Iowa State’s new sustainability minor is only a few months old. But a hundred students are enrolled in one of the minor’s core courses this semester. In a recent show of hands, some three-fourths of the students in the class indicated their intent to minor in sustainability.
The idea for the minor grew out of a casual conversation in the office of then-LAS dean Mike Whiteford in 2009. The dean and professors Hallam (economics), Richard Lesar (materials science engineering) and Mark Bryden (mechanical engineering) were discussing existing global and local sustainability activities at Iowa State. They pondered creating a sustainability class, then moved on to a bigger idea — creating a university minor.