It’s an exciting time for Environmental Studies (ENVS) at Swarthmore. Following up on an initiative from the spring semester, a dedicated group of students and faculty are making strides in an effort to increase the size and depth of the ENVS program. Presently, those interested in ENVS have the option of either designing their own major or, more commonly, participating in an ENVS minor program that consists of six required courses.
The interdisciplinary minor shares resources with neighbors Bryn Mawr and Haverford and also allows for study abroad. The culminating experience is a Capstone seminar, in which students from various majors collaborate under faculty supervision on a single environmental issue.
Professor of Physics Peter Collings is the head of the ENVS faculty committee, a collection of a dozen professors across departments who contribute to the ENVS curriculum, including English, History, Political Science, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, Biology, Engineering, Physics and Chemistry.
“It is time Swarthmore expanded its program,” says Collings. “Developments [over the past 20 years] have made it clear how studies involving the environment can fit into the liberal arts curriculum, adding a high quality interdisciplinary program that strengthens other programs of study across the institution.”
Sophomores Ben Goloff and Julia Carleton are eager to see the program expand. In March, the then-freshmen duo hosted a student-faculty discussion entitled The Future of Environmental Studies at Swarthmore, which was well attended and served as a springboard of sorts for what has followed.
Goloff and Carleton, with the help of Megan Brock ’14 and Michelle Call ’13, then spent the remainder of the spring and the entirety of the summer writing a proposal that they brought before the ENVS faculty committee in early September.
The proposal rode in behind a wave of momentum from last year, including the inauguration of a foundational ENVS course, and was welcomed by the committee. Each professor had individual concerns about how the growth of the ENVS program might pull resources from their own department, but, “By the end of [the meeting] everyone in the room seemed to be pretty excited,” Goloff said.
Next up were President Rebecca Chopp and Provost Tom Stephenson, who both expressed interest and excitement about the progress.
Stephenson admits that “many of our programs suffer from the instability of relying exclusively on faculty who have a primary affiliation in a department. This year we are contacting a search for an environmental economist. This person will have a portion of their teaching load dedicated to ENVS. The program is now jointly offered across the Tri-Colleges. So our students can call on the resources of all three institutions to put together their minors. I hope that these two developments will provide the additional resources to assure the strength of the program well into the future.”
Goloff and Carleton were able to compare 25 peer liberal arts institutions by looking at the number of tenure-track ENVS professors, the presence of a major, minor, intro and methods courses, a physical home and lastly annual lectures or conferences. Then, they scored the schools on a percentage basis, with the aggregate average coming in at 69.6 percent of the required components being offered. Swarthmore, comparatively, scored a 28.6 percent. Swarthmore stood alone with Connecticut College as the only institutions not offering even one full or joint tenure-track ENVS professor.
Such a seemingly meager offering likely detracts applicants from Swarthmore. Goloff, admittedly, almost didn’t apply because of the comparative disadvantage. At a school where approximately 12 students a year graduate with the ENVS minor and at least two or three design their own major, the evidence seems to suggest that it is time for Swarthmore ENVS to grow.
In polling prospective ENVS students, Goloff and Carleton concluded that there exist at least 20 potential ENVS majors among freshmen and sophomores.
Included in this statistic is Laura Rigell ’16, a member of Earthlust, the environmental issues group in which Goloff serves as co-director. Rigell sees the proposed development of a major as not only a gain for ENVS, but for all of Swarthmore. “I believe that the work to establish an Environmental Studies department is essential as interdisciplinary studies must define the future of the liberal arts. I hope that this proposal sets the stage for rethinking the silos that are Swarthmore’s traditional academic departments.”
Provost Stephenson agrees: “Our interdisciplinary programs are critical to the continued vibrancy of the curriculum since many of the exciting developments in fields occur at the intersections with other disciplines.” The Provost says that the strategic plan in place describes interdisciplinary programs as a priority, with emphasis on recruiting faculty and acquiring grants.
Despite all of the interest, this initiative still faces large hurdles. “An ENVS major is not appropriate until the number of ENVS courses offered routinely is higher, which can only happen with an increased commitment to ENVS on the part of the faculty,” Collings said.
Students have carried the baton to this point, and it now rests in the hands of the ENVS faculty committee to submit a formal proposal. The next meeting of the ENVS Committee is in early December.
“If the ENVS Committee decides to request permission either to hire a full-time, tenure-track faculty member or to get a commitment to teach ENVS classes in newly created faculty positions, then it will be facing a huge hurdle. Tentative plans are for the College to hire more faculty in the near future, but the number of requests is going to outnumber the number of new positions by a factor of three or more,” Collings said.
The earliest Swarthmore could see an established major is next fall; however, with the competition for faculty hires from different departments, the major could be a few years away from fruition.
Julia Carleton is a photography editor for The Phoenix. She had no role in the production of this article.
