UF President Bernie Machen has announced a plan to unite UF's environmentally friendly research and education initiatives into one academic program.
In a Friday memo sent to deans, directors and department chairs, Machen named Kim Tanzer, a UF architecture professor, and Thomas T. Ankersen, UF faculty fellow in sustainability, as the program's leaders.
The oversight is necessary because UF's environmentally friendly research and initiatives lack cohesive organization, Tanzer said.
"We have 300 to 400 faculty members who work in some aspect of sustainability," she said. "But we don't speak a common language, so people don't reach across college boundaries."
Tanzer said part of her and Ankersen's jobs will be to look for ways to raise money and develop projects that can be taught among several fields.
"The program is well-positioned to become a national leader," Tanzer said.
Alison Erlenbach, a former intern with the Office of Sustainability and president of Campus Climate Solutions, said developing an academic program would give students the opportunity to develop expertise in specific fields such as climate change and greenhouse gas management.
"The curriculum we have now is just an overview," Erlenbach said.
Sara Hutton, president of Gators for a Sustainable Campus, said she hopes the academic program will bring environmentally friendly studies to the forefront of UF.
"I would love for it to be something like football at UF," Hutton said. "That way when students get here, they just accept that they better get on board with sustainability."
