https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/uc-san-diego-students-now-required-to-take-course-on-climate-change/

by: Danielle Dawson

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- The start of the school year at UC San Diego in late September marked the debut of a first-of-its-kind graduation requirement for students: a course in climate change.

Undergraduate students who entered the school this year, regardless of major, are now subject to the new requirement, joining other general education courses. The classes available to meet the requirement span subject matters from politics to natural disasters and geochemistry.

Called the Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement in honor of a beloved Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor, the program seeks to ensure undergraduate students are equipped with an understanding of climate change and what can be done to address it.

It is believed to be the first program of its kind at a major public university in California, according to UCSD officials.

"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," UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in a news release on the program last month.

"Whether undergraduates are majoring in 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," Khosla continued.

UCSD first began developing the new graduation requirement back in 2022 after it was offered as a recommendation by the Campus Committee on Climate Change, school officials said.

Jane Teranes, who helped spearhead the effort and others to expand climate change studies at the school, unexpectedly fell ill and died in July of 2022, before their proposal could be finalized. She later became the program's namesake.