Chatham creates School of Sustainability and the Environment

Published 16 June 2009

Two trends — globalization and the centralization of food production — have pushed food safety issues to the fore; Chatham University launches a new degree program designed to provide students with “a deep understanding of the issues surrounding food such as the environmental costs of food production and distribution, cultural issues, sustainability of communities, and safety of the food supply”

Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, yesterday announced the creation of its School of Sustainability and the Environment. The school is expected to provide undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs to prepare students to identify and solve issues and problems related to the environment and sustainability.

The university will begin a search for a dean, and will house the new school’s operations at its Eden Hall Farm Campus in Richland, north of Pittsburgh. The administration anticipates that the programs offered through the School will both attract new students and drive the Eden Hall Farm Campus’ master plan.

The first program offered through the new school will be Chatham’s newest graduate program, the Master of Arts in Food Studies. The degree is designed to provide students with “a deep understanding of the issues surrounding food such as the environmental costs of food production and distribution, cultural issues, sustainability of communities, and safety of the food supply,” according to a release from the school.

Classes will begin in spring 2010 at the Eden Hall Farm campus and the Shadyside campus in Pittsburgh’s East End, and will include courses such as agricultural production systems, food processing, industrialization and waste, food, sustainability and health, and food and culture.