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February 24, 2003
To: Faculty of St. Olaf College.
From: Review and Planning Committee.
Re: Environmental Studies.
At the March Faculty Meeting RPC will move that the faculty vote to recommend that the Board of Regents recognize Environmental Studies as a Department commencing September, 2004.
Rationale
The rationale for becoming a Department of Environmental Studies at the present time is supported by three arguments: 1. Program size, strength and maturity, 2. The need for a strong commitment to inquiry and education in this emerging area of interdisciplinary scholarship, and 3. The need to insure program quality and stability into the future.
1. A large and steady growth in student demand at St. Olaf for courses in Environmental Studies and for programs (both the major and concentration) in this area reflects regional and national trends in both liberal arts colleges and research universities. This spring an estimated 17 students will graduate with an ES major and 20 with an ES concentration. The increasing popularity of ES programs appears to be a response to the increasing awareness of human impact on the environment and the global nature of environmental problems. Students perceive the 'relevance' of studies of the environment in their lives and seek to link their disciplinary understandings and expertise in the sciences, policy areas and the arts and humanities to environmental studies. Indeed, the complexity of many environmental problems demands just such an interdisciplinary approach. Far from being a 'fad' or a transient response to a short-term set of circumstances, environmental studies, like environmental problems, are likely to be with us for the foreseeable future. The nature of an increasing population in a world of finite resources essentially guarantees this.
2. At the same time, recognition within the academy of the utility and value of interdisciplinary approaches to large-scale problems has coincided with this trend. New interdisciplinary research areas have emerged, together with the funding sources to support them and the professional organizations and venues in which scholarship and research are published. These fields are becoming populated by young scientists calling themselves biogeoscientists, global ecologists and environmental engineers. Similar trends are occurring in the humanities and social sciences. St. Olaf College is educating students for these careers but at the moment our program lacks the full recognition, support and sense of identity that would be afforded by departmental status. By affirming this support, the college makes a positive statement to prospective students, future faculty colleagues and to the academic community about the importance of environmental studies at St. Olaf.
3. The Environmental Studies Program at St. Olaf has benefited from the good will of the chairs and faculty of a number of departments that contribute FTE as well as their own courses to the program. Leave replacements and term appointments have generally been made with generous consideration of ES needs for both departmental courses and FTE. Still, these arrangements are informal and there is no guarantee that future staffing decisions in other programs will continue to honor these arrangements. Creating a Department of Environmental Studies will strengthen and formalize a number of these relationships, better ensuring the stability of the ES program and the continuity of the curriculum. A change to Department status would open up the possibility of joint appointments for new and existing faculty which would allow for, in these cases, greater input from ES. There would be no change for faculty who were not jointly appointed since the Faculty Manual is clear that teaching in another Department is not the same as a joint appointment.
Relationship of Environmental Studies to the Colleges Mission and Goals
St. Olaf College's mission includes preparing students for lives of worth and service supported by excellent academics designed to prepare the students to be "responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world". The Environmental Studies program is committed to educating students who understand the interdependencies among the scientific, economic, political, esthetic and human dimensions that characterize environmental issues. These are often complex problems about which "pronouncements" are made with little or no scientific basis. A strong Environmental Studies program that is linked tightly with the basic sciences is needed to understand these multi-parameter problems. A knowledge of political structures, human behavior and the science of economics is also required to provide students with a framework for realistic solutions. Our ways of knowing and thinking about the environment are also influenced to a large degree by history, philosophy, literature and the arts. Educating students in an interdisciplinary Department of Environmental Studies is our way of preparing "responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world".
Implications of the Change for Staffing
Converting Environmental Studies to a department would not have any effect on the total FTE allotted to the program or to appointments of any individual faculty. No revisions in program requirements or individual courses are being proposed.
