Get schooled on the environment
U of M to offer more environmental study courses, minor in the spring
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: News
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Although professors are unsure when the environmental studies minor will be offered, they are in the process of unifying courses into a single program.
Professors said the push for more classes is the result of more student interest in environmental issues.
Dawn Wiest, associate professor of sociology, recently received approval for a new environmental sociology class.
"We are all very interested in strengthening an environmental studies minor at The University and are eager to work together to make that happen," Wiest said.
Erica Christensen, president of The U of M chapter of the Environmental Action Club, said the department of interdisciplinary studies already offers an introductory course to environmental studies. The course also fulfills a general education requirement, she said.
"It's not about hippies or anything. It has a lot of ecology, biology, economics and sociology," said Christensen, senior double major in political science and international studies. "There are many different avenues that it explores, and it gives you a good understanding of what the most important current events are right now."
The anthropology department has been offering the class Health, Culture and Environmental Justice, as well as courses about cultural perspectives on the environment and how tourists affect the environment.
Amy H. Moorman, assistant professor with the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, will offer an environmental law course next semester. The course will focus on federal policies as they relate to air and water quality control, hazardous substances and releases, and national environmental policy, she said.
Moorman said studying the environment is "extremely important" and that the level of student interest in the classes is "very high."
Reza Banai, regional and economic development professor, is currently teaching a course on planning sustainable cities and regions.
Banai said he was excited to see that the students in the class usually come from diverse academic backgrounds.
"Given that the course is an elective, the enrollment in the course is evidence of student interest from wide ranging backgrounds on the subject of environmental sustainability," Banai said. "And specifically when considered in the context of planning cities and regions, where the majority of the world population resides."