University of Southern Maine

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"Greening The Curriculum" at USM:
The new program will also be offered by USM to area high schools

April 10 , 2006

As Earth Day (April 22) approaches, a new effort to incorporate the teaching of environmental sustainability into the courses at the University of Southern Maine is growing.

A recent seminar, with 16 faculty participants representing a range of disciplines, provided information on how to connect environmental, economic and cultural sustainability factors within course offerings and the participating faculty have revised their course outlines to accommodate it.

Environmental sustainability is defined as the wise and just use of natural resources to maintain Earth's natural cycles while meeting human basic needs and protecting resources for future generations.

USM's program is based on a similar program at Emory University in Atlanta. Professor Sandy Wachholz, associate professor of criminology at USM, read about the program at Emory, became excited about its potential, and invited Dr. Peggy Barlett to facilitate a workshop here to bring the program to USM. Barlett has won national recognition for the workshops she conducted at Emory and is co-author of the acclaimed book "Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change." Emory's program is based on the nationally-acclaimed Ponderosa Project instituted at Northern Arizona University which is an interdisciplinary faculty group effort to incorporate environmental sustainability issues into university courses. The goal is to provide future citizens with the education and skills to achieve sustainable communities and societies.

USM's program is called "Teaching for Sustainability: The Casco Bay Project." Wachholz says now that it is in place and growing within the curriculum at USM, it will be offered in the near future to area high schools. USM experts will provide the structure, guidance, and principles of the sustainability project and help secondary schools to implement it at their level.

Wachholz says, "My lifetime commitment now is to the greening of curricula, one course at a time. It's one of the most important educational components I can think of because of its potential to have a positive impact on our environment and society." She points to the soaring costs of fuel and the use of hybrid vehicles, wind turbines and energy-efficient buildings on campuses as examples of just a few environmentally-friendly ways to save thousands of dollars.

"Some of the efforts can be quite simple," says Wachholz. "For example, doing environmental case problems in class, considering all the printer ink cartridges we use and their negative impact on landfills, reducing our paper usage in education and increasing its recycling." She says, for example, that USM's nursing department emphasizes the impact pollutants have on asthma, cancer and other ills. The geology department is teaching better practices when doing field work and explaining the environmental challenges of Casco Bay and this region to its students. And a class in media studies incorporates a couple of environmental case problems.

"I believe," she says, "that in the short time this effort has been in place, that we have reached at least 500 more students who would not otherwise have had this experience."

Editor's Note: Professor Sandy Wachholz is available for interviews or to provide more information. She can be reached at 780-4106 or e-mail at wachholz@usm.maine.edu. To arrange an interview or obtain more information, you may also contact USM Public Affairs at 780-4200.

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