First-time, first-year students admitted to UC San Diego are now being required to complete a one-quarter course in climate change from an approved list to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
With 33,800 undergraduate students enrolled at UC San Diego this year, the new climate change course requirement will apply to more than 7,000 first-year students.
The first of its kind at a major public university and the first within the University of California system, the new graduation requirement is named for the late Jane Teranes, a beloved Scripps teaching professor and climate education advocate.
Starting this fall, The Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement is designed to empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary to confront the urgent global challenge of climate change.
“UC San Diego has a long history of leadership in climate research and education, and the Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement marks a new path forward,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Whether undergraduates are majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), the humanities, arts, social sciences, or any other field, this requirement will equip them with a strong understanding of climate change and how they can contribute to meaningful solutions.”
More than 40 courses fulfilling the new requirement are presently available for the 2024-25 academic year, with additional offerings on the horizon. Scripps Institution of Oceanography offers the largest number of approved JTCCER courses. Numerous other university departments are providing options as well.
“It’s been in the works since about 2022,” said Scripps physical oceanographer Sarah Gille, who was part of the university work group that developed JTCCER. Pointing out that climate change is a “core of research” being performed at UC San Diego, Gille noted there was “a lot of support” for developing the new climate curriculum. She added Jane Teranes “was a visionary for how to think about preparing students for the future.”
Gille said student choices on climate change classes were deliberately left open-ended so that students could use “any number of approaches” to fulfill their climate-change requirement drawing from a wide assortment of subjects including economics, politics, engineering, and basic science.
Gille defended the new forward-thinking climate-change curriculum. “The university wanted to prepare students for the future they might encounter,” she said. “Looking ahead, most likely these students are going to need to deal with climate change. So you want to give students the tools they need to think about how they need to move forward with this knowledge about climate change.”
Gille said the new climate curriculum typically involves three lectures a week for 10 weeks. She added the new climate courses are designed to “fold into whatever students are doing anyway as part of their general education.”
Will JTCCER courses serve as a model to be replicated elsewhere? “We didn’t design it as a template, but as what was right for UC San Diego,” answered Gille adding, “But we’re getting inquiries (about the program) from other campuses within the University of California system.”
“It’s a big deal to add any new requirement, so we carefully considered the design of this program,” said Scripps Oceanography Professor Dan Rudnick, who chairs the JTCCER Committee responsible for approving courses that fulfill the climate requirement. “It was really important that students would have as many course options as possible, so this would not be a burden and they would ultimately graduate with a deeper understanding of climate change. The resulting program represents a fantastic team effort and is far beyond my expectations.”
For more information on the new requirement, visit https://today.ucsd.edu/. Learn more about research and education at UC San Diego at Climate Change.
Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement
– The JTCCER does not increase the number of courses required for graduation. Many courses approved to satisfy the JTCCER overlap with existing general education or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion courses, as well as courses that apply to major and minor requirements.
– With titles ranging from California politics to literature and the environment to natural disasters, students can choose a course that fits their interests and major requirements without adding to their overall workload.
– Incoming transfer students are exempt from completing the JTCCER, but the requirement may apply to them in the future.
– Satisfaction of the JTCCER does not apply to students who matriculated before fall 2024. Students not subject to the requirement, but interested in climate change are welcomed and encouraged to enroll in one of these courses but are not required to do so.
