Senate Resolution for new Ecology Major

WHEREAS, the Department of Biological Sciences has expressed the intent to disestablish the Ecology and Organismic Biology concentration under the BS in Biological Sciences; and

WHEREAS, the new Ecology major will be interdisciplinary, with the Department of Biological Sciences supplying training in the basic tenets of biology, and the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology offering courses related to the diversity, behavior, and ecological interactions among organisms; and

WHEREAS, this major will be distinct from the Environmental Sciences major, which is more broadly interdisciplinary, encompassing geological and climatological aspects of environmental issues, and from the Wildlife Conservation major, which focuses on the application of ecological principles for conservation and management of ecosystems and species; and

WHEREAS, the Ecology major would provide a broad background that students could apply to many career directions including conservation biology, wetland management, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, city planning (urban ecology), and community health; and

WHEREAS, upon completion of the major, students would be competitive for graduate programs in ecology and prepared to seek certification in Ecology by the Ecological Society of America; and

WHEREAS, the Ecology major supports the 10 goals of undergraduate education and the academic priorities of the University's stated goal to promote programs which engage in cross-disciplinary (or cross fertilization) efforts to create integrated and critically reflective solutions to the world's pressing environmental challenges; and

WHEREAS, the Ecology major has broad support from faculty across the various colleges; be it therefore

RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate approves provisionally, for five years, the establishment of a new major entitled Baccalaureate of Science in Ecology, effective January 1, 2011.