Class to fight climate change
End-of-year presentations can earn prizes up to $2,000
Michael Pasaoa
Issue date: 5/13/08 Section: News
CORRECTION:In the print version of this story, Lawrence Quill, a political science professor, was misquoted as saying, "It could be anything from eco-terrorism, sustainability in business and how to persuade people to be more energy efficient." He did not say "eco-terrorism"; he said "eco-tourism."
This fall, one faculty member from each of the seven colleges on campus will each lead a team of six students to tackle different global climate change issues - in the same course.
"The students on each team will be from a college different from the faculty member who's leading it," said Peter Hadreas, a philosophy professor, "for different points of view."
Hadreas, the director of the Institute for Social Responsibility, Ethics and Education, said the course will be a great opportunity for students to deal with a considerable amount of environmental issues and politics.
"They get to work very specifically on an environmental problem which will enable them to make a generalization, and then come up with specific solutions that might work," Hadreas said.
Lawrence Quill, a political science professor, said the individual faculty members will each pick a particular research topic to explore.
"It could be anything from eco-tourism, sustainability in business and how to persuade people to be more energy efficient," he said.
Phil Boutelle, a senior mechanical engineering major, said he thinks students should take the class for a better understanding of what's going on.
"I think environmental topics have a stigma about them," Boutelle said,"that they're some fringe movement or some political activist thing, that either they have to be for or against."
He said everything people do is tied to the environment.
"If we made it less stigmatized and less daunting through classes like this," Boutelle said, "I think we wouldn't have to the environmental problems we have today because people would be more aware of it in the things they do."
This fall, one faculty member from each of the seven colleges on campus will each lead a team of six students to tackle different global climate change issues - in the same course.
"The students on each team will be from a college different from the faculty member who's leading it," said Peter Hadreas, a philosophy professor, "for different points of view."
Hadreas, the director of the Institute for Social Responsibility, Ethics and Education, said the course will be a great opportunity for students to deal with a considerable amount of environmental issues and politics.
"They get to work very specifically on an environmental problem which will enable them to make a generalization, and then come up with specific solutions that might work," Hadreas said.
Lawrence Quill, a political science professor, said the individual faculty members will each pick a particular research topic to explore.
"It could be anything from eco-tourism, sustainability in business and how to persuade people to be more energy efficient," he said.
Phil Boutelle, a senior mechanical engineering major, said he thinks students should take the class for a better understanding of what's going on.
"I think environmental topics have a stigma about them," Boutelle said,"that they're some fringe movement or some political activist thing, that either they have to be for or against."
He said everything people do is tied to the environment.
"If we made it less stigmatized and less daunting through classes like this," Boutelle said, "I think we wouldn't have to the environmental problems we have today because people would be more aware of it in the things they do."
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