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Scholars Consider Alternatives for An Interdisciplinary Curriculum

Environmental Studies at Harvard

Harvard's response to the student interest in environmental studies, however, lags significantly behind that of other universities, some of which have offered a degree program in that field for nearly 20 years.

Faculty at both Harvard and other schools with environmental concentrations say the biggest challenge to developing an environmental degree program is ensuring that students learn the depth as well the breadth of the field.

At Yale, where an undergraduate environmental program has been in place since 1984, students in the program have to satisfy the requirements of both the environmental major and another full major.

Although the program has succeeded in stressing multidisciplinary approaches to environmental issues, "The big disadvantage is that the burden of satisfying two full majors leaves little time for electives or advanced course work," says William Smith, a professor of forest biology at Yale, who has chaired the environmental studies program.

"We have differences of opinion on whether we're looking at a discipline or whether we're looking at the focus of the energies of many areas of the faculty onto different issues," Smith says.

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Berkeley and Brown attempt to achieve depth in an almost limitless field by dividing their programs into three branches of study.

About 40 people graduate each year from Berkeley's environmental studies program, which has been in existence since 1972. Students choose to study in one of three fields--physical, biological or social--until their senior year, when they work together as teams on local environmental projects.

Past projects have included the health of San Francisco Bay and the management of toxic wastes on the Berkeley campus, says James Anderson, an anthropology professor affiliated with the department.

The program's growth is limited only by its resources, Anderson says, but as an interdisciplinary field its students have become "academic orphans."

"We don't really buy any faculty time so the faculty have to donate their time," he says.

Brown's environmental studies curriculum, like Berkeley's, is divided into three areas of study--science, policy and development.

The environmental studies courses at Brown are continually oversubscribed, and the program is looking for ways to grow to meet the demand, says Allison L. Smith, a sophomore in the program from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

One of the introductory environmental studies classes was so popular among non-environmental studies majors that it drew a crowd of 350 people last year, even though only about 30 people join the program each year.

Although such popular environmental studies programs are often short on resources necessary to expand, the mere existence of the programs can attract substantial financial support.

Last week the Brown program received a $2 million donation for the hiring of more faculty, and this fall private donors gave Yale $20 million for the development of a biospheric institute.

Scholars agree that although Harvard does not offer any cohesive environmental studies program, the problem has been more one of organization than of ability.

"I don't think Harvard is behind any university in its capacity to provide training and research in environmental science," Wilson says. "All we need to do is provide a more coherent structure."

And some Harvard faculty members say that only by waiting to see how the field of environmental studies develops can Harvard provide a program that would become a lasting part of the undergraduate curriculum.

"I think it's right that we go slowly," McElroy says. "Some of these programs tend to be soft and faddish."

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