Passage 2 As Colleges Add Green Majors and Minors, Classes Fill Up 064
环保专业日益走俏 《时代周刊》2009-12-27

 

[00:00]Colleges are rapidly adding new majors and minors in green studies,
[00:07]and students are filling them fast.
[00:10]Nationwide, more than 100 majors, minors or certificates were created this year
[00:17]in energy and sustainability-focused programs at colleges big and small,
[00:24]says the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
[00:30]That's up from just three programs added in 2005.
[00:36]Two factors are driving the surge: Students want the courses,
[00:42]and employers want the trained students, says Paul Rowland,
[00:47]the association's executive director.
[00:50]"There's a great perception that there's a sweet spot with energy to do good and do well,
[00:58]and it appears to be the place of job growth," says Rob Melnick,
[01:05]executive dean of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.
[01:12]The institute started an undergraduate program in sustainability studies -
[01:19]with a focus on solar - a year and a half ago. It now has about 600 students
[01:28]who've declared sustainability a major. "The growth rate is unprecedented,
[01:35]" even though the program has the toughest admission standards of any school
[01:41]at the university, Melnick says.
[01:45]Other schools are also seeing big demand, including:
[01:50]oIllinois State University in Normal, Ill. The school of 21,000 students
[01:58]has 65 majors in renewable energy, a program started in 2008 with help
[02:06]from a $1 million Department of Energy grant. The program has "more students wanting
[02:14]in than we can handle," says Richard Boser, chair of the Department of Technology.
[02:21]Nearby employers, including those in wind energy,
[02:26]hope to hire future graduates, Boser says.
[02:30]oMassachusetts Institute of Technology.
[02:35]In September it launched a minor in energy studies.
[02:40]A student survey said 43% of freshmen
[02:43]and sophomores were very or extremely interested in it.
[02:48]"That's a very large number," says Vladimir Bulovic,
[02:52]associate professor of communication and technology.
[02:57]MIT's student energy club has 1,700 members, vs. several hundred a few years ago,
[03:06]Bulovic says.
[03:08]oUniversity of California-Berkeley.
[03:12]The school has seen student interest in its introductory energy class explode.
[03:19]Ten years ago, it attracted 40 or so students. Now, the class runs 270,
[03:27]says Daniel Kammen,
[03:29]director of the school's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.
[03:35]The Obama administration has estimated that jobs in energy
[03:42]and environmental-related occupations will grow 52% from 2000 through 2016, vs.
[03:51]14% for other occupations.
[03:55]That's partly why budget-strapped schools are adding energy
[04:00]and sustainability programs even while cutting other majors, Rowland says.