Degree Requirements
To earn the BA in Sustainability Studies, you must complete 120 credit hours. You complete the standard degree requirements (including general education requirements) of your campus and school of enrollment, plus the 42 hours of the BA in Sustainability Studies major requirements.
Major requirements (42 credit hours) are broken down into the categories below. You have numerous courses within each category to choose from.
- Introduction to Sustainability (3 credit hours)
- Scientific Foundations of Sustainability (3 credit hours)
- Sustainability Science (6 credit hours)
- Social and Behavioral Foundations of Sustainability (6 credit hours)
- Sustainability in the Arts and Humanities (3 credit hours)
- Methods and Techniques for Sustainability (6 credit hours)
- Written Communication (3 credit hours)
- Business and Economics of Sustainability (3 credit hours)
- Sustainability Capstone (3 credit hours)
- Sustainability Electives (6 credit hours)
You can transfer up to 64 credit hours from a regionally accredited community college, or 90 credit hours from an accredited four-year university or college.
Ron Itnyre
Ron Itnyre is senior lecturer in biology at IU East, and director of the IU East Office of Sustainability. He earned his PhD in plant biology at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and has taught at IU East since 2009. His teaching interests include microbiology and immunology, biological sciences, environmental sciences, and evolution. Under his leadership the IU East Sustainability Council was converted into the Office of Sustainability, under the auspices of the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.
Representative courses: Environmental Science, Introductory Biology and Microbiology
“My students want to learn about the natural world so they can make a difference. These are highly motivated, good students. I am happy to be able to pull them together not from just around East Central Indiana for an in-person class but from all the regional campuses and from all around the US. This diversity is crucial if we are going to address climate change effectively.”
Erin Argyilan
Erin Argyilan is professor and department chair of the geosciences department at IU Northwest. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a Leadership Fellow at the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement. Her interests include geomorphological mapping, physical geography, and luminescence dating. She has published papers on the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Lake Michigan shorelines, the Upper Great Lakes, water quality and modeling, and street sediments and environmental concerns.
Representative course: Environmental Conservation.
“In my approach to teaching, I focus on the three tenants of online teaching – helping students engage with content, with the instructor, and with classmates. Being able to offer a course online and across the regional campuses of IU provides an essential opportunity to create an environment where we share, and benefit from, the diverse natural environments, socioeconomic environments, experiences, and perspectives of our class community.”
Neil Sabine
Neil Sabine is associate professor of biology at IU East in the School of Natural Science and Mathematics. He received a PhD in zoology from Brigham Young University. Among his research interests are the roosting and foraging behavior of turkey vultures in east central Indiana and the relationship between student learning environments and their academic performance. Among his awards are the Frederic Bachman Lieber Award, the University Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the IU East Student-Choice Outstanding Teacher Award.
“What defines my teaching is exploration over explanation. We all are exploring the unknowns of our future using the explanations of our past. Adequate explanations tend to stifle exploration. Students are drawn to explore areas of study where they believe explanations fall short of the mark.”
