Collaborating On Sustainability

Over the last decades, many colleges and universities and universities have introduced interdisciplinary studies. Under them, students can jump across the campus to fit together the pieces of many different disciplines. At least that's how it works on paper because not every department likes to cut its majors loose.

Now, says The New York Times, that trend is creating a new interdisciplinary focus on sustainability. It cites the creation of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the new Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment at the University of Tennessee as examples.

There's more than environmental green in all of this. The Golisano Institute is named for its billionaire backer, B. Thomas Golisano. The University of California, Berkeley's new sustainability center is funded by a $10 million grant by Dow Chemical. You can read the full Times piece here.