Core Pathways

Sustainability is most often defined as meeting our present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The recognition that sustainability is an imperative that must be met stems from the fact that humans are using the earth’s resources and degrading its ecosystems in ways that compromise the health and well-being of future generations and the planet. The Sustainability Pathway will allow students to learn about sustainability from multiple disciplinary perspectives and in interdisciplinary ways. This will help our students integrate the interconnected ideals of viable ecological integrity, viable economies, and equity and justice.

The Feeding the World Pathway focuses on the complex interrelationships among food production, food consumption, hunger, poverty, and the environment. Students in the pathway will explore how the production, consumption, and distribution of food resources are impacted by a variety of factors, including the availability of resources, income levels, and environmental degradation. The production of food in fragile environments and the sustainability of subsistence food systems will be explored, including the role of agricultural development in reducing hunger and poverty throughout the world.

The Global Health Pathway will explore human health and the biological, environmental, psychological, and social factors that impact it, with particular attention to global issues, such as infectious disease, chronic disease, healthcare, mental health, pollution and environmental degradation, agriculture and nutrition, and poverty and social inequalities that affect human well-being. All courses included in this Pathway will include discussion of the social context of health issues, and issues germane to resource-poor regions of the world.

The variety of associated courses in the Human Rights in a Global World Pathway reflects the importance of theories of universal human rights and their applications to a multitude of issues involving oppressed and disadvantaged human groups around the globe. Most current debates focus on historical or contemporary cases of discrimination based on racial identity, gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and age, which have produced deep social and economic inequalities, often given rise to violence, and occasionally led to ethnic cleansing and mass murder. At the same time, critics of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 also debate whether its definition of human rights exceeds what individuals can fairly demand from society and the state. Enforcing laws based on a concept of human rights often produces controversy.

Courses in the Leading People, Organizations, & Social Change Pathway examine theories of leadership and cultivate the skills and competencies necessary to lead people and organizations to achieve social change. Students will be exposed to historical and current examples of leaders and their impact on the communities they serve. Students will also explore and research methods leaders use to inspire, initiate and accomplish change in various formal, social and community roles and settings. Throughout the experience, students will be challenged to think and reflect on the type of leader they believe they should become in order to achieve their goals while addressing the needs of the greater community.

Our contemporary world is shaped by science and technology to such a profound degree that our students cannot be effective leaders and citizens without the capacity to critically engage the scientific and technological dimensions of society. The Values in Science & Technology Pathway invites students to understand the social values and social context of science & technology as social forces. It will provide opportunities for students from all majors to critically examine the practice of science, the social dimensions of technology, the role that these play in society, and the influences of social values on these. This pathway is open to all students interested in this topic, and one need not be a science or engineering major to choose it.