More Students Adding Environmental, Sustainability Elements To Studies.

Crain's Detroit Business (11/22, Benedetti) reported, "More undergraduate and graduate students are adding an environmental or sustainability element to their educational plans -- or honing in on it as a major." At the University of Michigan, for example, "undergraduate enrollment in [its] Program in the Environment initiative has more than doubled since 2005. ... And its School of Natural Resources and Environment has seen an 83 percent jump in its master's program enrollment." According to the university, "dual degrees in engineering, law and business fuel the growth." Carol Miller, chairwoman of Wayne State University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, reported similar interest. "Typically, these students are practicing engineers who want to supplement their existing knowledge and be more marketable but aren't willing to commit to the demands of a graduate degree," she explained. Miller detailed some of WSU's programs, including "sustainability components in both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in civil and environmental engineering."