The University of Utah recently made a significant move in the realm of environmental education by establishing the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability (ESS) this summer. This new school is the result of a merger between two successful programs within the College of Social & Behavioral Science (CSBS) – the Department of Geography and the Environmental & Sustainability Studies program. This merger was driven by the rapid growth in undergraduate demand for environmental education and the need to foster research collaborations that address urgent societal issues.
Despite the new name and academic structure, undergraduate and graduate degree offerings within the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability remain unchanged. According to Phil Dennison, the director of the new school, the move combines the complementary strengths of two established units into one with 25 tenure-track professors who have training in 11 different fields. These faculty members bring expertise in a wide range of areas including the physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and data science.
The School of Environment, Society & Sustainability takes an applied, integrative, and solutions-oriented approach to its research and education. Faculty members within the school study a variety of societally important questions, such as the changing threat from wildfires, environmental justice issues, glacier and snowpack changes, and the relationship between agriculture and climate-related migration patterns. Through a collaborative and interdisciplinary lens, ESS is advancing research on the most critical challenges at the intersection of environment and society.
Michelle Camacho, the Dean of the College of Social & Behavioral Science, highlighted the importance of the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability in providing more choices to students as they navigate their academic paths. The school also supports highly ranked research programs within the college, engaging in cutting-edge research that requires transdisciplinary approaches to address society’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Courses within the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability are taught by faculty members from various departments within the College of Social & Behavioral Science, including Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, and Political Science. The new school continues to offer three STEM undergraduate degrees – Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Geographic Information Science (GIS), and Geography – providing students with a range of options for pursuing interdisciplinary training in environmental fields.
The programs that merged to create the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability have a long history at the University of Utah. The geography department, founded in 1947, has grown rapidly to include research in areas such as climate change, hazards, ecology, remote sensing, GIS, and urbanization. The Environmental and Sustainability Studies program, established in 1998, focuses on fostering an understanding of ecological systems and human-environment interactions through interdisciplinary approaches.
The establishment of the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability represents a significant step forward for environmental education and research at the University of Utah. By bringing together the strengths of two successful programs, the new school is poised to make a meaningful impact on addressing the complex environmental challenges facing society today and in the future.