McCarthy says he would like to see more options in government and policy courses for concentrators. Since the concentration holds no faculty positions of its own, it draws relevant classes from other departments.

"We are keenly interested in involving more faculty," he says.

In addition, he says concentrators would benefit from having more graduate students in environmental studies and public policy fields serve as house tutors.

Some students say a problem with ESPP is that the courses in different departments are too disparate.

They also say it is possible to graduate from the concentration with a broad base of knowledge but no expertise in a specific sub-topic, although they acknowledge that advisers do recommend that they take their concentration electives in one area.

The harshest criticism of ESPP comes from several sophomores taking the required sophomore lecture course and tutorial.

They say they believe the tutorial forces students to design impractical solutions to environmental problems before they have enough knowledge.

In addition, they say the graduate students who are in the lecture class dominate the discussion.

One of the assignments for the class was to "write a sustainable development plan for your home community," according to one of the sophomores, who asked not to be identified.

"You feel like you don't have enough information for it," the student says. "The assignments are pointless because you won't actually have found a proper sustainable development plan because there is no such thing."

The student says she and a friend in the concentration are both considering switching because they are unhappy