Bachelor of Arts
The B.A. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability program combines a grounding in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities with an integrative focus on learning experiences designed to nurture the ability to communicate across disciplines and tackle real world problems. The conservationist Aldo Leopold once lamented that education is "learning to see one thing by going blind to another." Specialists are, of course, absolutely essential to addressing the profound environmental challenges facing humanity today. But the challenges are so deep, their nature so complex, and their scope so global that meaningful responses require visionaries who can appreciate, integrate, and communicate across different ways of understanding to chart new paths forward. The B.A. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability is an interdisciplinary major designed with this foundational principle in mind.
With its broad curriculum, this program is intended as a second major to supplement another field of study. By selecting this major, students will be poised to address environmental issues within whichever professional sector they seek ultimate employment, including but not limited to science, public policy, law, management, business, education, and social science. The curriculum will enable students to explore regional and global environmental issues through a variety of lenses in order to understand the ways in which humans impact and are impacted by the natural world. By exploring environmental issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, the B.A. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability will nicely supplement the more rigorous training that a student receives in their primary discipline, and broaden their career possibilities to include "green" opportunities within their professional sector of choice.
Program Requirements
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Core Courses | ||
| ENV-1000 | Introduction to Environmental Studies | 4 |
| ENV-2150 | Environmental Ethics | 4 |
| ENV-4500 | Environmental Solutions | 4 |
| Environmental Science | ||
| BIO-2200 | Humans and the Environment | 4 |
| Environmental History | ||
| HIS-3410 | Global Environmental History | 4 |
| Environmental Expression | ||
| Select one of the following courses: | 4 | |
| Art and the Environment | ||
| Global Issues in Documentary Film | ||
| Literature and the Environment | ||
| Environmental Social Sciences | ||
| Select one of the following courses | 4 | |
| Environmental Politics | ||
| Environmental Justice and Advocacy | ||
| Selected Courses 1 | ||
| Select two of the following courses: | 8 | |
BIO-381X: Selected Topics in Biology | ||
ENG-381X: Selected Topics in English | ||
ENV-381X: Selected Topics in Environmental Studies and Sustainabillity | ||
HIS-381X: Selected Topics in History | ||
| Total Credits | 36 | |
- 1
Courses that meet this requirement will vary each academic year. The list of eligible courses will be shared in advance of registration.
Undergraduate Degree Requirements
A student who graduates from Aurora University with a baccalaureate degree will have met the following requirements:
- Completion of all requirements for an approved major (with no grades lower than “C”).
- Overall completion of at least 120 semester hours of coursework with a GPA of at least 2.0 on a 4.0 scale (a course may be utilized only once in application toward a degree requirement, unless otherwise noted in the academic regulations). The 120 semester hours of coursework must include:
- At least 52 semester hours completed at a senior college.
- Residency Requirement - At least 30 semester hours completed at Aurora University, including the last 24 semester hours in the degree, and including at least 18 semester hours in the major. (Portfolio assessment credit, life and vocational experience credit, off-campus experience credit, examination credit, participation credit, and block credit, shall not count toward the residency requirement).
- Upper-Division Requirement - A minimum of 30 semester hours numbered 3000 or above. Of these 30 semester hours, 15 semester hours must lie within the major and 15 semester hours must be completed at Aurora University.
- Completion of all General Education requirements (with no grades lower than “C”), as follows:
- Quantitative and Formal Reasoning competency requirement
- ENG-1000 Introduction to Academic Writing
- IDS-1200 Discover What Matters or IDS-3040 Global Justice
- IDS-1150 First Year Experience - Not required for Transfer or AU Online students)
- Satisfactory participation in the junior-year mentoring and assessment process designed to guide students to successful completion of their degree and to encourage planning for next steps beyond graduation. (IDS-3500 Junior Mentoring Program I and IDS-3550 Junior Mentoring Program II - Not required for ADC or AU Online students but may be designated electives for AU Online students admitted with fewer than 15 hours of transfer credit.)
- Distribution Requirements
Students will complete one approved course1 from each of the following categories:- Artistic Literacy
- Cultural Literacy
- Human Inquiry
- Scientific Inquiry
In addition to the above, ADC and Online students will also complete one approved course1 from the following category:
- Discovery and Reflection
- 1
Only courses that are approved to meet the distribution requirement can be used toward this requirement. See the list of approved courses for available options. Courses taken to meet distribution requirements are 4 semester hours apiece, with the following exceptions:
- An approved transfer course of at least 2.50 semester hours can be used to satisfy a distribution requirement.
- Courses with co-requisite laboratory components may be used to satisfy a distribution requirement, provided that the student successfully complete both the three-credit-hour course and the single-credit-hour lab component.
Learning Outcomes
Students who complete the Environmental Studies and Sustainability major will be able to:
- Utilize an interdisciplinary approach to describe and understand human and natural systems and their interdependent nature;
- Critically evaluate strategies to address environmental problems;
- Reflect critically on their values, roles, and responsibilities as citizens, consumers, and members of society and as actors in the natural world;
- Communicate clearly and effectively, orally and in writing.