Sustainability is about choices made within specific environmental, economic, social, and cultural contexts. Sustainability scholarship involves creating, integrating and harnessing new knowledge to protect and improve social and natural systems and their interactions. The Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) is an interdisciplinary department that addresses contemporary issues of sustainability in agriculture, recreation, natural resources, and the environment. The Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) was formerly called the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies (CARRS).
Consistent with its mission to assist in the development of sustainable communities, the department offers three undergraduate majors linked by a common core in community sustainability. These three majors - Environmental Studies and Sustainability (ESS); Sustainable Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SPRT); and Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Education (AFNRE) – share a set of courses centered on community sustainability. The CSUS graduate program offers two graduate majors: Community Sustainability (MS and PhD) and Sustainable Tourism and Protected Areas Management (MS and PhD). In both undergraduate and graduate programs, CSUS embraces international as well as domestic applications, engagement, and opportunities.
Undergraduate
CSUS undergraduate programs are designed to educate scholars and practitioners who are able to create, integrate and harness new knowledge to protect and improve both social and natural systems.
Graduate
CSUS offers three graduate degree programs to prepare scholar-activists interested in sustainability, recreation and tourism, food systems, agriculture education and international development for research, community engagement and knowledge production.
Featured in the News
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Local environmentalists upset by Biden's approval of Willow Project
Published on March 24, 2023 by The State News
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Ice makes oil spills harder to detect, easier to contain
Published on January 4, 2023 by Capital News Service
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MSU food safety expert to lead international organization
Published on December 22, 2022 by MSU Today
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Power to the people must include the people
Published on November 28, 2022 by EurekAlert- AAAS
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Global food companies pay shareholders £15bn as millions face poverty
Published on November 28, 2022 by Open Democracy
Events
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Mar 30
Intercultural CANR- The Journey: Lessons from a Migrant Worker
March 30, 2023 1:00PM – 2:00PM Zoom
The March Intercultural Awareness event features Dr. Felipe Lopez Sustaita.
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Apr 7
CSUS Brown Bag Seminar
April 7, 2023 12:00PM – 1:00PM Natural Resources Building, Room 338
Join the CSUS department for their brown bag seminar series where faculty share about their latest scholarship and research. April 7th features Dr. Phil Warsaw.
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Apr 21
Outstanding Established Academic Advisor Award Ceremony
April 21, 2023 3:00PM – 4:00PM Natural Resources Building, Room 338
Jeane Stebleton, is being recognized for winning the 2022 Outstanding Established Academic Advisor Award.