Central College is moving its academic programs to the cutting edge of liberal arts education in the 21st century by adding a global sustainability component to its newly restructured core curriculum. Few other schools in the nation have sustainability as part of its required curriculum.

By placing global sustainability in Central’s liberal studies core as a common required element, while simultaneously working to infuse it across the curriculum, all Central students will encounter sustainability in their courses and other credited academic experiences. This will help connect students to their environment locally while raising awareness and understanding of key global dimensions of sustainability.

Global sustainability is also referred to as intergenerational responsibility because of how it meets the needs of the current generation without compromising future generational needs. It’s a partnership between social responsibility and the environment.

“Our faculty are committed to providing Central College students with the knowledge and dispositions to mature as responsible global citizens,” said Paul Naour, provost. “We are delighted the faculty have approved a sustainability core requirement that will inspire environmental stewardship for their present and for the lives they will touch for generations to come.”

Central College is a leader in the Midwest for sustainability as it is a part of the college’s ethos. In recent years, Central made a commitment to create an environmentally-friendly community with a strong emphasis on sustainability. The college has two and soon-to-be three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-rating buildings by the U.S. Green Building Council and has a commitment to building green on campus. Central’s Vermeer Science Center (right) was recognized as the first building in Iowa to obtain a LEED rating, receiving silver. Howard McKee Hall was the first residential building in the state to receive a gold LEED rating. The currently constructed education and psychology building is vying for the state’s first platinum rating, the highest LEED rating. Sustainability efforts extend across campus from dining services (organic foods) to student-led recycling efforts.

Three years ago when the idea of revamping the curriculum began, Jim Zaffiro, professor of political science, thought it would be beneficial to Central and its students to explore the idea of adding a sustainability component. Zaffiro brought this idea to the faculty and 70 percent supported sustainability for a core requirement for graduation.

Last year, a group of faculty members across all disciplines helped put together the framework to make it mainstream across the whole curriculum.

“Global sustainability doesn’t just happen in the classroom,” said Zaffiro. “It can be a dynamic element of service-learning and study abroad.”

Central’s new global sustainability captures the interconnectedness of environmental, economic and social systems. By its nature, sustainability education is interdisciplinary and uses a variety of techniques that promote active, participatory learning, along with the development of practical problem-solving skills. It helps students acquire and apply heightened knowledge, awareness and understanding of how their personal and collective actions affect the sustainability of local and global systems.

Central faculty members might develop new courses or infuse existing ones with new topics or units based on the requirements for the global sustainability component to existing classes.

“Every academic major and program could incorporate sustainability into its courses and for-credit offerings,” said Zaffiro. “We want this to grow across the curriculum.”

The new core will be implemented in the fall of 2010 for all new incoming students. Other steps might include a faculty sustainability workshop to keep up the momentum this summer.

“We’re being true to our mission and goals of the college helping our students develop life-long learning and awareness of environmental stewardship and service to humanity,” said Zaffiro. “We want the curriculum to reflect that and this certainly does.”