By Lian Bunny
News Editor
St. Bonaventure University will offer a major in environmental studies starting in the fall of 2015.
The program will replace the environmental science program.
Rather than focusing on technical aspects, like environmental science, this new major is designed to be flexible, letting students choose classes based on their interests and career goals. It allows students to select a concentration in ethics and aesthetics, natural science or social science and policy.
According to the program director and biology professor, Ted Georgian, the new major prepares students for many different kinds of jobs.
“The old major was entirely centered on the natural sciences, with 14 lab courses among the requirements,” Georgian said. “The new major will give students appropriate background for a wide range of careers, such as “green” business initiatives, environmental law and policy, natural resource conservation, environmental education, environmental journalism and marketing and work with governmental and other organizations working to build a more sustainable future.”
Georgian said there are a number of environmental science majors that would like to switch to environmental studies majors. To accommodate these students, the first two of the three foundation courses for the new major were offered in the fall of 2014 and the third course will be offered this spring.
“I’m going to encourage the registrar to allow students to declare environmental studies as their major this spring,” Georgian said.
Junior environmental science major James DiBlasi said he was wary of the major change at first.
“My first thought was “uh-oh,” but after getting the concentrations explained to me I realized it was exactly what I wanted to go to school for,” DiBlasi said. “I really wanted a major that would allow me to be put on a career path to make a difference in the environment from a non-scientific viewpoint. For those interested in researching as to why something is occurring, they can go that route because of the flexibility of this major. For me, specifically, I am interested in the efforts to preserve and clean up the environment through legal action.”
The New York State Department of Education approved the Bachelor of Arts degree in early December.
According to Georgian, the Green Commission, chaired by Sr. Suzanne Kush C.S.S.F., formed an academic subcommittee in the fall of 2008. The subcommittee proposed a plan for developing an environmental studies major. In 2010, the current dean of arts and sciences, Dr. Wolfgang Natter, appointed Georgian, chemistry professor Dr. David Hilmey and professor of psychology Darryl Mayeaux to a committee that developed the proposal for the new major.
New courses for the major have been planned to incorporate the schools of business, education, and journalism and mass communication. Students will have the choice to take classes from each of these schools.
The environmental studies program will require 33 to 35 credit hours, depending on whether or not a lab is added to the requirement. It will include three foundational classes: introduction to sustainable systems (ENV 101), Earth science (112) and human ecology (PHSC 101).
Mayeaux, a psychology professor, will be teaching ENV 101 this spring.
“(The) course explores how humans think about the global challenges we face, the systems that make up the natural world in which we live and how we go about living there,” Mayeaux said. “An emphasis is placed on systems theory to understand the connections among various challenges facing humans across the planet.”
Environmental studies majors will be required to take two courses outside of their concentration area, along with an internship class (ENV 232), a seminar class (ENV 328) and a capstone project (ENV 401).
According to Georgian, no labs are required at the present time. However, the Earth science lab may be added as early as fall 2015.
More information on the new major can be found at www.sbu.edu/environmental. Georgian is working on a proposal for an environmental studies minor, hoping to have it approved for the fall of 2015.
“I hope that this program shows students how to ask questions about the relationships among the environmental, social, economic and political underpinnings of how we live,” Mayeaux said. “Perhaps most important is discovering the appropriate metrics that let us evaluate so many claims that are made regarding being “green” or “sustainable”. I hope that we can help develop the talents of those students so that they may eventually do something amazing for themselves, their contemporaries on the planet and for those to come in the future.”
