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. We offer a core curriculum in community sustainability that supports three majors: Environmental Studies and Sustainability (ESS), Sustainable Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SPRT), and Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Education (AFNRE).
More information about Undergraduate Programs
News
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Congratulations to Obafemi Elegbede
Published on January 14, 2019
Congratulations to Obafemi Elegbede on receiving the Excellence in Diversity Award
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Exploring how climate change will reshape the tourism industry
Published on January 1, 2019
Michelle Rutty, an assistant professor of sustainable tourism at MSU, works to understand how decisions related to natural resources, including climate change, influence the sustainability of the recreation and tourism sectors.
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Bringing collective intelligence research into the 21st century
Published on January 1, 2019
Steven Gray is taking these core concepts into the 21st century in an effort to address some of the most challenging issues facing the world, including climate change, resource management and coastal hazard planning.
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Congratulations to Noleen Chikowore
Published on August 23, 2018
Congratulations to Noleen Chikowore for earning travel funds to attend the Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop
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GMOs: A surrogate for the debate about agriculture?
Published on August 15, 2018
Perceptions of the agricultural and food industries, trends in higher education, questions around research funding, political leanings and socioeconomic factors can also play a part in public concern over GMOs.
Graduate
CSUS offers two graduate degree programs: one in Community Sustainability (CSUS) and the other in Sustainable Tourism and Protected Areas Management (STPAM). Both programs offer Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. CSUS is for students who want an advanced degree related to community sustainability and are interested in interdisciplinary research. STPAM is for students who want an advanced degree related to parks, recreation and tourism with an emphasis on sustainability.
More information about Graduate Programs