We decided to sit down this week with Dr. Tomkiewicz, Chair of the new Environmental Science and Policy department, to find out about the genesis of this program and the opportunities it has to offer the students at PSU
The Clock: If you could tell us a bit about the program itself. It’s the Department of Environmental Science and Policy?
Dr. Warren Tomkiewicz: Yes, this is a new department that was started last spring as a result of having graduate students in environmental science and policy working for the center for the environment, and they needed and academic home. Plus, we were getting a lot of inquiries about an undergraduate program, a BS in environmental science. So starting in January or early February we started functioning as a department, and there are several different faculty involved from different departments. But we can talk about that later. Right now we offer a bachelors degree, a bachelor of science in environmental science and policy.
There are two options within that, one being environmental science, where you’d concentrate more on the natural sciences as they apply to the environment, and then there is a community option for if a student was more interested in policy and regulations that might be more community based or state based.
TC: What sort of experience did you have with the content of this program before becoming department chair?
WT: Well, I think a lot of us, including myself, have been involved with environmental issues for a long time. Actually, in my doctoral work at Boston University I did a lot of marine environmental work; coastal ecology, coastal environments. In my teaching here in earth science and oceanography we deal a lot with environmental issues that pertain to those general areas.
So, even though we never had an environmental science and policy major or identified focus here, a lot of the faculty have been directly involved with environmental work for many years, whether it be earth day or working with students in Common Ground, working with community organizations. So it just seems natural that we would evolve and develop a major in that for undergraduates to compliment what we do with our graduate students.
TC: Does this department work much with the Center for the Environment?
WT: We have a close working relationship with the center for the environment and also the center for rural partnerships. And so, we work very closely, faculty and staff from thos centers are part of our department, as well as our faculty are part of their centers. There is a close working relationship with new undergraduates and graduate students as well. It covers a broad spectrum of student interest and faculty interest. We have faculty that are interested in environmental interests from the business department, from the social sciences, from mathematics. So its really an interdisciplinary or an integrated program, both at the undergrad and graduate level. Its very important to us that we deal with policy as well; the laws, the regulations. That’s a very important part of the title of the department, but also the focus. We’ve got to do something with the science, so that you can go out and do water quality studies, but what do you do with that? We think both our undergraduates and graduate students should be able to deal with a more applied or authentic application of the science their learning. The department takes a broad spectrum of interest across campus. We’re working with the office of environmental sustainability, where recently retired VP Bill Crangle is heading that up. The president is part of a university and college president’s commission on environmental sustainability; we are working with that commission. We are starting to work with the student group Common Ground. And one of the cornerstones of the program, both undergraduate and graduate, is that we’ll take a more community based approach where we’ll do some real projects, where we’ll do them on campus and consider the campus as the community and look at environmental issues like water use or recycling or composting, as well as out in the community, Plymouth and the surrounding areas. We want to give students the opportunities to do some real environmental work while they’re here.
TC: On the topic of opportunities, what sorts of opportunities do you expect this department to open up for students after they graduate?
WT: After they graduate. Well, the whole area of environmental work, whether it be environmental engineering or environmental consulting or as a technician, are considered being some of the best job possibilities in the country right now. I think there’s a whole, to say there’s a green movement I think there’s a great deal of interest from business and industry in doing things a bit more efficient and less polluting, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity for someone with a environmental science and policy degree in terms of finding a job when their done. It’s not the only thing we’re preparing students for, but certainly they want to know if they can get a job when they get done, there should really be no problem at all with the environmental concerns. So, its part of our community base to work, we’re trying to make this tie in as the students go through the program, to work with environmental consulting firms and whatever. There are certainly many environmental jobs available in the state of NH and in the northeast region of the country. So, if students want to go back to their home state, they should be well prepared in the science as well as the policy aspects.
TC: This is obviously just starting out, it hasn’t even been around a year –
WT: No, what’s interesting there, the undergraduate program, the BS in Environmental Science and Policy hasn’t even been advertised yet. Its in the new catalog but the incoming first year students never saw that catalog when they were applying in the winter or early spring. We don’t have a website yet, that’s supposedly supposed to be online very soon, within the next week or two. So, without any advertising at all besides talking to students coming during the June orientation, we have ten or twelve majors already. And we haven’t advertised. So, I almost have my hands full right now with each students, which is one reason why we wanted to let the campus community know and we thought The Clock venue was one avenue to do that.
TC: Do you have any goals for the department as it gains more interest from the student body?
WT: In general, our goals while looking at the program and all the courses they’re taking and what we really want is to give students from various disciplines and understanding of environmental science, the good news, the bad news and how, in general, we can make planet earth a better place to live. I’m finding from early conversations with our first year students that they see some real serious issues and may not even be that positive about where we’re going. So we need to look at that. We need to look at the good news in energy, in water use, in populations and topics like that. Our goal really is to prepare our students from different disciplines to be able to deal with environmental topics.
There’s a lot of interest from business majors, I have had a number of first year business majors coming in hoping to even minor or even have an interdisciplinary major in environmental science and policy, which is very encouraging. I think the student body as a whole comes here because they like the environment their in, the outdoor environment and the setting where in, and we hope we can make a contribution to our society when we are done here.
TC: Thank you.