Academic Requirements
Every Loyola Undergraduate, regardless of college or school, will need to complete the University Core Curriculum as well as their chosen Major curriculum. In addition, the university has specific Language, Writing and Residency requirements. Here are links to the University requirements and the requirement for SES majors.
Every Loyola Undergraduate, regardless of college or school, will complete the University Core Curriculum. Learn more about University standards and regulations and the University core curriculum
The School of Environmental Sustainability offers six undergraduate degree programs, all of which include a broad foundation of 13 courses (35–36 credit hours). The foundation includes a core of 32-33 credit hours plus a 3 credit hour Society, Ethics and Justice course.
The ENVS core is as follows:
ENVS 137 Foundations of Environmental Science I
ENVS 237 Foundations of Environmental Science II
ENVS 238 Foundations of Environmental Science Lab (1 credit hour)
ENVS 280 Principles of Ecology
ENVS 286 Principles of Ecology Lab (1 credit hour)
ENVS 288 Applied Interdisciplinary Data Analysis
STAT 103 Fundamental Statistics or
STAT 203 Statistics
ENVS 284 Environmental Justice or
PHIL 287 Environmental Ethics or
THEO 184 Moral Problems: Ecology Crisis
ECON 328 Environmental Economics (has prerequisite of ECON 201) or
ENVS 335
PLSC 392 Environmental Politics
ENVS 350a STEP: Water (4 credit hours) or
ENVS 350f STEP: Food Systems (4 credit hours) or
ENVS 227r Ecology of the Mediterranean Sea or
ENVS 281c Environ. Sustainability and Science in China or
ENVS 281v Humans and the Environ. in Contemporary Vietnam or
ENVS 283 Environmental Sustainability or
ENVS 340 Natural History of Belize or<
ENVS 345 Conserv. & Sustain. in Neotropical Ecosystems
ENVS 391 Independent Environmental Research or
ENVS 395 Environmental Internship
ENVS 390 Integrative Environmental Seminar
ENVS 284 Environmental Justice
ENVS 363 Sustainable Business Management
COMM 306 Environmental Advocacy
HIST 292 History of the US Environment
HIST 300 Food, Hunger, and Power in 19th Century Europe
PHIL 287 Environmental Ethics
PSYC 277 Environmental Psychology
SOCL 272 Environmental Sociology
SOCL 276 Sociology and the Politics of Food
THEO 184 Moral Problems: Ecology Crisis
THEO 344 Theology and Ecology
A remaining 15-19 credit hours are needed to complete one of our majors. Options for earning a 5-year B.S. or B.A./M.B.A. dual degree are also available. For specific information and requirements for each major follow the links below.
Students should expect that virtually all courses within the SES curricula will include some writing component. Beyond this, the University requires students complete sections of two courses specifically designated as ‘Writing Intensive’. Prior to enrolling in a ‘Writing Intensive’ course section, students must pass (with a grade of C- or higher) UCWR 110 [College Writing Seminar: Writing Responsibly]. UCWR is typically taken in a student’s freshman year.
Sections of courses that are designated ‘Writing Intensive’ are taught with a special emphasis on developing student writing skills. Writing-Intensive sections are identified with a ‘W’ as the last character in the section number. Students within Writing-Intensive sections will be given a variety of writing assignments throughout the semester that will be integrated closely with the learning objectives in the course. Writing Intensive course sections are offered by most academic Departments and Schools… the requirement need not be filled by courses offered within one’s major.
This requirement is intended to ensure that students continue to develop their writing skills throughout their undergraduate years. As such, the program specified that no more than one writing-intensive course per year can be applied to fulfilling the requirement. Writing-Intensive courses must be completed with a grade of C- or better to count towards graduation.
Transfer students who have completed a two semesters of college composition with a C- or better at their previous institution, or have taken a composition course deemed equivalent to UCWR 110 are not required to taken UCWR 110 at Loyola. Students who transfer in with 59 or fewer transfer credits (completed prior to matriculation) must take two writing-intensive course during their undergraduate career at Loyola; students transferring 60 – 89 credit hours must take one writing-intensive course during their undergraduate career at Loyola; students transferring 90 or more credit hours are considered to have fulfilled their writing-intensive requirement.
Competency at the 102-level or higher in reading, writing and speaking a language other than English is required of all SES students. This requirement can be met in one of three ways:
- Earn college credit by passing (≥ C-) a 102-level or higher course in a language other than English at Loyola or transferred another institution. Students may meet this requirement through coursework in any language offered through the Modern Languages Department, or by studying Latin (LATN) or Ancient Greek (GREK) offered through the Department of Classical Studies.
- Obtaining a waiver through Advanced Placement examination.
- Demonstrate the required level of competency by passing a 102-level language competency exam.
