Sustainability Studies Program Merges with SoMAS
Stony Brook University’s Sustainability Studies Program (SUS) is now part of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), bringing new dimensions in social sciences, humanities and management to SoMAS.
The five SUS undergraduate majors — Environmental Humanities; Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning; Ecosystems and Human Impact; Coastal Environmental Studies; and Sustainability Studies — and the SUS faculty will greatly complement and expand the current scope of SoMAS.
The SoMAS and SUS faculty will work together to integrate the current undergraduate educational programs in SoMAS and SUS; develop a graduate program in SUS; strengthen the Geospatial Center, which offers courses and services in Geographical Information System; and seek opportunities for improvement and growth.
The new, combined unit will retain the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences name, but the SUS program will remain in its current location — on the lower level of the Melville Library adjacent to the Career Center.
Heidi Hutner, Director of Sustainability Studies, will be appointed SoMAS Associate Dean for Sustainability Studies and Director of the SUS Program. As Associate Dean, she will work with the SoMAS Undergraduate Program Director and faculty directors of all majors to share responsibilities of undergraduate advising for the whole school. SoMAS staff member Kim Knoll has been assigned to spend part of her time on main campus to support the SUS program and school-wide undergraduate advising.
Sustainability Studies was a standalone academic unit within the University that was initially developed at the Southampton campus. SUS has 14 full-time faculty, two of which hold joint appointments with SoMAS, and several part-time faculty.