Catalog Entries |
Fall 2013
Apr 23,2024 |
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 | Select the Course Number to get further detail on the course. Select the desired Schedule Type to find available classes for the course. |
| SUST 600 - IS: SUSTAINABILITY |
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0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Independent Study Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 605 - FOUNDATIONS: SUSTAINABILITY THEORY |
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This course is aimed at imparting a broad and deep knowledge about the discourses of sustainability, as they pertain to the theory and practice of dealing holistically with social, ecological and economic systems, under the conditions described above, and with a particular concern for the well-being of present and future generations. We will review key texts, and seminal works that shape the current state-or-the-art in sustainability discourse, and we will learn to apply this discourse to the practice of sustainability.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 610 - FOUNDATIONS:NATURAL RESOURCES,PROCESSES & MANAGEMENT |
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This course presents a broad survey of the critical, foundational concepts related to natural resources and their sustainable management. As a team-taught course, topics are addressed within four thematic modules: (a) geological resources; (b) water, pollutants and waste management; (c) energy and climate change; (d) applied ecology. Most weeks, the class is divided into three segments: (1) lecture about critical principles; (2) student presentations about case studies from the tri-state region; (3) seminar-style discussion about readings from the primary literature. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on how to extract useful lessons from case studies of environmental sustainability and degradation at local, regional and worldwide scales.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 630 - METHODS & PRACTICES OF SUSTAINABILITY |
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Sustainability is about dealing with complex systems, and a systems approach to complexity requires a special view of reality. This course is structured into three modules which deal with both the methods of research required for the study of sustainability and for the practices useful in the implementation of sustainability. Modules One and Two deal with qualitative and quantitative research methods, respectively. The idea here is to give you a working knowledge of the approaches to research that may be useful to you in the development of your Capstone Project. Module Three is focused on the practices of implementation, but with the idea that, in the case of complex systems, the best way of learning is by doing. Here we will look at tools and techniques that may help us to make sense of complexity, and that enable us to grab ahold of the world we care about, and to move it this way or that. Students will emerge from the course with the working draft of a research proposal that can then be developed, over the following semesters, into their Capstone Project.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 640 - ECONOMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY |
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How can the economy be harnessed to serve world sustainability? What makes this question so ironic is that the growth in the physical scale of the economy and its rapacious character under economic globalization has depleted resources, destroyed ecosystems, overwhelmed natural waste disposal sinks, waged war on subsistence cultures, and produced shocking maldistribution of wealth and income. How, then, can the economy be turned around to reinforce sustainable development rather than to destroy ecosystems, resource endowments, and indigenous cultures? This alchemy must be resolved to promote sustainability. The now familiar definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland Commission Report, World Commission on Environment and Development, defines sustainable development as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." How adequate is this definition? Can the precept adequately define guidelines for policy prescription and ethical principles? Does it ensure justice? Will democracy be nurtured? What economic strategies can promote sustainability? Has the concept been distorted to serve narrow commercial interests? The Economics of Sustainability takes up the challenge of working out an ethical and strategic analysis upon which to base civic action, public policy, and normative legitimacy. The global economy, a robust engine of change, must generate world sustainability rather than amplify entropy or indulge corporate interests. This challenge must include but transcent notions of a green economy and must extend its principles globaly.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 650 - SUMMER PRACTICUM |
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The summer Practicum acts as a fulcrum, pivoting the program from its First-Year focus on theory to its Second-Year emphasis on practice. Students will be guided into internships or fieldwork opportunities that will help them develop their understanding of how sustainability is implemented, in ways which help prime their thinking about their own second-year Capstone experience. This course takes the form of supervised fieldwork, and must serve to underscore the criteria of the triple bottom line, in that the activity engaged in must simultaneously consider ecological, social, and economic variables.
