STONY BROOK SOUTHAMPTON: Building a Sustainable Future for All
By Sally Gilhooley

Southampton, a name long associated with the color of money, is now being linked to another kind of green – the eco-friendly kind. On October 4, 2006, on a small, intimate campus formerly occupied by Long Island University, Stony Brook Southampton, was born. Its location, 80 miles east of New York City atop the world’s richest aquifer and next to the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, is ideal for its core curriculum, environmental sustainability.

In an interview with Networking® magazine, Stony Brook University President Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny says, “The Southampton campus will prepare students to work on sustainability issues in many ways. The curriculum is both variegated and interdisciplinary so students can see issues from many sides.

“Sustainability is a way of life, not just a set of science courses – it involves philosophy, economics, political science and humanities…It is how we live in a way that is sustainable, respecting and nurturing all the natural resources we have – including people. Students study on a green campus, are deeply involved in the planning, and work very closely with their professors.
“The students love being pioneers on a small campus where they have so much interaction with the faculty and are so involved in the process. It is a very special educational experience,” adds Dr. Kenny. “I love the fact that we are creating a new educational model in Southampton that I think will be important everywhere – a model for other institutions.”

This fall, approximately 200 students are enrolled on campus including those that were already in the existing undergraduate Marine Sciences program Stony Brook absorbed from Long Island University. Enrollment is projected to jump to about 2,000 within five years.

In a recent interview with Networking® magazine, Dr. Martin A.A. Schoonen, interim dean of Stony Brook Southampton and a professor of geochemistry, says “The target figure (of 2,000 students) will involve adding some carefully selected majors to the existing programs and also expanding the facilities.”

Interdisciplinary Curriculum
At Southampton, classes shaped around the interdisciplinary core are organized around issues related to environmental sustainability, public policy and natural resource management and explore how political, economic and social matters relate to the environment. Learning opportunities off campus include classes in nearby waterways, marine science short courses in Jamaica over winter break and travel to Madagascar to study tropical rainforest ecology. Internships and community service opportunities with local and national environmental groups and government agencies is not only encouraged, but expected.

“After graduation,” Dr. Kenny adds, “students will be able to become planners, enter green businesses through a combined BA/MBA program, become writers or health workers or teachers.”
This fall, in addition to degrees in Marine Science and Environmental Studies, Stony Brook Southampton is offering three new degrees: Sustainability Studies, BA; Ecosystems and Human Impact, BA; and Environmental Design, Policy and Planning.

“These last three degrees are highly interdisciplinary,” notes Dr. Schoonen, “and prepare students to take on some of the challenges we face.” The school is also launching the offering of a Business Management Degree with a specialization in Sustainable Business that “recognizes the growing importance of sustainability in business.”

He adds, “We are planning to submit a new coastal environmental science program to the state for approval. This is in response to the unique problems associated with managing coastal zones.”

Green Business Careers
At present, starting salaries for marine biologists and oceanographers are from $32,000 to about $40,000. Generally they cap from around $75,000 to $87,000. Dr. Schoonen says salaries can be higher for those with advanced degrees. He also suggests that combining sustainability studies with a business degree, either as a dual degree, as a second major or a minor gives today’s students assets that are very beneficial.

“Another path forward for those with BA degrees is to attend graduate school for economics and business and/or to take an entry level position,” suggests Dr. Schoonen. “One thing we really stress here is providing a global perspective for students. The whole issue of sustainability from a global perspective is beneficial in collaborative and exchange programs. Currently, we are working on a collaborative program with a university in Shanghai so our students can be in a modern Chinese city and see what is happening there where for every dollar in economic output they use more energy and emit more carbon dioxide than here in the U.S.

“Clearly China must do more. They are realizing they must start thinking about population growth and their resources. For the world as a whole, we share one thing in common and that is the atmosphere.”
He explains that international sustainability programs are becoming more and more important. Green business is one area that is “exploding” and job opportunities are being “readily created in this field.” Schoonen says, “There is a very real push to create jobs in energy audits, energy consumption and sustainability in general and we need new people who understand these things.”

He observes that greening is one if the most powerful forces in business today and the issues of how it is being done, the outcomes (of using wind and solar energy) and measuring the effectiveness of what is being implemented will require policy and economic change.

“This will involve behavioral change in our society’s way of perceiving development. There might be differences in the way we develop cities. Do they have to be so spread out? Can we have a new model in which people do not rely on their cars so much? Public transportation is an important component of all of this.”

He says, “Stony Brook Southampton is a place where people will think about how to solve some of these issues. How do we get our current society transformed into a low carbon society on our way to a zero carbon society?
“We all know it has to happen and how do we do it without destroying everything we already have? Much has to be done by government and universities, entities that have the time to actually think about the future and don’t necessarily have to focus on tomorrow’s bottom line.”

Course Structure
Training a new cadre of policymakers and the scientists of tomorrow who can understand the problems we face today, the driving forces and economics is key at Stony Brook Southampton. Dr. Schoonen illustrates the school’s multi-disciplinary concept by citing a course on corn and the ramifications of turning corn into a biofuel. What implications does that have for corn prices and our ability to feed people? Who is eating it now? He explains the course is not just an agricultural course or a biology course or cultural anthropology or environmental course but takes in all of the above. When I ask my faculty to teach a course on corn, I need my cultural anthropologist to do two lectures, my biologist to talk about bio-engineering and genetics and my economics professor to jump in and talk about pricing. We have a course in ‘Ecology and Evolution in American Literature,’ and another, ’Collective Action and Advocacy,’ which studies the way people act collectively to address social problems. This is our holistic approach to sustainability.

“Students who come out of our program may become some of the best journalists because they will have the wherewithal to ask the right questions. They may become lawyers or policymakers. They will not become engineers who develop the next widget. But, they will question whether or not we need that widget and will it be economically viable and socially accepted?
“Students will have fundamental training in basic science engineering and bring that to these new ways of teaching where they are challenged to integrate all they learn. It’s a structure that supports our mission of a multi-disciplinary approach not having departments as are found in most universities.”

Importance of Sustainability
Kenny says, “The environment and sustainability are the most critical issues for the 21st century. Stony Brook Southampton is an extraordinary opportunity for students to help shape our response to the global challenges we face.

“Because it is a brand new campus for us, we can build for the needs and requirements of the future. We can experiment and look at new ways appropriate to the times. And the faculty feels the romance of this new venture as much as the students. It is reminiscent of Stony Brook 51 years ago when it opened with 150 students (we now have 24,000 students).”

Founded as part of the New York State University system, Stony Brook University has grown to become a major research university ranked among the top 2% in the world by the London Times.