WORKING TOGETHER

Sustainability education is multidisciplinary, reaching across departments and individual courses, which presents both opportunities for innovative collaborations. Curriculum, Research, and Community Engagement (CRCE) helps to facilitate the development and integration of sustainability education and promotes sustainability as an intellectual focus in  the University’s academic affairs. Key approaches include curriculum development and enhancement, faculty development, promotion of sustainability-related research, and community engagement.

Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE)

RCE North Texas is one of the 175 RCE’s worldwide founded in March 2019 at the University of Texas at Arlington. RCE North Texas is a network of 75 multidisciplinary stakeholders, including higher education institutions, businesses, non-governmental organizations, community associations, and local, regional, state and federal government agencies. The North Texas RCE comprises the sixteen counties of North Texas. Our region has grown dramatically over the past forty years, with growth projections indicating a more than doubling in population size from the current 7.2 million residents by the year 2050. In this rapid growth scenario, how will North Texas fare and grow in a sustainable manner as it confronts exploding population projections and associated environmental, economic and social challenges. RCE North Texas is an influencer in the community as cities expand, providing the resources to maximize the potential economic opportunity that well-managed communities can offer and be a conduit for trans-formative education in North Texas. We are focused on the following SDGs, deemed priority for our region. For more information, please visit https://sustainability.uta.edu/rce/

Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability (TRACS)

The Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability (TRACS) is a network of faculty members, students and sustainability professionals supporting higher education in Texas by implementing climate change and sustainability solutions across campus operations, academic curriculum and off-campus fields of influence. TRACS facilitates collaboration between higher education institutions through a variety of means including the Annual TRACS Summit. TRACS is supported by volunteer members representing Texas colleges and universities. For more information, please visit https://texascampussustainability.com/

Service Learning

Service learning integrates community service into academic coursework, whereby students engage in classroom activities and reflection related to the performance of local service projects within the course. More than a volunteer opportunity, service learning benefits both the student and the community partner through reciprocity of needs, which furthers the students’ educational goals while promoting civic responsibility. From focused collaboration with classmates and the community partner, to practical, real-world application, along with reflection and assessment, the learning process becomes a much richer and more well-rounded experience. The Faculty Fellows Program at UT Arlington is a semester-long program for any full-time UTA faculty interested in integrating service learning into their courses. For more information, please visit http://www.uta.edu/csl/index.php

Environmental and Sustainable Studies Minor

Taking advantage of the many courses on sustainability and the environment offered throughout the university, this broadly interdisciplinary program provides students a powerful way to enrich their education and effectively apply their major field of study to some of the most complex and crucial problems of the new millennium.The 18 credit hour Environmental and Sustainable Studies Minor offered through the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs can be combined with most majors, and in some cases completed coursework will qualify for credit.

The sustainability minor requires 18 credit hours. In addition to the core course, the minor requires 15 hours of approved courses taken in each of three areas, liberal arts; natural sciences and engineering; and urban and public affairs and architecture. In geology, for example, sustainability related courses deal with climate change and global warming. In English there are special topics classes that address environmental literature.

Sustainable Engineering Minor

The Sustainable Engineering Minor prepares students in all engineering disciplines to ask questions and analyze problems from a sustainable engineering perspective, and develop sustainable solutions. Students seeking the minor must successfully complete the following courses with a grade of C or better and two electives from the civil, electrical, mechanical and aerospace, or material sciences engineering departments

• Introduction to Sustainable Engineering,
• Operations Research
• Sustainable Engineering Design Project
• Principles of Macroeconomics or Economics for Engineers