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. Climate change gave significant boost to Milton’s destructive power, scientists say 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. Standards for the program focused on inviting students to examine the complexities of climate change across disciplines — science, politics, culture, finance, anthropology and psychology — and what potential solutions exist. “It’s a big deal to add any new requirement, so we carefully considered the design of this program," Scripps Oceanography Professor Dan Rudnick, who chairs the committee for approving these courses, said in the release. "It was really important to me that students would have as many course options as possible so this would not be a burden and they would ultimately graduate with a deeper understanding of climate change." Few and far between: Rare comet streams across San Diego sky Among the approved classes for the some 7,000 students in the Class of 2028 who this requirement applies to are courses exploring the history of the Anthropocene, planetary health, the intersection of gender and climate justice, energy economics, the ethics of climate change, and how the environment has shaped literature. Unsurprisingly, Scripps Oceanography offers the most courses compared to other departments, examining the science behind the different systems of Earth and how climate change affects them. “We set up the new requirement with the best intentions to make sure that UC San Diego produces graduates who are ready to meet the challenges of a changing climate, regardless of their field of study,” said Sarah Gille, a Scripps professor who helped develop the program. “We need everyone engaged in this work, and we hope the JTCCER program will inspire others to follow suit.”