The Department of Community Sustainability engages with colleagues, students, stakeholders and communities to address social choices within specific environmental, economic and cultural contexts that advance or conflict with sustainability goals.
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
MSU professor selected to receive grant focused on the future of farming
Published on October 10, 2017
Professor Matt Raven has been awarded over $150,000 by the the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program
Larkins Accepts Center Director Position
Published on August 30, 2017
Dr. Michelle Larkins (CSUS Ph.D, 2017) has accepted a position as Director of the Center for a Sustainable Society at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
The Alliance for African Partnership
Published on August 30, 2017
The Alliance for African Partnership is a new initiative at Michigan State University that will develop a collaborative and cross-disciplinary platform for addressing today’s global challenges.
MASFRIJOL eyes long-term sustainability in its final year
Published on August 21, 2017
The need to ensure that farmers have affordable, quality seed to plant is critical to the success of MASFRIJOL as the project nears its completion.
CSUS Announces New Endowed Award for PhD Students
Published on August 21, 2017
New endowment will fund a graduate teaching assistantship in the department.
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
Events
PhD Dissertation Proposal Defense, Ryan Vroegindewey
October 23, 2017 10:00AM - 11:00AM at the Natural Resources RM 130
Patterns of Participation in African Dairy Markets: Analyses of Consumers, Processors, and Farmers in Mali