Environmental Engineering Minor Granted to Graduates

The 2009 graduating class will include the first group of students to obtain a minor in Sustainable Urban Engineering (SUE) from the College of Engineering.

The new minor aims to understand how urban infrastructure and environmental policies affect the long-term health and wealth of cities, according to the UC SUE Web site.

“The minor was developed by the Center for Sustainable Urban Environments because we wanted to offer students a means of formally studying sustainability,” said Daniel Oerther, an engineering professor and department head. “Students across campus – including engineering, DAAP, construction science and other disciplines – find sustainability to be a topic of scholastic interest.”

Student response also factored into the decision to formulate the program.

“In fact, in 2007 we queried the entire student body via an electronic survey and 1,500 students responded – with more than 1,300 indicating that they wanted to study sustainability and the majority indicating that a minor would be well received,” Oerther said.

Ryan Rosensweig, former student body president, is among those interested students and cites his interest in the topic of sustainability.

“I was selected to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative University in 2007 where I learned how to bolster a commitment to changing the world and impact sustainability on our campus,” Rosensweig said. “This commitment led to the establishment of the Student Government sponsored Sustainability Initiative, which has successfully linked our activist groups together for joint programs.”

Students hoping to find a minor that gives them the opportunity to help their surroundings might find the new program something to look into, Rosensweig said.

 “The SUE minor is empowering,” Rosensweig said. “There is a whole community of students who have made commitments within their degrees to impact our communities through service, research and leadership.”

Curriculum for the program is centered around urban planning and making a  positive change in the world, Rosensweig said.

The SUE minor consists of 30 credit hours, which must be attained within the four categories of required basic courses, technical electives courses, breadth of knowledge electives courses (planning, management, economics and policy) and a required capstone course.

Within those four categories are various classes that students can choose to take as long as they meet the requirements for credit hours. The minor takes one year to complete.

While the topic of sustainability has been integrated within programs such as urban planning, fashion design, operations management and earth sciences, this is the first year the subject was offered as a degree.

 The College of Arts and Sciences offers a master of science and doctorate in environmental engineering and a master of science and doctorate in environmental science within the same department.

Currently, more than 50 students are taking courses to graduate with the SUE minor as part of their formal academic transcript.

Students interested in the SUE minor may contact sue@uc.edu.