With climate change a prevalent concern among students and faculty alike, Colorado State University is committed to addressing the issue and continuing to lead in sustainability and climate education through the CSU Climate Initiative.

“CSU is already among the leading American universities focused on sustainability,” Director of the Climate Initiative Courtney Schultz said. “CSU houses world-class educators and experts working on all aspects of living with climate change and are poised to serve our state and region and educate the next generation of climate leaders.”

The Climate Initiative plans to integrate climate education into the curriculum across all educational disciplines to ensure all students are equipped with climate literacy regardless of their academic background.

“We believe all students at CSU, regardless of background or study focus, should have equal opportunity to explore what climate change looks like through the lens of their discipline. We’ve intentionally woven together climate change perspectives from three colleges and five departments to create a flexible yet well-rounded experience for students.” -Sarah Badding, Climate Initiative leadership team member

“We are bringing together CSU’s many climate change experts from our institutes and beyond, across campus, to support collaboration and innovative curriculum development, which require integration across disciplines and community-based engagement,” Schultz said.

One way CCI will begin integrating climate literacy into the curriculum is through staff training.

CCI plans to offer Climate Across the Curriculum, a two-day session for CSU staff members to learn about key aspects of climate change. Through this program, staff will be trained to integrate climate information into their classes, regardless of their background or academic focus.

“The goal of the workshop is to allow any instructor to add climate change content to their courses, and the workshop has a successful track record at the University of Colorado Boulder,” Schultz said. “Ultimately, climate change affects every discipline, so we recognize the importance of a wide variety of classes exposing students to the relevance of climate change.”

Although nothing has been finalized yet, CCI has already made great progress in its plan to update the curriculum and hopes to have new courses developed by the end of the year.

“Already, CCI is funding courses to be developed or updated with climate change content through the CSU Climate Initiative Sustainability Curriculum Innovation Grant, which includes courses focused on community engagement and public health, geosciences, philosophy, graphic novel development and climate finance,” Schultz said.

In addition to the steps they have taken to update the curriculum, CCI is developing a 12-credit undergraduate certificate in Climate Change and Society with courses offered to all students through multiple colleges at CSU. Schultz said the team working on the initiative hopes to have students enrolled in the certificate program, entirely new classes created and climate change lessons integrated into existing courses by the end of 2024.

“We believe all students at CSU, regardless of background or study focus, should have equal opportunity to explore what climate change looks like through the lens of their discipline,” said Sarah Badding, a member of the CCI leadership team. “We’ve intentionally woven together climate change perspectives from three colleges and five departments to create a flexible yet well-rounded experience for students.”

The steps the university is taking in climate education are heavily dependent on community involvement to ensure there are no major discrepancies in their research and programs. Climate-focused programs at the CSU Spur campus foster community involvement in the project outside of Fort Collins to gain a wider range of perspectives and involvement and benefit those communities.

“Locating our Climate Hub at the Spur campus presents a unique opportunity to connect with Denver’s population center and engage with community members affected by climate change impacts, particularly those in the neighborhoods surrounding the campus,” said Scott Shrake, CCI leadership team member. “This area, by some metrics, ranks as one of the most polluted zip codes in the United States.”

The hope of CCI is that the program will lead students to be more active and engaged in addressing climate change.

“Climate change will be an existential challenge for generations to come,” Schultz said. “Society will have to transition through significant changes, adapting to new conditions and moving towards a decarbonized future. CSU launched the CCI to ensure we are leading on this front — not just in our research and innovation, outreach and engagement but also by training the next generation of leaders with innovative and new programs of study.”

Reach Laila Shekarchian at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.