Can the structure and values of a community inspire an individual to make choices that are good not only in the present, but also for our children, and great-great-great grandchildren? The 2007-08 Campus Theme of Sustainable Communities will host events and dialogues for thinking about how actions taken at IU South Bend affect the long- term health and well-being of our campus, our community, and our world. A sustainable society requires minimizing use of non-renewable resources and promoting the health of its citizens and their environment. Another challenge in this mission is examining how our economic, political, and cultural systems reflect the values held by a society. This raises many questions including:

This is an opportunity for everyone in the IU South Bend community to develop a deeper understanding of the connections between our campus, our community, and our environment.

The IUSB Campus Theme Committee is engaged in coordinating discussions, debates, lectures, presentations, and performances that develop aspects of the campus theme in a manner that calls upon us to take individual and collective responsibility in relation to sustainability. The Table Talk series and other events sponsored by the American Democracy Project constitute a vital component of the Campus Theme program. Serving as a special focus of events and discussion is this year's reading selection in the One Book, One Campus program, An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen. Departments and schools, student groups, individual classes, and community groups are all encouraged to participate in the annual program by proposing events to the Campus Theme Committee; by incorporating scheduled theme events into their own calendars and syllabi; by joining with other groups to produce related events and programs; by attending and participating in campus theme events; and by contributing writing to the American Democracy Project blog and radio commentary series.

The play, An Enemy of the People, fits extremely well with the idea of Sustainable Communities. The focus of the work is on an investigation where a doctor learns that his town's livelihood, a natural hot spring, is chemically infected. When he suggests the community close the springs, the town begins a huge debate whether the natural resource should be closed or kept open so people can have jobs. It definitely explores "structures and values of communities that inspire individuals to make choices that are good not only in the present, but also for our children, and great- great-great grandchildren." Copies of An Enemy of the People are available for checkout from the Schurz Library. Copies are also available for $2.00 at the Campus Bookstore.

The course may include one or more lectures, units, or assignments that educate students on aspects of sustainability (e.g., energy, social justice, environment, business practices, politics of related issues, history, artistic perspectives, influence of music and art on our views of the environment/resources, cultural issues, local vs. global views, food choices, factors that affect whether a society succeeds to meet the needs of its members). The following list includes 100 level courses only.

FINA - A190 Exploring the City - Micheline Nilsen
Focuses on the forces which are shaping cities today. Students will make use of local resources, local records and historical collections in their research projects. They will make measured drawings, elevations and site plans of their research topics. Topics such as local history, industrialization, main street America, racial and ethnic segregation, organic and engineered growth, and environmental issues are considered, especially as they affected the South Bend-Mishawaka area and Chicago.

BIOL - N190 Animals, Zoos, and Society - Jim McLister
The course teaches some of the fundamentals of animal biology, but it also explores specific ways in which society interacts with animals. For example, the course will focus on the ways in which zoos mediate our relationship to wild animals.

BIOL - N190 Plants and People - Andrew Schnabel
Human societies are completely dependent upon plants, which supply us with food, clothing, shelter, fuel, and even the oxygen we breathe. This course will introduce students to the world of plants through the lens of human uses and needs. The course will begin with some basic information about plant structure, physiology, reproduction, ecology, and evolution. It will then turn to topics that show how plants have played an important role in the development of human culture and society. The course will include some lab work and possibly some field trips.

CHEM - N190 Chemistry and our Environment - Bill Feighery
The course focuses on topical, interdisciplinary issues such as the environment, energy, and nutrition. The science is introduced on a need-to-know basis as issues are discussed and developed. There are no pre- requisites for this course. Instruction will focus on only those aspects of the fundamentals of chemistry that have a direct bearing on the applications of chemistry to society.

ENG - W130 and W131 - Sally Smits [writings on local environmental issues]

GEOL - N190 Geology of National Parks - Henry Scott
This course looks at the ways in which society appreciates, understands, uses, and misunderstands the natural environment by way of encounters with natural settings at national parks. Instruction will focus on the geology of the parks, as well as social issues related to land use in general, and assignments will have some application to local and regional sites.

HIST - T190 U.S. Environmental Movements - Monica Tetzlaff
Explores, in an interdisciplinary way, the great humanistic traditions of inquiry regarding ideas of nature. We will trace the history of the environmental movement in the U.S. from the late nineteenth century to the present.

PSY - B190 Social Justice - D Bryant
This class will explore social justice issues, asking what role psychological research, theory, and practice have played. Students will select one of three social justice streams: HIV/AIDS, globalization, and youth oriented interventions. In addition to lecture/discussion, students will get involved with a community organization and keep bi-weekly blogs about what they have learned.

SOC - B190 - Human Rights - Otis Grant
This course serves as an introduction to the theoretical and sociological foundations of human rights in various civilizations and cultures. While surveying the legitimacy of human rights within both Western and non-Western traditions, students will critically examine the meaning and relevance of contemporary human rights issues including torture, political repression, genocide, refugees, minority, children and womenÕs rights, and war crimes.

