SPEA goes green

The field of sustainable development is now available as a concentration to current and prospective students in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.\nA committee proposed the introduction of the concentration several months ago. It was approved this month. \nElizabeth Blair, a second-year masters of public affairs student and member of the committee that developed the requirements for the concentration, described sustainable development as “a concept of approaching economic development while at the same time recognizing the limits of natural resources in our world.” \nThe institution of the sustainable development concentration was prompted by overwhelming demand from students, said John Mikesell, director of SPEA’s Master of Public Affairs program and chair of the committee of faculty and students that formed the proposal for the concentration.\nMikesell said the demand was ignited by the popularity of sustainability in general.\nThe popularity of sustainable development is nothing new – the term was actually fully defined and discussed in the Brundtland Report, a paper drafted by a committee at Oxford University in 1987 with the goal of defining the term, Blair said.\nThe popularity of the field is not exclusive to Bloomington either, as countries around the world and influential entities such as the United Nations are promoting reforms in resource consumption and other issues in the field, according to the U.S. State Department’s Web site.\n“Business non-profit and governmental agencies are all worried about sustainability – there are lots of different units involved in this field,” Mikesell said.\nThe requirements for the concentration were formed by a committee including faculty from seven disciplines from topics of sustainability and the inclusion of selected students.\n“The concentration focuses on the three legs of sustainability – ecological, economic and social. That’s the reason for the diversity of faculty and courses involved,” said Burnell Fischer, a clinical professor at SPEA and committee member for the formation of sustainable development concentration.\nStudents who choose to focus on sustainable development have the opportunity to work on sustainability in a number of forums ranging from governmental to international.\nThe originality of the program is profound in that it’s flexible enough for individual students to tailor something to their interests, Fischer said.\nThe committee used existing courses to build the base for the concentration. This allows students to easily transfer credits and mold and shape their concentration to fit their interests and career goals. \nFischer also speculated that although pre-existing courses were used for the base, it’s likely that new classes could stem from this concentration.