{"id":8286,"date":"2018-10-19T00:45:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T08:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=8286"},"modified":"2018-10-19T10:46:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T18:46:51","slug":"western-develops-and-introduces-a-sustainability-major","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/western-develops-and-introduces-a-sustainability-major\/","title":{"rendered":"Western develops and introduces a sustainability major"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bailey Thompson | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

With the start of the 2018-19 school year, a new major has come to Western. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sustainability is an issue that geography professor Dr. Mark Van Steeter has been passionate about for a number of years, and his dream of having it as a major at Western has finally become a reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was something that would be great for students,\u201d said Van Steeter. \u201cFor their ability to understand the interconnections in the world and get employment and have hope about the future instead of dread.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He shared that he committed to developing the major after meeting with President Rex Fuller three years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018Okay. I\u2019ll do it.\u2019 And one of my qualities and weaknesses is when I say I\u2019ll do something, I actually do it. So, I made that commitment to the students, to the president and to myself. And so, I just started working on it,\u201d said Van Steeter.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the final design, students are able to choose one of two concentration areas within the sustainability major: environment or business.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason for this, as Van Steeter explained, is that \u201cit can\u2019t just be the environmentalists complaining; it needs to be corporations and businesses that are working for sustainability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the core of the major, students will take classes in \u201cbusiness, economics, geography, political science, communications, philosophy (and) biology,\u201d said Van Steeter. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put those things together, so they mesh and give people the ability to see reality and therefore do something positive, effectively.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about the importance of prioritizing sustainability both on Western\u2019s campus and in the United Stated, Van Steeter said \u201cby definition, if something is not sustainable it will cease to exist. And given current pressures on ecosystems and on society, we are starting to reap the dark outcomes of not acting sustainably. If we don\u2019t integrate sustainable thinking into our practices and continue down the path we\u2019re on, the world…is not going to be a place of great opportunity and freedom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If students are interested in learning more about the new sustainability major, they can find information on the university\u2019s web page, or they can reach out to Van Steeter at <\/span>vanstem@.wou.edu<\/span><\/a>. They can also talk to<\/span> his colleagues in the Geography and Sustainability Department \u2014 Dr. Mike McGlade, Dr. Shaun Huston, and Dr. Sriram Kh\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailey Thompson | News Editor With the start of the 2018-19 school year, a new major has come to Western. Sustainability is an issue that geography professor Dr. Mark Van Steeter has been passionate about for a number of years, and his dream of having it as a major at Western has finally become a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}