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New Northland curriculum prepares students for the clean energy economy

June 26, 2009

A completely redesigned academic program at Northland College in Ashland, Wis. will better prepare students for the growing “green jobs” sector of the economy. Set to launch in the fall of 2009, the redesigned curriculum offers students the choice of four new liberal arts programs and a full set of new or redesigned majors.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics and the recent Pew Charitable Trusts study, “The Clean Energy Economy,” U.S. jobs within the clean energy economy are growing at a faster rate than traditional jobs and have not seen as severe a decrease since the economic crash. The clean energy economy is defined as that economy which generates jobs, businesses and investments while expanding clean energy production, increasing energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and conserving water and other natural resources. It comprises five categories: (1) Clean Energy; (2) Energy Efficiency; (3) Environmentally Friendly Production; (4) Conservation and Pollution Mitigation; and (5) Training and Support.

 “Although the Pew Foundation’s report on clean economy job growth focuses on the clean energy sector, their data show that 65% of the jobs in the clean economy are in the area of conservation and pollution mitigation,” said Rick Fairbanks, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost at Northland. “With strong programs in traditional fields like Biology and Natural Resources and innovative new programs in Environmental Geosciences, Environmental Chemistry, Sustainable Community Development, and Nature and Culture, Northland will prepare its graduates for meaningful and rewarding work in this essential sector of the clean economy. We have been doing it for 35 years.”

Faculty worked more than three years to design the new academic offerings with the concept of connection serving as the new curriculum’s primary feature. First year students at Northland will begin making connections in the College’s new four course blocks and will carry the idea of making connections into their individual majors. All of the college’s new majors, Humanity and Nature Studies, Sociology and Social Justice, Humanities (combining History, Religion, Music, and Literature), Sustainable Community Development, and the Environmental Sciences are built on a foundation of making connections, as have been its most successful continuing majors such as Natural Resources and a redesigned Business Program. 

“The Liberal Arts education is probably most important,” said Clare Hintz, Sustainability Director at Northland, “the problem is that we tend to be very analytical, dividing things into separate parts. But until we can address the amount of complexity in the world today, we won’t be able to escape these complicated problems. Liberal Education teaches us to deal with these problems holistically, through a Systems method. The new curriculum, through the Liberal Arts, is deliberately driving at the point of collaborative thinking. We have one completely new major, sustainable community development. But in this new economy we need all majors to fit. And, of all 17 majors, 10 explicitly state something about sustainability in their descriptions, and in the rest it is implicit.”

Northland’s new curriculum also ties directly into its progressive work-study and internship opportunities. On campus, students do everything from installing solar panels and fixing bikes to running the recycling and community garden programs. Off campus, intern students do research for the Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Northland’s own Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, to name a few. Many of these undergraduate experiences translate directly into the new clean energy economy.

“The campus garden is a really good example,” said Hintz, “because in the garden the students are learning two things: first, they’re learning how to grow food in our climate, and, second, they’re learning how to run a business. Small businesses will be the most important thing for the new economy, and our students, with this experience, can go out and start businesses after college. Or they can work to make other businesses better. Like the students working for Energy and Buildings, they end up working as energy consultants after this, and native landscaping is the same thing.”