Sophomore College

Sophomore College (known as SoCo in Stanford vernacular) is an immersive, three-week academic opportunity available to rising sophomores. Students arrive on campus on Labor Day, three weeks before the traditional late September start of fall quarter. They join a cohort of 12 students embarking on a multidisciplinary course of intensive study. The Bill Lane Center for the American West sponsors a SoCo course every year covering topics and issues central to the Western region. 

The course usually involves a week of on-campus learning and two weeks of field study somewhere in the West. Past courses have taken students to Utah and the Southwest, Washington, the Pacific Northwest and Oregon, Montana, Arizona and Nevada, Wyoming, and Hawaii and the Pacific. 

The 2025 SoCo course will be "Climate Resilience and Energy in Hawaii," led by Professor Bruce Cain (Political Science). Students interested in applying should visit the Sophomore College website. The course is summarized below.

2025: Climate Resilience and Energy in Hawaii

This course will explore the practical, social, technical, and political challenges surrounding climate resilience and energy in Hawaii. Hawaii is at the forefront of conservation, climate action, and the clean energy transition. The state has adopted an aspirational goal for 100% carbon-free electricity in 2045. In addition, Hawaii has passed legislation that aspires to 100% fossil-free transportation by 2040, and has similar goals to promote sustainable communities and ensure a just climate transition. Yet at the same time, Hawaii as an island state is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures, sea level rise, more frequent and intense storms, increased coastal erosion, wildfires, and biodiversity loss. 

We will explore practical, social, technical, and political issues surrounding climate adaptation and energy production. All of these issues will be considered in the technical, societal, cultural, natural resource, and political milieu which is the unique nature of Hawaii.  We will spend approximately the first week on campus learning about climate and energy, the climate/energy context in Hawaii, and how Hawaii compares with other western states. Then we will travel to various field sites in Hawaii.

We will meet with relevant policy experts and public officials from governmental agencies, utilities, universities, and public interest groups. The course will conclude with presentations by the students.

Instructors:

Bruce Cain

Spence and Cleone Eccles Family Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in Humanities and Sciences, and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University.

2024: Coastal Resilience: Problems and Solutions to Extreme Weather Challenges on the West Coast 

This course will explore the resilience challenges that coastal areas in the American West must deal with in the face of climate change. These include problems such as projected sea level rise, flooding, land subsidence, drought-stressed water supply, pollution, unsustainable fishing practices, wildfires, and erosion. Solutions to these problems - such as sea walls, levees, and grey infrastructure like dams and reservoirs - are often controversial and the politics over them happens at all levels of government. Some of this controversy occurs along partisan lines, but even in the politically bluest areas adjacent to the oceans and bays, many communities have been slow to take on the planning and actions needed to protect people and property from future extreme weather challenges. 

Traveling up and down the West coast, this course will combine classroom instruction with visits to the communities, facilities and agencies involved in coastal resilience from the Canadian to the Mexican border. We will look at solutions like conventional desalination that have been debated and implemented for decades, but also novel possibilities such as wave-powered desalination. We will discuss the relative merits of creating more water storage through groundwater recharge and water recycling versus building more dams and reservoirs. And as we have done in the past with Bill Lane Center Sophomore Colleges, we will meet with relevant policy experts and public officials from governmental agencies, utilities, universities, and public interest groups. The course will conclude with group presentations by the students.

Instructors:

Bruce Cain

Spence and Cleone Eccles Family Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in Humanities and Sciences, and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University.

2024 Final Student Presentations Video

There are many ways to get involved with the Lane Center and each students' road will be different.  We invite you to read the stories of previous Lane Center students who shared their paths. You may decide to follow their lead or use their experiences as inspiration to write your own story.