Boise State University
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

The Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary liberal arts degree that prepares students to explain and address environmental issues from multiple perspectives. While providing students with a basic foundation in natural and physical sciences, the degree focuses mainly on humanistic and social science theories and methods of integrating knowledge across these systems. The Environmental Studies major requires the completion of a core set of problem-based classes that train students to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge to the development of solutions or recommended adaptations. The Environmental Studies major further includes a selection of classes from departments across campus that build expertise in human and natural systems. Students complete a two-credit experiential learning component that allows them to put into practice expertise earned in coursework. Majors participate in a capstone research experience that integrates team-based collaboration with the iterative process of problem-solving.

The Sustainability Minor is a 22-23 credit interdisciplinary minor with a curricular focus based on the premise that the most pressing societal sustainability challenges of the next century will require an integrated understanding of the social, environmental, and economic implications of the decisions that individual agents make. The Sustainability Minor has been designed to prepare students to better understand how individuals, businesses, and organizations allocate resources, design policies, build processes, products and services, with the ultimate goal of moving toward and achieving sustainability. The long-term goal of the Sustainability Minor is to provide students with the tools that they need to positively transform the organizations and communities with whom they interact, in ways that seek to balance social, environmental, and economic needs and impacts. The minor consists of a focused core curriculum (10 credits); three sustainability-focused electives (9-10 credits) drawn from natural systems, economic and business sustainability, and societal sustainability areas; and a three-credit integrative sustainability culminating activity course, drawn from a broad list of disciplines.

The Climate Studies Minor aims to help students understand past, current and future changes in climate and the effects of climate change on Earth’s atmospheric, biologic, hydrologic and ecologic systems. This minor will include the interactions among physical and human systems, and prepare Boise State students to address the grand challenges associated with global climate change. It provides needed preparation for students joining Idaho’s workforce to understand the causes of climate change, how climate change will affect Idaho’s businesses, agriculture, and forest resources, and how to best prepare for the future. Students who earn the Climate Studies minor will value the importance of good science in making environmental decisions. They will better understand the role of personal transformation (i.e., lifestyle choices and consumptive decisions) and societal change (i.e., community involvement and political action) in response to environmental challenges related to climate change. They will realize the significance of climate and paleoclimate data in forecasting (i.e., climate modeling).

The Global Studies major aims to prepare students as ethical, civically engaged citizens and members of a global community and workforce that increasingly demands an understanding of the complex, diverse, dynamic, and interconnected nature of today’s world. The Global Studies major will prepare students to work in a fluid global context in which people and businesses are on the move, where there are stark differences in people’s access to basic material goods, where there is increasing demand for natural resources and public spending, and where there is consistent contact among individuals and groups that hold different values and interests. In this major, students will learn the skills necessary to be responsive to a changing global environment as well as develop the skills to help lead change. Boise State’s Global Studies program offers a balanced core of courses in the humanities and social sciences. Coursework across multiple academic departments emphasizes critical thinking and provides several disciplinary frameworks for understanding global issues. The program also fosters the development of skills that are highly prized in the global workforce, such as cross cultural sensitivity, analysis of historical context, ability to work in multiple languages, and rich comparative skills.