Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

| DCISE ANNUAL REPORT 2015 - 2016 6 As part of the curriculum re-design effort, several new ENV courses were created: Pace Environmental Policy Clinic I, II Social Movement and Environmental Justice Natural History of the Hudson Valley Sustainability and Social Change Agroecology and Sustainable Food Nature in the City ESS has also focused on creating curricula that bridge across schools. To this end, ESS worked with the College of Health Professions to develop a new course in Healthy Living (ENV 1XX) that will be a requirement in the College of Health Professions's curriculum and an elective for ESS students. They also worked with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology to create a cross-listed Environmental Anthropology course in Pleasantville, and are working with the New York City Art Department to create a Sustainable Design course that will be part of a new Sustainability Minor to be available on the NYC campus. ESS worked with the Pace Law School to integrate Law electives into the Master of Arts in Environmental Policy (MEP) program, while the Pace Academy worked with the Law School to integrate the Legislative and Regulatory Law School class into the Environmental Policy Clinic course. ESS hopes to coordinate more with Pace Law on its developing Food Law program. One of the highlights of the year was work performed within the Environmental Policy Clinic course. The Clinic was at the forefront of several major issues, with breakthrough developments in environmental policies that presented students with unprecedented opportunities for research, applied learning and direct civic engagement at the local and state legislative levels. This year's work introduced key figures to the new DCISE and advanced the Clinic's standing across a statewide audience as a path-breaking program in undergraduate education and civic engagement unique to Pace University and Dyson College. One goal of the Clinic was the study and development of a regional policy to ban the use of microbeads -- microscopic particles of plastic common in cosmetic products that contaminate water, fish and wildlife, and have been the subject of bans throughout New York and other parts of the nation. Student clinicians presented the results of their work to Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and his executive staff. Student clinicians were also invited to meet with the environment committee of the Putnam County legislature in a public session. Their presentation persuaded members to bring the subject to the full legislature. Under the leadership of Michelle Land, JD, director of the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies and the graduate program in Environmental Policy, student clinicians researched and wrote their first piece of legislation, the Elephant Protection Act, which would ban the use of elephants in entertainment in New York State. In May, the bill was introduced in both houses of the New York State legislature and passed unanimously in the Republican-controlled Senate under the sponsorship of Senator Terrence Murphy.

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