The (typically) four-week internship will be book-ended by one week of reading-intensive preparation and one week of writing-intensive reflection. Each Practicum must entail a minimum of 150 formal work hours, supervised by MASS faculty, or by pre-approved faculty from within the Ramapo College community, or, in special cases, by guest faculty drawn from the broader MASS social network. The course will meet on a weekly basis, apart from the actual internship or fieldwork experience, so as to ensure adequate on-going feedback and guidance by faculty. Digital conferencing will be used in cases where students are working abroad or are otherwise away from Ramapo. Students will prepare and maintain a Field Journal, to track their progress through the experience, and completion of the Practicum will be marked by the preparation of a reflective de-briefing report which lays out the experience and the learning embodied by the internship or fieldwork.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 660 - SUSTAINABILITY STUDIO |
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The purpose of the Sustainability Studio is to provide an experiential, project based lecture/lab space where participants can explore and develop the complex skills and abilities needed for implementing sustainability. Each year, a site specific real-world project is designated as the context for student teams to do real sustainability work using the collaborative and interdisciplinary approach characteristic of sustainable practice.
An RFP for this porject is issued by your real client during the first week. The class must then form itself into a sustainability consulting group, preparing a proposal to "win" the contract. It must then complete all contracted "deliverables" on schedule.
We will follow the stages of collaborative Sustainability Practice: Scoping, Assessment, Planning, Intervention Design and Intervention. Each stage involves collaboration, presentation, mutual learning and opportunities for you to maximize your growth.
In keeping with the studio format, frequent presentations and interactive critique sessions will be organized to help guide both the design process and its outcomes. Your clients, visitors from the community, experts and other Ramapo faculty may join some of these events for their input during the project and their feedback at its conclusion.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 670 - EXPERT PRACTITIONER SEMINAR |
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This course is part of the capstone semester in the Masters of Sustainabilty Program and is open to students admitted to the program who have completed the prior three semesters of work.
The purpose of the Expert Practitioner Series is to give students an opportunity in their last term to hear and participate in a seminar with experienced sustainability practitioners.
Each practitioner has their own portfolio--their history, their projects, their skills, their qualities. What are these qualities? What are their particulr gifts and strengths?
Each practitioner works in a context, although they may have switched contexts multiple times. What are the attributes of each context and how do they differ or occur in parallel? Does the person work from the grass roots? Top down? In the marketplace?
Each practitioner works with certain content relating to sustainability. What is the content aspect of their practice? Is it narrow or broad? Is it based on technology or social process? Are they technical or local experts?
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 710 - PROJECT DEVELOPMENT |
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The purpose of this course will be to study the substantive issues of public policy and sustainability, and develop the protocols leading up to an implementation program for the Capstone Project in the subsequent semester. The aim of policy section is to familiarize students with conceptual categories for analyzing the political environment of public policy and to develop an understanding of the major legal principles involved in promoting sustainability such as air and water pollution, energy, etc. Based on these environmental policy frameworks and literature review of thematic debates of sustainability, students will develop their final Capstone Project. The goal will be to complete literature review and collect data for the respective projects. Students will work with assigned advisors and other specialist faculty to explore the policy implications of potential alternatives and to finalize a program for the Capstone Project. Interactive presentations will allow all participants to learn from one another, and to share in each other's research process. A workshop seminar format will be maintained.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Lecture Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 720 - CAPSTONE PROJECT |
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This will be the culmination of the Second Year experience, building on the work done throughout the two-years of the program. Participants will develop the final project, and gain experience in making professional presentations to jury panels.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Seminar Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
| SUST 721 - PROJECT CONTINUATION |
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Project Continuation is required for students who have not completed either SUST 710 Project Development or SUST 720 Sustainability Capstone Seminar in the allotted timeframe.
0.000 TO 1.000 Credit hours 0.000 TO 1.000 Lecture hours Levels: Graduate Schedule Types: Administrative Sustainability Department Course Attributes: MSS COURSE FOR GRAD FEE ASSESS |
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