated in historical context, are vital to a full and complex understanding with a goal of equitable and appropriate solutions to environmental crises.

The three pillars are:
  1. Earth and Environmental Science. Majors should understand how the Earth works as a system, with more advanced understanding of selected scientific topics associated with Environment and Sustainability.
  2. Political Economy. Majors should understand the consequences and options of economics and policy at the local, regional, and global level.
  3. Humanities for Environment and Sustainability. Additional Majors should understand cultural, social, historical, ethical, and political aspects of environment and sustainability, including environmental, climate, and social justice.
Students who pursue the Additional Major will be able to: 
  • Apply humanistic, social, and scientific perspectives for problems of environment and sustainability
  • Distinguish among scientific methods for evaluating problems of environment and sustainability
  • Explain how aspects of history, culture, ethics, language, and arts relate to environment and sustainability, including goals for environmental justice and global climate justice. 
  • Assess sources of data about environment and sustainability
  • Formulate a research question for interdisciplinary studies of environment and sustainability. Identify discipline-specific methods for exploring or answering the questions posed and use the chosen methods to gather and analyze evidence

How to Declare the Additional Major

Though there is no application process for the additional major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, students must declare the additional major by contacting one of the program advisors of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies program. A student must declare the Minor or Additional Major no later than the end of the Add period at the beginning of their penultimate semester of college. Core course 66-236 Introduction to Environmental Ideas (9 Units) is offered in both the spring and fall semesters and features a smaller, intimate class size. Students are encouraged to declare the Minor or Additional Major as early as possible, so they can receive priority in course registration, though all are welcome to take this course.

Program Requirements

Primary Major School/CollegeMinimum Units
Students with primary majors in CFA, Dietrich, Tepper102 units
Students with primary majors in MCS, CIT, SCS105 units

Core Courses (CFA, Dietrich, Tepper - 27 units; MCS, CIT, SCS - 30 units)

Units
Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet9-12 units
Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet 1
Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet 1,2
66-236Introduction to Environmental Ideas9
66-506Senior Capstone9
 27-30
1

Offered Spring only

2

MCS, CIT and SCS students must take must take the 12-unit version of Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet (24-381/09-381).

Earth and Environmental Science Course (minimum 9 units)

Complete any one (1) course: Units
03-140Ecology and Environmental Science 39
09-510Chemistry and Sustainability 39
12-201Geology 39
33-115Physics for Future Presidents 39
03-128Biology for Life Special Topics
Section S, "Tropical Ecology" (9 units) offered at CMU Study Abroad Program in Costa Rica 3		9
09-225Climate Change: Chemistry, Physics and Planetary Science9
09-524Environmental Chemistry9
09-529Introduction to Sustainable Energy Science9
09-538Exposure and Risk Assessment for Environmental Pollutants9
33-226Physics of Energy9
3

without prerequisite

Global Course (3 Units)

Units
99-xxxGlobal Course3

Statistics & Data Science Course (9 units)

Units
36-200Reasoning with Data 49
4

This requirement can only be fulfilled with a course taken in the Department of Statistics & Data Science at CMU. AP Statistics does not fulfill this requirement. Students with AP credit can place into a higher-level course offered by the same Department, for example 36-202 or 36-290. 

Political Economy Course (minimum 9 units)

Complete any one (1) course: Units
19-101Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy
Without prerequisite		12
84-110The Economics of Politics and Technology
Without prerequisite		9
84-226International Relations
Without prerequisite		9
84-325Contemporary American Foreign Policy
Without prerequisite		9
88-344Systems Analysis: Environmental Policy
Without prerequisite		9
73-332Political Economy9
73-408Law and Economics9
73-427Sustainability, Energy, and Environmental Economics9
88-221Markets, Democracy, and Public Policy9
88-366Behavioral Economics of Poverty and Development9

Electives for Environmental & Sustainability Studies (45 units)

For the Additional Major, select and complete at least 45 Units of eligible electives in consultation with the Program Advisor and/or Program Director. At least 36 out of 45 Units of Electives for the Additional Major should be “External electives” completed outside of the college where the student’s primary major is housed; this is to encourage students to pursue interdisciplinary breadth. The remaining 9 Units of Electives for the Additional Major are “Free electives” from any college, including the student's own primary college. 

Example

A student with a primary Major in Art (College of Fine Arts) could complete up to 9 Units of Electives for the Additional Major within the College of Fine Arts. This means up to 9 Units of Electives could be taken in Music, Design, Architecture, Drama, or Art; the remaining 36 Units of Electives must come from outside CFA: from Dietrich, Engineering, Business, or Science.

Electives are vetted by the program director from the CMU course catalog and listed each term based on the following criteria. Additional courses meeting these criteria can be approved by the program director. 

Additional courses from these categories always count as electives: 
  • Any additional courses listed in the above category “Earth and Environmental Science” can be counted as electives.
  • Any additional courses listed in the above category “Political Economy” can be counted as electives.
Any further electives should:
  • Broaden the reach of the student’s interdisciplinary explorations in environment and sustainability
  • Thematically, courses should either add to depth from above-listed categories: "Earth and Environmental Science";  “Environmental Humanities”; “Three Unit Interdisciplinary Course”; and/or "Political Economy";
  • Or, electives should increase the student’s interdisciplinary grasp of topics related to environment and sustainability, with particular emphasis on topics related to environmental justice and/or global climate justice.

Double-Counting 

Maximum 3 courses, regardless of Units, can be double-counted for the Additional Major from any other Minor, Major, or Master’s program. This maximum does not apply to General Education courses.

General Education courses

Courses taken to fulfill a General Education requirement for the student’s college (the college of the student's primary major) are not calculated as “double-counting” for the Additional Major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.

AP credit

AP courses are not counted towards requirements for the Additional Major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.

Study abroad

Courses taken abroad may count towards Electives for the Additional Major, if accepted for transfer credit by the relevant CMU department and approved by the Program Director.

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