Beginning-Level Language Competency Exams (to satisfy 102-level language requirement)
The SES currently offers the following beginning-level language competency exams (please note that this list is subject to changes/availability):
| Albanian Arabic Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Chinese (Cantonese) Chinese (Mandarin-Simplified) Chinese (Mandarin-Traditional) Croatian French German Greek (Ancient) Greek (Modern) Gujarati |
Hebrew Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Latin Lithuanian Nepali Pashto Persian/Farsi Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian |
Serbian Slovak Spanish Swahili/KiSwahili Tagalog/Filipino Telugu Thai Turkish Vietnamese Yoruba |
Intermediate-Level Language Competency Exams for Global and International Studies Majors/Minors (to satisfy 103- or 104-level language requirement)
Students who major in Global and International Studies are required to complete and pass a 104-level language course or test for proficiency at the 104-level or higher. Students who minor in Global and International Studies are required to complete and pass a 103-level language course or test for proficiency at the 103-level or higher. For Global and International Studies majors/minors, the intermediate-level language competency exams currently available through the CAS Dean's Office are:
| Albanian-Intermediate Chinese (Mandarin-Simplified) Chinese (Mandarin-Traditional) French |
German Italian Japanese |
Korean-Intermediate Spanish Yoruba-Intermediate |
In-residence hours refers to the course credit hours taken at Loyola University, the Rome Center, the Vietnam Center, or taken from any of the Loyola-sponsored study abroad programs through the Office for International Programs.
Students must take their final, uninterrupted 45 hours of instruction or a minimum of 60 hours in residence at Loyola University Chicago.
Students must take their final, uninterrupted 45 hours of instruction or a minimum of 60 hours in residence at Loyola University Chicago. Transfer students seeking a degree in SES must complete at least half of the credit hours required for a department's major (excluding ancillary requirements) with Loyola course work. Please consult the SES program director or your academic advisor for specific degree requirements.
More information for Transfer Students can be found on the Transfer Center web page.
The basic commitment of a university is to search for and to communicate the truth as it is honestly perceived. The university could not accomplish its purpose in the absence of this demanding standard. To the extent that this standard is respected, a genuine learning community can exist. Students of this university are called upon to know, to respect, and to practice this standard of personal honesty.
Academic dishonesty can take several forms, including, but not limited to cheating and plagiarism.
Academic cheating includes, but is not limited to, such acts as:
- Obtaining, distributing, or communicating examination materials prior to the scheduled examination without the consent of the teacher
- Providing information to or obtaining information from another student during an examination
- Using any material or equipment during an examination without consent of the instructor, or in a manner which is not authorized by the instructor
- Attempting to change answers after the examination has been submitted
- Unauthorized collaboration, or the use in whole or part of another student’s work, on homework, lab reports, programming assignments, and any other course work which is completed outside of the classroom
- Falsifying medical or other documents to petition for excused absences or extensions of deadlines
- Any other action that, by omission or commission, compromises the integrity of the academic evaluation process
Plagiarism is the appropriation for gain of ideas, language, or work of another without sufficient public acknowledgement and appropriate citation that the material is not one's own. It is recognized that every thought probably has been influenced to some degree by the thoughts and actions of others, and that such influences can be thought of as affecting the ways we see things and express our thoughts. Plagiarism, however, involves the deliberate taking and use of specific words and ideas of others without proper acknowledgement of the sources. Plagiarism includes:
- Submitting material copied from a published source: print, internet, CD-ROM, audio, video, etc., as one’s own work.
- Submitting another person's unpublished work or examination material as one’s own work.
- Allowing another or paying another to write or research a paper for you.
- Acquiring and using a pre-written paper for course credit.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive. Students should be guided by the principle that it is of utmost importance to give proper recognition to all sources. To do so is both an act of personal, professional courtesy and of intellectual honesty. Any failure to do so, whether by intent or by neglect, whether by omission or commission, is an act of plagiarism. A more detailed description of this issue can be found here.
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Plagiarism on the part of a student in academic work or dishonest examination behavior will result minimally in the instructor assigning the grade of "F" for the assignment or examination. In addition, all instances of academic dishonesty must be reported to the chairperson of the department involved. The chairperson may constitute a hearing board to consider the imposition of sanctions in addition to those imposed by the instructor, including a recommendation of expulsion, depending upon the seriousness of the misconduct.
In addition, a student may not submit the same paper or other work for credit in two or more classes. A student who submits the same work for credit in two or more classes will be judged guilty of academic dishonesty and will be subject to sanctions described below. This applies even if the student is enrolled in the classes during different semesters. If a student plans to submit work with similar or overlapping content for credit in two or more classes, the student should consult with all instructors prior to submission of the work to make certain that such submission will not violate this standard.
In the case of multiple instances of academic dishonesty across departments, the academic dean/director of the student's college may convene a hearing board. Students retain the right to appeal the decision of the hearing board to the academic dean/director of the college in which they are registered. The decision of the dean/director is final in all cases except expulsion. The sanction of expulsion for academic dishonesty may be imposed only by the Provost upon recommendation of the dean/director.
Students have a right to appeal any finding of academic dishonesty against them. The procedure for such an appeal can be found here.
The School of Environmental Sustainability maintains a permanent record of all instances of academic dishonesty. The information in that record is confidential. However, students may be asked to sign a waiver which releases that student’s record of dishonesty as a part of the student’s application to a graduate or professional school, to a potential employer, to a bar association, or to similar organizations.
(The School of Environmental Sustainability policy is based on and is consistent with the Academic Integrity Policy of the University, College of Arts & Sciences, School of Communications.)
Every Loyola Undergraduate, regardless of college or school, will need to complete the University Core Curriculum as well as their chosen Major curriculum. In addition, the university has specific Language, Writing and Residency requirements. Here are links to the University requirements and the requirement for SES majors.