SOC - B 190 Making Sense of College Life - Betsy Lucal
Have you ever wondered how colleges and universities operate beyond the day-to-day life of students taking classes and participating in campus activities? Have you ever stopped to think about how researchers in sociology, anthropology, history, and economics make sense of college life? Have you read a novel or watched a movie about college life and wondered where such images of university life came from, since they were so different from your own experiences? In this course, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look at college life, and life at IUSB in particular, from the perspectives of various individuals, units and groups on campus. We will learn about how scholars in different disciplines make sense of everything from residence hall life to college athletics. We will also study depictions of colleges/universities in film and in fiction to get other perspectives on campus life.

HPER - N220 Nutrition for Health - Gail Spitzer
This course covers nutrition issues and includes discussions of organic food, school gardens, community supported agriculture, and Future of Food issues.

FINA-A 399 The Modern City - Micheline Nilsen (P: ENG-W 131)
This course focuses on the forces that shaped modern cities. After a brief survey of each city's history, we'll examine the geographical, political, economic, and social factors that molded major European and American cities and two Asian cities from the 18th century to the First World War. We will discover how historical changes affected the general configuration of cities. We'll connect the city, its monuments and vernacular fabric with the intellectual life of its inhabitants. We'll relate the role of communications such as roads, canals, railways, and underground, as well as major infrastructure components such as sewers and water supply, to the development of a modern city. We will study the ideologies which mediated between utopian visions of the city and the actual physical plant of urban configurations as they grew, evolved and became the cities we know today. At the center of the course work is a creative visual presentation.

ANTH - A 105 Human Origins and Prehistory - Jay VanderVeen
We spend a lot of time talking about climate change and how it may affect hominid evolution, we have a unit on the beginnings of domestication and the result of doing so (including reading Jared Diamond's Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race), and how societies maintain themselves during "cultural evolution".

BIOL-N 390 Environmental Biology - Deb Marr (1 SEMSTR COLLEGE BIOLOGY)

Some of the most perennial challenges humans face are environmental issues - how should we use resources, how do our actions affect other species, and how do our actions affect the long-term availability of resources. Not surprisingly, environmental issues cross many disciplines including all fields of science, humanities, arts, business, and politics. In this course we will study environmental issues from primarily a biological perspective, but we will use readings from a variety of sources including book chapters, science journals, government reports, and newspaper articles to consider connections between biology and other disciplines.

CHEM-N 190 Chemistry and our Environment
The course focuses on topical, interdisciplinary issues such as the environment, energy, and nutrition. The science is introduced on a need-to-know basis as issues are discussed and developed. There are no pre- requisites for this course. Instruction will focus on only those aspects of the fundamentals of chemistry that have a direct bearing on the applications of chemistry to society.

GEOL - N 190 Geology of National Parks - Henry Scott (MATH, LEVEL 3)
Our national and state parks contain some of the most beautiful scenery found on the planet, and accordingly draw visitors from around the world. Their spectacular landscapes are the result of a wide range of geologic processes that we will discuss in this course. After introducing the basic framework of plate tectonics we will use individual parks as geologic case studies and introduce geological principles as necessary to scientifically understand what gives the parks their unique character. We will also discuss the political and historical framework in which the park system exists: the establishment and management of national and state parks is a massive undertaking including extensive political, philosophical and economic considerations.

PHIL - P 383 VT: Environmental Philosophy - R. Matthew Shockey (P: ENG-W 131) (Will convert to PHIL-T 390)

PHYS -N 190 Energy in the 21 st Century - Jerry Hinnefeld (MATH, LEVEL 3)
We live in a unique period in the history of our planet. In the span of a few centuries, hydrocarbon deposits with origins dating back hundreds of millions of years will be almost completely depleted. The cheap energy offered by these deposits - petroleum, natural gas, and coal - has fueled a profound revolution in the character of human life (at least for those of us in relatively wealthy countries). However, at the beginning of the 21st century we can begin to see the end of this era of cheap energy. This course will examine the history and current status of energy production and consumption in the U.S. and the world, including the environmental impacts of various energy technologies, investigate the question of just how long the various fossil fuels are likely to last, and explore some of the alternatives for meeting humankind's energy needs once the demand for petroleum and other fossil fuels outstrips the world's capacity to produce them.

SOC - B 190 Making Sense of College Life - Betsy Lucal (ENGLISH, LEVEL 4)
Have you ever wondered how colleges and universities operate beyond the day-to-day life of students taking classes and participating in campus activities? Have you ever stopped to think about how researchers in sociology, anthropology, history, and economics make sense of college life? Have you read a novel or watched a movie about college life and wondered where such images of university life came from, since they were so different from your own experiences? In this course, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look at college life, and life at IUSB in particular, from the perspectives of various individuals, units and groups on campus. We will learn about how scholars in different disciplines make sense of everything from residence hall life to college athletics. We will also study depictions of colleges/universities in film and in fiction to get other perspectives on campus life.

HPER-N 220 Nutrition for Health - Gail Spitzer
This course covers nutrition issues and includes discussions of organic food, school gardens, community supported agriculture, and Future of Food issues.

SPEA-E 162 Environment and People - Tracey Trottier
An interdisciplinary examination of the problems of population, pollution, and natural resources and their implications for society.