Sustainability Dual Major

A dual major can ONLY be a second major; students must have a primary major in a department or discipline before adding a dual major.  Dual majors have fewer requirements than a double or second major, but more required credits than a minor.  

• All majors can combine their primary major with the Sustainability Dual Major.  
• You must have a primary major declared before enrolling. (Not sure what your major will be? Everyone is invited to explore the first course in the Sustainability Dual Major: SUST 401.) 
• You need a GPA of 2.5 or above. Therefore, you must be in at least your second semester to enroll so that you can fulfill the GPA requirement.  
• You should have a desire to learn more about sustainability and solutions for a better world! 

Be a part of a vibrant, committed, and diverse community that will help you: 

• Build your UNH community and professional networks 
• Explore the complexity of sustainability in small, engaging courses 
• Learn how to collaborate with peers and faculty across majors 
• Develop career skills needed to create sustainability solutions in any profession 
• Hone your leadership skills to help create a better world 

As an interdisciplinary field of study and practice, you’ll make connections across issues of science and ethics, policy and technology, and culture and history to better understand and take action on the pressing issues of our time. You might explore: 

• How can we transition to resilient and socially just coastal communities as sea levels rise? 
• How do we transform regional food systems, so they are sustainable, just, and resilient? 
• How can corporations drive sustainability solutions? 
• How can communities and businesses come together to expand renewable energy production, reduce pollution, create living-wage jobs, and alleviate energy deserts? 
• How can we transition to a zero-waste society? 
• How can we develop new models of sustainability education? 

Before you enroll, you need to have a primary major declared and a minimum GPA of 2.5.   

When you’re ready to enroll, sign into WebCat and go to:  

 > Student Records 
> Change of Major 
> 2nd major 
> Liberal Arts 
> Sustainability / BS 

* Note that it may take one to two weeks to get final approval from the Dean's office and show up on your records.  

Students enrolled in the Sustainability Dual Major may be eligible to receive a tuition discount equal to about $8000/year through the New England Tuition Break program. If you are from a New England state that does not have a sustainability undergraduate major (currently CT, MA, MA, and RI), you will automatically qualify for this discount when you enroll in the SDM.

Please note that you must first:
1) declare a primary major; and
2) demonstrate a 2.5 GPA to declare a dual major which means you cannot enroll in the SDM until your second semester. 

Learn more information about the program.

STUDENTS

Students who have taken or will take courses that are NOT on the pre-approved electives list for the SDM may petition to have other sustainability-related courses count towards the 20 credits of required electives for the SDM. Students may petition for elective approval prior to or after taking a course. 

1. Fill out the online form for students with basic information about the course and its sustainability content 
2. Upload a syllabus of the course from the semester you took or plan to take the class. 
3. The SDM leadership team will review the form and syllabus to determine if the class provides explicit sustainability content. 
4. SDM leadership team informs the student of the final decision.  
5. If it is decided that the course should be approved as an elective, the SDM leadership team informs the Registrar. 
6. The SDM leadership team may choose to approach the instructor about submitting the course as a pre-approved SDM elective. 

Petitioned courses may be offered through UNH or by other Institutions, either on or off-campus. We will use the same process for reviewing any of these scenarios.  

A non-UNH course will only be considered if UNH has already approved that course for UNH credit. Note that a course taken for 3 credit hours at another Institution will be worth 3 credits at UNH.  

Similarly, a grade of “C” or better is required for each course accepted, including University System Institutions. 

Once a student’s petition is approved by the SDM leadership team, it will be forwarded to the Discovery Committee for final approval, and then sent on to the Registrar’s office to be recorded in the student’s records 

This process is for students who want to petition for an elective course to be counted toward the SDM. If a student wants to petition for a course to substitute for one of the core courses, that must be approved by the entire UCSDM, and will undergo much greater scrutiny. 

FACULTY

Faculty who would like to have a course pre-approved as an SDM elective follow a similar process:  

1. Fill out the online form for faculty.
2. Upload a syllabus of the course from the semester you took or plan to take the class. 
3. The SDM leadership team will review the form and syllabus to determine if the class provides explicit sustainability content. 
4. SDM leadership team informs the student of the final decision.  
5. If it is decided that the course should be approved as an elective, the SDM leadership team informs the Registrar and lists the course as a pre-approved elective.