Resolution for Approval of a new Ph.D. degree in Climatology

WHEREAS, there is a great and ongoing concern for advanced training in climatology in the United States with reports of the National Academy of Science and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and

WHEREAS, the questions of climate change and its causes and implications are among the central environmental questions of our time, and

WHEREAS, the formation of the new College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment in 2009 allows for opportunities afforded by this new college with additional faculty participation in the Ph.D. Program, and

WHEREAS, the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment Climatology Ph.D. Program Academic Council will provide expert advice for the development of the proposed curriculum, and oversee the program, and

WHEREAS, the proposed program will contribute to the University's "Path to Prominence" goal to become a premier research and graduate university; be it therefore

RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate recommends, provisionally for seven years, the establishment of a new Ph.D. in Climatology.