Amy,
A signed,
hard copy of the memo below is being sent to you today.
Thanks,
Dan
TO:
Amy Johnson
President, Faculty Senate
FROM:
Dan Rich
Provost
DATE:
SUBJECT:
New Environmentally-Related Degree Options at UD.
I
strongly support the proposals recently submitted for enhancing
environmentally-related undergraduate degree options. As I discussed at
the special meeting with the University Faculty Senate committees on February
19th, these proposals are the direct product of initiatives
undertaken with my full support and encouragement to fulfill the priorities of
the University’s strategic plan.
The
proposals complement one another and should be considered as mutually
reinforcing; together, they provide our undergraduate students with a much
stronger set of educational programs in the domains of environmental science,
environmental studies, and energy and environmental policy.
I call
upon my colleagues in the Senate to expedite the review of these programs so
that implementation may begin in the next academic year, 2009-2010. In this
context, I affirm the commitment of the sponsoring deans that the resources
needed to undertake these programs as proposed are available and will be provided.
In addition, using support from the Unidel Foundation
to support interdisciplinary education, the provost’s office will provide
start-up support of $50,000 for the environmental science and environmental
studies programs, and $50,000 for the energy and environmental policy program.
Below
I have provided additional background on these proposals. I will be
pleased to provide any additional information that will assist my Senate
colleagues in their review of these proposals.
The
Context
In 2007 I
convened a committee of senior faculty and administrators to consider the
visibility and breadth of our environmental assets at UD. They determined
that these assets are strong and distributed broadly across multiple
units. However, they noted that, as a result of this broad distribution, UD’s environmentally related academic and research assets
are often not readily evident to our prospective students, our incoming
students, and sometimes even our matriculated students. In 2008, I
charged an ad hoc faculty committee chaired by Dean Nancy Targett
with the task of making specific recommendations for how we might better
highlight and enhance our environmental offerings. They made a series of
recommendations:
At the
same time, I encouraged a multidisciplinary group of faculty led by Professor
John Byrne to explore potential for an undergraduate program in energy and
environmental policy. Their work resulted in a proposed major by the same
name.
Each of
these initiatives strengthens the options available to UD undergraduates who
are interested in pursuing a degree in the environmental
arena. In addition to providing our undergraduates with
broader options, the initiatives further support the University’s strategic
priorities, engage faculty from across many colleges and departments, and
represent strong models of interdisciplinary education that integrate the
perspectives of science and policy.
The
Implementation
To assure
that such degree programs remain integrated and dynamic there needs to be a
mechanism by which recommendations for the addition/subtraction of courses and
concentrations can be considered from multidisciplinary perspective.
Therefore, upon approval of these degree options, I will form a faculty
Council, comprised of program participants from these and other environmental
degree programs across the campus. The Council will be charged with
coordination of efforts among environmental program, ensuring that programs are
mutually reinforcing, non-duplicative, fully support of student learning needs
and objectives, and systematically aligned with the interdisciplinary goals
upon which they were predicated.
Day to
day operation of programs will reside with a faculty director; Tracy Deliberty in the case of the BS in Environmental Science
and the BA in Environmental Studies and a faculty member to be designated
director of the BS in Energy and Environmental Policy. Both Program
Directors will be ad hoc members of the Council.
Student
advisement, even for those who have not yet declared a concentration within the
environmental major or selected among environmental programs, will be shared
among the participating faculty with home units receiving appropriate resources
and time credit.
The
Resources
The Deans
in each of the participating colleges have committed to providing the resources
needed for the initiation of these programs. They confirm that such
resources are available and will be allocated in support of the programs.
As noted earlier, I further commit the provost’s office to provide assistance
with initial start-up grants for each of the programs. As these programs
grow, additional resources will be needed. Some of those additional resources
will be provided by the sponsoring colleges and the deans of those colleges
have affirms such a commitment. In addition, the colleges and the
University are committed to raising external funds to support these programs;
this is a University priority. This includes raising funds for additional
faculty positions in these areas as well as support for scholarship for
students.
Cc.
Dean
Nancy Targett
Dean
Michael Gamel-McCormick
Vice
Provost Havidan Rodriguez
Professor
John Byrne
Professor
John Madsen
Dan Rich
Provost
(302) 831-2101