The mission of the Department of Environmental Science & Policy is to educate students to become the professionals who understand and solve environmental problems and, more broadly, to create a Marist College student body with a high level of environmental consciousness. The demands upon Earth's natural resources and life-support systems increase each year as human population and consumption levels increase. Our ability to cope with such demands requires that we educate more of the population about environmental resources, problems and solutions. Consequently, the Department educates majors to become knowledgeable, skilled professionals and educates non-majors to become highly responsible environmental citizens. Majors are also prepared for advanced courses and research in graduate programs.
The Department is an interactive community of faculty and students, committed to better understanding the environment and the problems confronting it, and to finding solutions to correct them. Students are actively engaged by faculty having diverse expertise in natural and social sciences related to study of the environment. We offer a stimulating and relevant curriculum that incorporates classroom, laboratory, field, research, internship and seminar experiences. Through this curriculum, we educate for fundamental understanding of the structure and function of natural, economic and political systems as they relate to the environment. Students come to appreciate the details, complexity and interrelatedness of systems and problems. We also examine the effects of society's activities upon environmental resources and their relevance to human well-being.
Given the College's location, the Department seeks to integrate the ecological features and environmental affairs of the Hudson River Valley, as well as its rich history and culture, into its instructional, scholarly, service, and outreach activities. Moreover, the Department is committed to promoting and contributing to environmentally sustainable practices on campus and beyond.
The Department is committed to the continued professional growth of its faculty, through teaching refinement, scholarly activities, and service to various communities.
PROGRAMS
The Environmental Science program offers concentrations in Science and in Policy. In both concentrations, the program stresses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complexity of environmental problems. The Science concentration provides a strong theoretical and practical foundation in the natural sciences. Using physical, chemical, and biological techniques, students learn how to:
- detect existing and potential environmental problems
- identify underlying causes, and
- advance scientifically valid solutions
The Policy concentration provides background important for the implementation of solutions to environmental problems. Students learn that science-based solutions are implemented in the complex arena of social, political, economic, and legal realities.
They learn how to:
- develop and evaluate cost-effective policy alternatives,
- generate public and political support for practices that lower humanity's impact on the planet,
- enact legislation, and
- devise mechanisms that encourage or ensure compliance with environmentally sound practices
GOALS
Upon completion of the program, students will:
- have acquired the most common technical skills for practitioners in their field
- possess a body of knowledge upon which they can build over a lifetime of experience and learning
- have received practical job or laboratory research experience
- be prepared to work in environmental science laboratories; state, county, and local governmental agencies; consulting firms; and environmental-advocacy organizations
- be able to pursue graduate studies in the sciences, natural resource management, environmental planning, environmental law, and public policy. |
Institutional