Board of Regents to discuss business plan for College of the Environment

During the next few years, UW students interested in learning about and working with the environment — whether that interest is in environmental science, social science, policy, culture, business or law — may be applying to a new, all-encompassing College of the Environment.

UW administrators are scheduled to meet with the UW Board of Regents on Wednesday to discuss a business plan for the college, which was proposed in 2007.

Plans for the College of the Environment include consolidating existing departments, such as the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and schools, such as the School of Oceanography.

“We already do an awful lot in teaching about the environment — it’s just that it’s not under the name of the College of the Environment,” said Phyllis Wise, the UW Provost and head of planning for the new college. “I think it would allow us to do what we are already doing really well and to build on that.”

Funding for the college will potentially come from a variety of organizations, including state, federal, and international governments, NGOs and private companies with an interest in the environment, according to the college’s Web site.

Since 2007, work groups comprising UW faculty and staff have been involved in the organization, structure, curriculum, business plan, vision statement, communication and marketing for the new college.

ASUW President Tyler Dockins said the majority of students are supportive and excited about the possible new college.

“I think it’s going to be great to have all the different disciplines together, and to have all the researchers and professors working together on environmental issues,” he said. “It’s important because we’re the ones that are going to be dealing with things like global warming and sustainability in the future.”

Like the ASUW, Wise said that most of the groups she’s discussed the proposed College of the Environment with — like the Faculty Senate, Board of Deans and Chancellors, the Council of Environmental Deans and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate — are enthusiastic.

“I think there’s great enthusiasm for this, but I wouldn’t say it’s universal,” she said. “There are some that believe that we are doing very well now, and that this change doesn’t add enough value to justify what we’re trying to do.”

Under the plan, the College of Forest Resources would also be consolidated into the new college, Wise said.

“It would come in and maintain all of its programs, so all of the undergraduate and graduate programs will continue,” she said. “But it will become the School of Forest Resources, so we’re hoping the recognition of it would not be lost for any of the students who would want to come to the College of Forest Resources, nor will it lose any stature in the eyes of alums or donors or industries that do work with the College of Forest Resources. And we are determined to make sure that that is the case.”

The founding of the College of the Environment would improve the learning, discovery and engagement for UW students interested in environmental work, Wise said.

“We believe that we can deliver an even better curriculum to our undergraduates and our graduate students and our postdoctoral fellows who have interests in various aspects of the environment … if we have a really coordinated interdisciplinary program,” she said.

Wise said the new college would also promote more environmental research at the UW.

“We can continue the kind of research that we do now, but do even more of it and deepen our strengths by having a College of the Environment, because it would allow us to go out and look for funding from an even broader group of agencies that fund the environment,” she said.

The UW Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on the proposal in a meeting June 12.