Foot-Dragging on the Environment

Where can one find the new Environmental Studies Concentration? Look under Visual and Environmental Studies in the course guide, right? Wrong. Well, it's under Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS), right? Not really. Oh, well a student can concentrate in ecology as part of the Biology Department or some sort of environmental policy through Government, right? Wrong again.

Surely a student can create a Special Concentration in environmental studies and take advantage of the incredible courses offered by internationally renowned professors in their field. Not anymore.

One can only concentrate in Environmental Science under EPS (which is really more of a hard-science geology major).

What, then, is all the type about the "Environment and Harvard"?

Here are the facts: There is an outline for a proposed major in environmental studies in which students may choose either a science or social science track. The science track would allow for environmental specialization in chemistry, biology (ecology) or the physical dimensions of environmental problems.

Social sciences would include anthropology, ethics, law, government, history and economics. After completing a set of "core" requirements which provide a student with and introduction to current environmental problems, the new major would allow the flexibility to study more specific topics.

The outline for the concentration was created last year and is largely accredited to Professor Michael B. McElroy, who also leads EPS. Also, a small group of special concentrators on the environment was consulted for recommendations. All of this proceeded fairly quickly.

Then the bureaucratic mess began. Last April, the Committee on Educational Policy received the outline for review. The committee consists of an assortment of deans mainly concerned with the availability of resources for such a major and is chaired by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

Once approved, the Faculty Council will place the concentration on the agenda for a vote at the next FAS meeting. If they agree with the content of the proposal, it will become a new concentration.

Last May, Knowles explained the delays in a letter. "Even if the Educational Policy Committee had approved [the outline] at its last meeting, there would not have been time to have the new Concentration voted on at the...Faculty Meeting on May 19. This issue will, therefore, be taken up in the early fall, and a new Concentration will, I trust, be approved next year so there will have been no delay," he wrote.

Sounds reasonable enough. But when the Educational Policy Committee met to vote on the issue last year, they didn't even ask McElroy and others to come answer questions about it. Then they said they were delaying the measure because they had too many unanswered questions. It was a not-so-subtle bureaucratic dodge.

The Environmental Action Committee formed a committee, Students for Environmental Studies (SES), in response. We conduct a student survey about interest in an environmental concentration and environmental courses. The overwhelming response--that hundreds would be interested in taking environment-related courses--was combined in a letter to Knowles in May.

Knowles should be held to his assurance that the concentration will be approved this year. Let's cut the bureaucratic red tape and have this concentration passed before the end of the semester.

This year, even more Harvard students are showing an interest in the environment. Three hundred first-years signed up for the EAC as registration. Well over a hundred guides to courses dealing with the environment--called The Environment at Harvard--have been given away.

And according to our previous survey, around 100 first-and second-years still anxiously await the approval of the new concentration.

While the administration is dragging its heels, those members of the Class of '96 and particularly the Class of '95 who want to concentrate in environmental studies are left in limbo.

With no alternative to a sound, established environmental major, they naturally turn to the Special Concentrations office.

A few years ago, this was a much easier process. The number of students who wanted such a Special Concentration was so small that basically everyone interested was approved after a certain amount of work. At the time, Harvard foresaw no alternatives for an environmental concentration in the near future. And they didn't need such alternatives, because only about 15 people requested this particular Special Concentration.

But the last two years have been different. Now there's much more interest. But the Special Concentrations office cannot and will not approve as many as 100 environmental "special" applications while students wait around for the new "real" concentration.

Special Concentrations simply do not exist to serve such a huge portion of the student body. In fact, the office handles only about 10 to 15 applications each year.

Only the last piece of the puzzle needs to be put in place. Students want the concentration. Many faculty members want it. Even President Neil L. Rudenstine named the "environment" one of his four goals as president. (Let's hope he's more serious about that promise than another president who pledged to support the environment.)

But the major glitch is Knowles and the Educational Policy Committee.

We must insist on the immediate approval of the concentration. We must make sure the committee votes in favor of the concentration when it meets at the end of October. One way to help is to complete the short survey that will be available at dinner in your dining hall this week.

The world leaders united at the Earth Summit in Rio last June, and the Bush administration ignored their recommendations. Let's make sure the Harvard administration doesn't ignore our demands.

Brenna D. Segal '95, a contributing writer for the editorial board, is, as you may have guessed, the chair of Students for Environmental Studies.