Making green out of maize and blue, increasing numbers of students across the U-M are pursuing majors and graduate programs that focus on sustainability.
• Undergrad enrollment in the Program in the Environment has more than doubled since 2005 from 128 students to an estimated 291.
• The School of Natural Resources and Environment has seen an 83 percent jump in its master’s program numbers, from 123 students in ’05 to more than 225 today. This growth is fueled largely by its dual-degree offerings with engineering, law and business.
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Now in its 15th year, the dual-degree (MBA/MS) program offered through the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise reached a record enrollment of 121 students.
• A professional master’s program in Energy Systems Engineering that began in 2008 now boasts more than 200 active students.
“Sustainability has become an important national value. The clean energy sector of our economy has seen unprecedented growth and we’ve stepped up to train tomorrow’s green workforce,” says Donald Scavia, director of the university’s Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute and a professor in engineering and natural resources. “U-M’s enhanced focus on sustainability is helping us explore new opportunities within and across schools and colleges to meet this need.”
In the university’s career services office, students are looking for environmentally conscientious employers even in fields that aren’t traditionally thought of as green.
“In the 10 years I’ve been here, I’ve seen a lot more interest and passion for sustainability across all majors,” says Lynne Sebille-White, senior assistant director of employer relations in The Career Center. “It’s a value the students hold and they are looking for ways they can bring it to work with them, or work for an organization whose values incorporate it.”
Program in the Environment
Launched in 2002, the Program in the Environment is currently the fastest-growing major in LSA, which is the largest undergraduate unit at the university. In addition to the close-to-300 students who are concentrating their studies in the Program in the Environment, another 144 are minoring in it.
The interdisciplinary program gives students freedom to tailor their education. They take core math and science classes; general courses in ecology, earth system science and environmental social science; and they specialize by choosing any three upper-level courses relating to some aspect of the environment.
Natural Resources and Environment
Enrollment in master’s degree programs at the School of Natural Resources and Environment has soared in the past five years, largely fueled by an increase in interest in dual-degree programs.
“We’ve seen growing interest in environmental sustainability from students with a wide variety of professional interests, and that’s manifested itself in the enormous growth in dual degrees,” says David Allen, the school’s outgoing associate dean for academic affairs.
SNRE has formal partnerships overseen by the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise with the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, the College of Engineering and the Law School. Students also can independently pursue dual master’s degrees in disciplines such as economics, public policy, urban planning, education, public health, ecology and evolutionary biology, anthropology and sociology.
Energy Systems Engineering
Launched in 2008 with 17 students, the 30-hour Energy Systems Engineering master’s program has 207 active students, a majority of whom enrolled in classes fall semester.
ESE graduates systems engineers prepared to work in today’s world of overlapping energy infrastructures. The program is geared toward fresh engineering grads who want to work in energy-related areas, and experienced engineers who want to refocus their careers.
“We anticipate that energy and sustainability will be of critical importance in the years to come. By developing programs in these areas we are responding to the needs of our students and the society at large,” says Suljo Linic, program director and associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
