Environmental Studies Department
About the Program
The Environmental Studies Department helps students use the
resources of the University to gain an interdisciplinary understanding
of increasingly serious issues such as pollution, wildlife and wilderness
preservation, land use, loss of biodiversity , resource depletion, energy
conservation, and generally a healthful relationship between nature and
society. The Department offers both a major, a minor,
and also assists students in constructing special majors and identifying
programs and individual courses in various departments.
The Program offers a variety of classes that focus primarily on the social
and policy aspects of current environmental issues and natural resource
conservation. The strength of the curriculum is in its breadth and
integrative nature. The Program ensures that students
must utilize concepts from the sciences, social sciences, and the
humanities to succeed in their upper division courses.
The major is designed to help students understand environmental problems in their political, social, and scientific context. Because dealing with environmental problems requires an interdisciplinary approach, The Department emphasizes the development of strong writing, research, quantitative skills and a broad liberal arts perspective.
The Environmental Studies faculty believe that satisfactory completion of
the major classes, complemented by an appropriate mandatory minor, soon to
become a mandatory concentration, is the primary means by which a students
preparation for graduation is assessed.
Completion of the degree also requires a senior thesis, which is completed
in one semester through the ENVS 190 course options, or senior seminars.
These senior seminar courses include: Environmental Quality and Social
Justice, Environmental Politics and Policy, and a third proposed seminar
in Scientific Issues in Environmental Studies.
For information on Program statistics (enrollment, retention, grade distribution etc.) please click here.
