Forms and resources

Prospective students

Prospective students can apply through the application portal here. Before applying, read over the directions for the SUS Statement of Intent, which comprises an important element of the application package.

Current students

All Sustainable Communities students should have a current Program of Study completed and uploaded into the “Milestones” section of their LOUIE account. Download the appropriate Program from the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies (OGPS) here, making sure to choose the year of your admission. Only the final Program, completed as part of your graduation application, needs to be signed by your advisor and the faculty program coordinator, but all should be reviewed by your advisor.

The Student Handbook contains a great deal of general program information.

For students planning to conduct independent research, complete a SUS 685 Agreement Form prior to the semester’s start.

Find all other academic forms, such as incomplete work contracts, forms for adding and withdrawing from classes, and leave of absence forms, at the OGPS repository here.

Student funding

Sustainable Communities students regularly benefit from a variety of funding opportunities. Arizona residents, as well as residents of many western states, are able to receive in-state tuition rates. Students are also able to apply for graduate scholarship support.

Some MA students have also been able to take advantage of graduate assistantship opportunities. Some are advertised through the OGPS. Others are available through the Sustainable Communities Program, as are tuition waivers that waive all tuition (in the case of Arizona or WRGP partner state residents) or that reduce tuition from out-of-state to in-state rates. GA, tuition waiver, and student job opportunities with the SUS program are typically advertised to current and admitted students in March for the coming academic year.

For current students, the Graduate Student Government offers travel and research grants that can help fund conference or fieldwork travel, or pay other costs associated with research.

Sustainable Communities students have previously taken advantage of other university funding opportunities, such as the Green Fund (for university sustainability projects and student sustainability research) and the Maxwell-Lutz Award (for interdisciplinary community engagement work).

Thanks to generous donors, the Sustainable Communities Program is often able to offer grants of up to $500 toward travel and other expenses connected to thesis research; interested current students should e-mail Sustainable.Communities@nau.edu with an expression of interest and details about what they propose to do.

Thesis process

Full guidance on how students can plan and carry out their thesis work, and what the role of faculty committee members is, can be found in the following two documents.

• SUS Thesis Guidelines
• SUS Thesis Committee Guidelines

A successful thesis prospectus defense needs to be documented with a signed version of this Prospectus Approval Form. E-mail it to the faculty program coordinator upon completion.

Thesis completion

The Sustainable Communities Program uses standard OGPS protocols and forms relating to thesis defense, completion, and graduation.

For information about finalizing your thesis, including timelines and formatting, visit the OGPS here. For faculty committee members, thesis defense forms are available for download here.

For details about applying for graduation, see here.