While UT Arlington offers numerous individual classes on sustainability topics, we are also working to implement broader academic programs for our students. It’s all part of our commitment to pioneer research and interdisciplinary studies to help ensure a more sustainable future.
Doctoral
Interdisciplinary Studies
Masters
Bachelors
Undergraduate Minors
Other Programs
UT Arlington offers sustainability courses in a variety of disciplines, and we’re adding more every semester. These classes prepare students from all academic backgrounds to analyze the connections between social, economic, cultural, and environmental phenomena and address global concerns about the future.
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
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.
The requirements for the minor are straightforward:
- Take the core course, ESST 2300.
- Take 15 more hours of courses approved for the ESS Minor, including at least one course from Group One (Liberal Arts, Social Science, and Business) and at least one course from Group Two (Natural Sciences and Engineering).
- At least 6 hours must be taken in 3000 or 4000 level courses.
(See below for approved courses for the ESS minor. Also note that Independent studies, Honors theses, capstone courses with senior projects, studio or design courses, internships, may all be eligible for the ESS minor if the student concentrates on topics related to environmental or sustainability studies.
Independent studies, honors theses, capstone courses with senior projects, studio or design courses, internships, or service learning courses may all be eligible for the ESS minor if the student concentrates on topics related to environmental or sustainability studies.
List of Sustainability Courses
The ISGI encourages faculty, student, and staff learning in sustainability through financial support opportunities like fellowships and grants.
Speaker Grants
Sustainability Speaker Grants of up to $500 for one speaker is awarded to support engagement of speakers addressing sustainability and environmental stewardship. Speakers may address regularly scheduled academic colloquia, meetings of student organizations, or special events associated with the University. Priority will be given to events expected to reach large and diverse audiences. Cost-sharing with other funding sources is strongly encouraged.
All expenditures must comply with relevant University regulations concerning travel and event expenditures. Awardees will be responsible for all travel and event arrangements and logistics. ISGI will be available to assist with publicity of events for which these awards are made. Applications will be considered at any time but must be submitted at least 8 weeks prior to the proposed event to allow time for evaluation of the application and award processing. Applications should be submitted on the proper form.
Past Faculty Fellowship Awards List
2010-2011
Dr. Carla Amaro-Jimenez – Education – $3,000 — Project Entitled “Increasing Bilingual Pre-Service Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Sustainability through the creation and implementation of materials in dual language classrooms” Dr. Jeff Howard – SUPA – $2,500 — Project entitled “Preparation of core course for new Environmental and Sustainability Studies Minor Program”
2011-2012
Dr. Kevin White – Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education – $5,000 — Project entitled “PreService Science Teacher’s Exploration of the University’s Trading House Creek Through the Use of Probeware Technologies” Dr. Susanna Khavul – Management, College of Business – $4,000 — Project entitled “Innovation and Sustainability in Entrepreneurship and Management” Dr. Jill Devito – Biology — $1,000 — Project entitled “Sustenance & Sustainability: the human ecology of food”
2012-2013
Dr. Stephanie Lynn Daza – Education — $4,700 — Project entitled “Integrating Ecojustice Education into Graduate Courses for Teachers” Dr. Jill DeVito – Biology – $2,450 — Project entitled “Recognizing Ordinary Life as Human Ecology” Dr. Ali Davoudi – Electrical Engineering – $2,850 — Project entitled “Interfacing Building Blocks for Sustainability Energy Sources”
2013-2014
Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald – Linguistics – $4,426 — Project entitled” Traditional Ecological Knowledge, sustainability and Indigenous Language Documentation” Dr. Melanie Sattler – Civil Engineering – $5,000 — Project Entitled “Establishment of an Undergraduate Minor in Sustainable Engineering at UT Arlington”
2014-2015
Jeffrey McGee – Management – $6,185 — 2 Projects entitled “Corporate Sustainability: Lessons from Brazil” and Sustainability-Demonstrating Profits are Moe than the Bottom Line”
2015-2016
Jason Hogue – English – $5,000 — Project Entitled “Community Gardening and First-Year Writing: Service Learning Sustainability Education” Jacqueline Stodnick – English – $3,950 — Project Entitled “The Environment Before Environmentalism”
2016-2017
Dr. Nilakshi Veerabathina – Physics – $2,000 – Project Entitled “Light Pollution and its Social, Ecological, and Environmental Effects and Solutions” Dr. James P. Grover – Science – $2,500 – Project Entitled “Seminar Course on Environmental Sustainability Policy” Dr. Jiyoon Yoon – Education – $4,000 – Project Entitled “Community Science Project to Save the World” Dr. Christopher Kilgore – English – $1,500 – Project Entitled “Sustainability Starts Now: Introducing Key Issues in Collaborative Work Across Institutions”
UTA CARES: Open Education and Open Pedagogy for Sustainable Future and Resource Conservation
Reducing the cost of a college education is a frequent topic in higher education circles. Some colleges and universities such as UT Arlington have been trying to find other ways to reduce costs and conserve resources by eliminating the need for purchasing textbooks by using open educational resources (OERs) as an alternative to commercially published textbooks, thereby reducing fees for students. Other open educational practices, such as open pedagogy, can result in the creation of OER. UTA Libraries sponsor a grant program that supports open pedagogy and OER adoption/creation projects
Open educational resources (OER) are free teaching and learning materials that are licensed to allow for revision and reuse. OER can be fully self-contained textbooks, videos, quizzes, learning modules, lesson plans, syllabi, worksheets, data, and more. Other open educational practices, such as open pedagogy, can result in the creation of OER. UTA Libraries sponsor a grant program that supports open pedagogy and OER adoption/creation projects. The products of open pedagogy are student created and openly licensed so that they may live outside of the classroom in a way that has an impact on the greater and sustainable community. Open pedagogy projects frequently result in the creation of open educational resources (OER).
The current publishing price models for many academic journals and textbooks, where publishers use the knowledge and expertise of university faculty to create content priced beyond a level sustainable for academic libraries and many students, demand exploration of alternative publishing models. Acknowledging this growing challenge, the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Libraries are exploring multiple alternative models to fund the quality scholarship published by our faculty. UTA’s Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students (CARES) grant program provides up to $5000 in grant funding to support projects at UTA that advance the practice of open education. Through this program, UTA Libraries join colleagues at other academic libraries and universities in partnering with faculty to support the adoption and creation of open educational resources (OER). OER can reduce financial barriers that may impede student success, while open pedagogy can transform the educational experience for both teachers and students. For more information please contact Michelle Reed at michelle.reed@uta.edu
To support UT Arlington’s campus initiatives on sustainability and the new minor in sustainability studies, University Libraries staff members have created several informative topic and research guides. These guides pull together library resources pertaining to this broad subject to help students and faculty with their research. The staff is also available for one-on-one assistance on any of the library resources and services.