By Alicia Prewett
A new sustainability minor available to Morningside students is now faculty-approved. It won’t hit the catalog until next fall, but interested students can start taking courses now. Freshman Kristin Shaw from Creston, Iowa is excited about the minor even though she’s created her own sustainability major. “I’m passionate about the environment. I want to spread awareness, a lot of people don’t even think about it,” said Shaw.

President Reynders wanted to offer sustainability studies to Morningside students. In effect, he assembled a committee in charge of determining the curriculum. Committee members include Dr. Thomas Gilbert, Dr. William Heyborne, Dr. Lillian Lopez, Dr. Patrick McKinlay, and Dr. Jim Stroh. These professors defined sustainability using the World Commission on Environment and Development’s definition which reads sustainability is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future. When creating the curriculum, committee members made sure to include sustainability in the sciences as well as the humanities.

The new minor is interdisciplinary meaning it requires courses from more than one department on campus. For this minor however, most courses are from the biology and political science departments. The committee hopes to eventually add business courses sometime down the line. A requirement for the committee to go by in creating this minor was to work with already existing courses with the common tie of a sustainability theme. Yet there is a new course being offered from the political science department called United States Food Policy and Globalization. This new 300-level course is not exclusive to the sustainability minor.

Committee members believe the sustainability minor is a good background for almost any student to have. “It’s a logical fit given the current circumstances around the world and the current focus on sustainability in politics, education, and other areas,” said Heyborne. They hope more people might come to Morningside for the environmental aspect. “The minor will be really beneficial, there’s a lot to it. It has the ability to widen everybody’s horizon, to make students more rounded,” said Shaw who wants to work for the United States Environmental Protection Agency or a similar organization someday.

Complementing the minor is a group on campus comprised of faculty, staff and a few students called The College Committee on Environmental Sustainability. This committee is currently helping students like Shaw to develop a new student group on sustainability and the environment. Students who are interested in being a part of the new group, which is yet to receive an official name, should look out for recruiting events in the near future like a showing of BBC’s Planet Earth series. Shaw is excited for the formation of the new environmental group and already has some ideas on ways students can participate, “Save water, shower together. That’s something we’re working on,” said Shaw. She also mentioned starting a “trash talk” campaign centered on student recycling. (Nov. 5)