For the last four years, the University of Iowa has declared its intention to integrate sustainability into its teaching, research, and public engagement missions. It’s following through on that promise with a new school in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences focused on sustainability and the environment come fall 2025.

The Iowa Board of Regents approved the opening of a new school, the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, at its Sept. 19 meeting. The opening of the new school will close multiple departments, including the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences.

The two departments will be combined and moved into the new school, known by the acronym SEES. The faculty, staff, and programs within the two closing departments will be realigned within the new school.

Emily Finzel, the school’s future departmental executive officer, said she is excited about all the possibilities that can come of the program’s growth.

“We have two groups coming together who have a natural fit in terms of overlap in research, collaborative projects that can happen, training of students — and it seems like something that should have been done a long time ago maybe, but now we’re doing it,” Finzel said.

Finzel said she’d like to develop an interdisciplinary or collaborative research-based center that would be housed in the school and act as a place where research and teaching related to the environment are based.

“We want to be that hub. We want to bring in people from across campus and from other universities,” Finzel said. “We want to sort of be the place where folks who are thinking about the environment, sustainability, earth science, geography are gathering, not just for Iowa, not just for the United States, but sort of for global issues and future challenges as well.”

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Sara Sanders said in an interview with The Daily Iowan that the creation of the school is an effort to align with the university’s strategic plan. This ensures the college is meeting the needs of current and future generations of students and builds capacity for all programs to thrive.

Creating a School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability within CLAS helps the college align with the sustainability portion of the university’s 2022-27 strategic plan.

“The goal of that [proposal] has been to really put a spotlight, a focal point for the college in the areas of environment and sustainability, with the opportunity for students to have a front door to walk into if they’re interested in environmental work that will direct them to either the social science side or the natural science side,” Sanders said.

Sanders added that faculty within the two closing departments already interact often.

“They are doing such interdisciplinary, inter-collaborative type of work that bringing them together is going to allow the University of Iowa to have a bigger footprint within the space of environmental work,” she said.

The school will also allow for more students to be potentially reached by the sciences curriculum, as both departments currently house required sustainability general education courses like Natural Disasters and The Global Environment. Cornelia Lang, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences associate dean for undergraduate education, said the classes are open to students of all majors.

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“We may have some sections designated for students in the school but still offer other sections for students in general, and we actually are hoping that students might find these majors really exciting after taking those Gen Ed courses and see a pathway for themselves in the school,” Lang said.

Lang added that she has seen increased interest from prospective students in sustainability and environmental studies. The college aims to make it easier for students to take courses in those areas.

“We’re going to build on structures and curriculum that are already in the college. So really, we’re bringing things together in a more coherent way,” she said.

Multiple majors and programs will be moved or added from the departments into the school come 2025, including:

• Bachelor of Arts in environmental policy and planning
• Master of Arts and PhD degrees in geography
• Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in environmental sciences
• Master of Science and PhD degrees in geoscience

The college is also requesting approval to add a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in geographical and sustainability sciences to the school.

Finzel said she spoke with students throughout the restructuring process to get feedback on the development of the new majors and the new curriculum and has heard positive responses.

Looking forward, the undergraduate curriculum of the school features four core courses that all students take, which include a natural science course, a social science course, a seminar, and a geographic information science course.

“The goal of those four courses is sort of to introduce students to the spectrum of possibilities, of things that they could major in within the school,” Finzel said. “I think for students coming into the school, that’s a big improvement and will help them to get to where they want to be faster.”

The university first announced its broad 2025 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences vision in February 2022, with its goals being to keep the liberal arts college a world-class, comprehensive college, build on the college’s strengths, and deliver transformative education that is enhanced by the university’s research, scholarship, and creativity.

Sanders said the areas of study continue to be a top strategic priority for the college.

“This is an area that we are building, we’re growing, we’re expanding, and we’re investing in,” she said.

Finzel said she feels the department is fortunate to have the resources devoted by CLAS for the growth occurring this upcoming year.

“I think that between the combination of restructuring, reevaluating curriculum, and the majors adding additional resources, I feel like [that puts the] pieces in place that we need to be successful,” she said.