CHASS

Sustainability! What does it mean? Robert Solow, an economist, reminds us that “Sustainability is a vague concept. It is inexact. At best it is a general guide to policies that have to do with investment, conservation and resource use.” ¹

Sustainability: According to the UN’s Brundtland Commission, it means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the abilities of future generations to meet their own needs (1987).

Are we responsible for and to the future?  Think of the oxygen masks on an airplane: Should we put on our mask first or help the child beside us?

Sustainability: The Sustainability Development Educational Panel which advises the Prime Minister of Great Britain defines it as “enabling people to develop the knowledge, values, and skills to participate in decisions…that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future (2000).

         How do we sustain the fundamental needs of a democracy, an educated populace, in a period of budget cuts? If our students are to be the future, how do we provide them with the “knowledge, values, and skills” to participate in the world?  

Sustainability: John Cook, UCR’s Sustainability Coordinator defines it as “an ecological, sociological and economic practice that restores the financial and natural capital of the planet as it meets the needs of various populations around the globe.”

The 2011 – 2012 CHASS Freshmen will be introduced to questions about Sustainability through Henry David Thoreau’s Economy (the first chapter of Walden) during their Orientation. The reading and discussion questions will be available from the Annual Theme Web-site. Prof. Juliet McMullin, Anthropology, will introduce a cohort of CHASS Freshmen to the cultural processes involved in contemporary sustainability practices and projects through an examination of food security, health, the built environment, social justice, education, and any new issues students discover during the course. In their CHASS Connect sequence, Farah Godrej, Political Science; Geoff Cohen, English and CHASS F1RST; Susan Straight, Creative Writing will try to answer the question: Are we the Earth’s Stewards?

We will have a film series developed by Freya Schiwy and Ruhi Khan of Media and Cultural Studies. Our faculty speaker series will begin in October with John Cook, Sustainability Coordinator, UCR. Over the course of the year, we will draw on voices and concerns from across the campus.

Henry David Thoreau argues that all we need to “entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success” is “Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel.”

Please join us in our exploration of Sustainability and the possibility of moving towards what Thoreau would call “the chief end of Man.”

¹ Robert M. Solow “Sustainability: An Economist’s Perspective,” in Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings. 2000, pg 131 -38. Edited by Stavins, Robert.

For more information or suggestions: contact Dr. Geoff Cohen, CHASS F1RST (geoff.cohen@ucr.edu)