Sustainability and Resilience courses cross-listed with ISR are multidisciplinary and designed to ground students in understanding natural systems in relationship to society. ISR has worked with faculty across campus to identify more than 100 undergraduate and graduate courses that are sustainability- and resilience-focused throughout 32 different academic departments.
The university’s course catalog contains a full description of all current Sustainability and Resilience courses (denoted as SUST).
For the fall 2023 semester, these SUST courses are being offered.
To cross-list a course as SUST
Faculty members interested in having their course evaluated to be part of the SUST curriculum program, please submit a UHM-2 Form (Modify/Delete A Course) with normal procedures and following university deadlines, with ISR listed as the Dept/Unit and Makena Coffman listed as the Director. Deadlines to submit for consideration for SUST cross-listing are:
Summer & Fall: October 1
Spring: February 15
Please send UHM Forms to ISR (isr@hawaii.edu) after the approval of your College Dean and any other College Deans for other cross-listed departments. The ISR Director will sign after approval by the ISR curriculum committee and work with the General Education Office or Graduate Division Office for concurrent review. Please note, OVCAA updated the UHM-1 and UHM-2 forms and the submission procedures in Summer 2020, but the guidelines are still under revision. If you have any questions about the process or require status updates on existing forms, please email uhmcrse@hawaii.edu.
The Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) for which a class will be evaluated for a SUST cross-listing are detailed below.
SUST Criteria (January 8, 2019)
Courses fitting this set of student learning objectives, with a primary and explicit emphasis, are eligible for the SUST cross-list. SUST courses will be reevaluated every five years, including provision of an updated syllabus. The SUST cross-list criteria and course review process are stewarded by an interdisciplinary committee of sustainability-interested faculty. Committee members serve 2-year terms.
Within a SUST course at UH Mānoa, students will develop:
At the undergraduate level students will, for example, demonstrate awareness of how natural and economic or social systems interact to foster or prevent sustainability, including recognizing underlying processes or stressors.
Sample SUST-based undergraduate student learning objectives meeting this criterion include:
- [Students will] be able to describe examples of how Earth systems are connected, what natural hazards humans face, how natural resources are formed and used, and how climate change affects natural resources and humans.
- Students will be able to explain some of the potential ecological outcomes of different traditional resource management practices.
- [Students will] connect sustainability theory to local place-making, particularly in a Hawaiian planning context.
At the graduate level students will, for example, be able to explain how natural and economic or social systems interact to foster or prevent sustainability, including underlying processes or stressors.
Sample SUST-based graduate student learning objectives meeting this criterion include:
- [Students will] synthesize their new knowledge of indigenous and contemporary management models, laws, policies and regulatory frameworks to develop their own models for sustainable management of Hawaiʻi’s fisheries and ocean resources.
- [Students will be able to] explain the potentials and constraints of addressing urban environmental problems within complex systems of governance.
For example, at the undergraduate level students will be able to distinguish the local, national or global scale of sustainability challenges and proposed solutions, demonstrate critical reflection on sustainability solutions and their ethical or justice implications.
Sample SUST-based undergraduate student learning objectives meeting this criterion include:
- [Students will] be a more informed citizen concerning your environment: demonstrate critical thinking about sustainability, the use of natural resources and environmental pollution.
- [Students will] apply a global perspective of sustainable cities to critically examine the opportunities and constraints of sustainable urban development in an island environment.
For example, at the graduate level students will be able to analyze the local, national or global scale of sustainability challenges and contribute to developing solutions. Students will critically reflect on the ethical or justice implications of sustainability actions.
Sample SUST-based graduate student learning objectives meeting this criterion include:
- [Students will] develop critical thinking by examining the sociological writings on the relationships between environment, technoscience and social movements.
- [Students will] evaluate potential solutions to address the tension between increasing demand for food, energy, and water production, ecosystem health, and human well-being.
- [Students will] integrate theory and evidence to evaluate tradeoffs between food, energy, and water production, and diverse impacts on ecosystems and people.