The Presidential Working Group on Sustainability in Education, Research and Operations is in the process of approving a proposal for a sustainability graduation requirement for incoming students. The PWG is an advisory group exploring ways to implement sustainability in education; only the University Committee on Curriculum, a faculty-led committee, can change the graduation requirement.  

According to the PWG proposal, students would need to take three to four units of a newly sustainability-tagged course to graduate, although a large amount of general education courses will overlap with sustainability courses. 

Jill Sohm, the director of the Environmental Studies Program and Co-Chair of the PWG Education Committee, said the world is not currently meeting sustainability challenges. 

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“To contribute to solutions, [students] need to have this education,” Sohm said. 

Sohm also said flexibility is important and that the requirement is designed so that students can meet degree requirements while also learning about sustainability within different subjects. 

“Every single discipline can contribute to [sustainability],” Sohm said. “Some of the faculty have an interest in doing this and will move forward with making adjustments on their classes, and others will continue to teach the topics that they are teaching without any change.”

Sohm said the sustainability requirement could be completed simultaneously with other requirements and would, in most cases, not require additional coursework. 

The PWG — a cohort of students, staff and faculty — proposed the requirement during an academic senate meeting Dec. 11. The group cited climate change and threats to planetary stability as the main drivers for their recommendation, along with the failure of the United States and other countries to meet sustainability goals set by the United Nations. 

The academic senate passed a resolution to support the initiative Jan. 15. 

“[There is a] lack of sufficient progress towards a more sustainable and resilient world [that] jeopardizes the future that our students will inherit,” the accompanying resolution reads. 

The resolution also read that flexibility should be maximized for students and that financial costs should be minimized for the University and its departments. 

The Environmental Student Assembly, an undergraduate student group that develops sustainability-themed events and practices, collaborated with the PWG to develop the initiative. 

“We’re trying to integrate it into various disciplines so that it’s relevant to as many people as possible,” said Ashley Halim, ESA’s Assistant Executive Director and a sophomore majoring in environmental studies.

At least 11 other universities have implemented sustainability graduation requirements, per the PWG’s original report. Two universities in California currently have a requirement — UC San Diego and California State University East Bay. 

“Our [requirement] is a lot more integrative … [other schools] didn’t necessarily reach out to classes that were already on their campus and have them be trained,” said Mia Moore Walker, a member of ESA’s executive board and a freshman majoring in dramatic arts and ecology.

Collaborators of the initiative have met with the Council of Academic Advisors, the Registrar’s Office and the Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures, according to the PWG. The Undergraduate Student Government passed a resolution supporting the requirement Jan. 28.

“We’ve gotten student support and faculty support, it’s just figuring out the schematics,” Walker said. 

While project collaborators believe the sustainability requirement will be a draw for incoming students, they acknowledged possible drawbacks.

In the original PWG presentation, they stated that the course requirement “creates [a] larger conversation on GE program[s],” referencing criticism directed towards universities about perceived unnecessary and expensive course requirements. The group also cited new hirings and realignments of course requirements as potential challenges to implementation. While the group believes sustainability will become increasingly critical in the workforce, a potential negative is the “limited ability for students to connect sustainability to [their] major.” 

Others outside of universities have criticized facets of sustainability. A study conducted by the University of Denver said while many support sustainability initiatives and the term itself, others view it as “too vague,” or as a form of greenwashing. USC, however, is a vocal proponent of sustainability initiatives, ranging from online training to establishing the Sustainability Hub. 

While Sohm said she is not certain about when the requirement will be introduced, she expressed her gratitude at how people had responded. 

“I’ve been really pleased to see the excitement with people we’ve talked to,” Sohm said. “I didn’t necessarily know that would be the case when we started this process.”