New minor is blazing across campus

A new minor is blazing all facets of Cal Poly’s curriculum. The fire ecology and wildfire hazard planning minor is now available, inviting students to learn about one of California’s biggest threats and how to create sustainable solutions. 

“Fire doesn’t care about socioeconomic status, itt doesn’t care frankly what part of the state you live in — it touches us all,” professor of wildfire management Chris Dicus said. 

The professor and organizer of the new minor hopes to attract a diverse group of students to the program.

“We’ve seen just devastating fires all over the state,” Dicus said. “Whatever particular discipline you might be in, we have a stake in this. We can all work together to try to come up with these holistic solutions.” 

Dicus began designing the minor when he noticed a piqued interest in the subject from his students.

“Through the years we’ve had more and more students from disciplines all across campus wanting to know more, they wanted to make a difference.” Dicus said. 

The new program is not just meant for people in the environmental science field. Architecture student Alexandria Luis chose the minor to gain more sustainability perspectives to supplement her major. 

“I hope to gain the understanding on how to implement wildlife more into my architectural designs or at least into urban areas that I would be designing buildings in,” said Luis. 

With the west coast storms to produce increased growth in the spring, wildfire season is anticipated to be especially impactful this year. Courses for the new fire ecology and wildfire hazard planning minor started at the beginning of this quarter, coming just in time for the peak of fire season in California.