“The Mission of Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN),” cofounder and cofacilitator Alan Journet explained, “is to promote understanding of the science of climate change and its consequences and stimulate action to address it within a framework of promoting social justice.”

This Spring, SOCAN is engaged in serving its mission in the classroom. The SOCAN course, formerly known as Master Climate Protector, will run for the second year as an SOU course in the Environmental Science, Policy and Sustainability Department where students can take the course to earn three credits, and community members can take it to learn more about climate science.

Students sign up for the course ES 131: Living with Climate Change: Rogue Valley through the regular sign-up procedures (CRN 6405). A typical SOU student comment from 2024 was “I have learned so much from this course and really feel like it is going to have an impact on my lifestyle and choices for the better.” Meanwhile, as typical community member response was “Living with Climate Change will help you understand why every action we take matters for the future of the planet.”

Community members interested in taking the course should sign up using SOCAN’s Registration form online at socan.eco/lwcc-registration. Contact SOCAN cofacilitator Kathy Conway (kathy@socan.eco) with questions. Anyone interested can visit the course website at https://socan.eco/lwcc/ . The course runs for ten weeks through SOU’s Spring term beginning April 2n and ending June 5th, meeting once a week on Wednesdays from 5:30 – 8:20 in the Science Building Room 066.