> Senate approves environment faculty programs

Document Tools

Contact:
Jon Driver: 778.782.3925; 604.561.6672 (c); driver@sfu.ca
John Clague: 778.782.4924; 604.351.4750 (c); john_clague@sfu.ca

Yes

A new environment faculty at Simon Fraser University got its final green light Monday as the university’s senate approved its proposed academic programming.

Senate approval means the new faculty, which has yet to be named, is on track to open April 1, 2009 with undergraduate and graduate students from current SFU programs and units. New students will be able to enter programs in the faculty in the summer of 2009.

SFU's board of governors had endorsed creation of the new faculty subject to approval of academic programming by the 60-member senate, the university’s governing academic body.

“The new faculty will have important new interdisciplinary programs,” says Jonathan Driver, SFU’s academic vice-president. “It’s a huge opportunity for the university and our students.”

The new faculty will bring together SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management, Department of Geography, the Centre for Sustainable Community Development, the Environmental Science Program, and the Graduate Certificate Program in Development Studies.

Driver says students in the faculty can look forward to extensive opportunities to study and work with other SFU units such as archaeology, biological sciences, communication, chemistry, earth sciences, First Nations studies, humanities, sociology, anthropology, urban studies and international studies.

“We already have strengths in environmental research and education at SFU,” says John Clague, earth sciences professor and chair of a special academic committee that designed the faculty's academic approach.

“The new faculty will allow us to capitalize on the synergies of these strengths, and offer exciting new opportunities for our students and our faculty members.”

Clague says the public can look forward to new community outreach and teaching, including public events for community and school groups, community sustainability initiatives, and student involvement in community environmental activities.

Students in the new faculty will have learning opportunities that include fieldwork, international studies, student internships and on-the-job learning through SFU’s co-op program.


Backgrounder:

The programming committee report outlines four academic themes for the new environment faculty, with new interdisciplinary programs including:

• Global System and Sustainability Strategies: “What separates this program from those existing at other universities is a focus on sustainable strategies as solutions to environmental issues.” Elements could include environmental governance, and climate change, mitigation and adaptation.
• Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Conservation: “The educational goal of this program is to prepare students to meet future challenges by providing them with a solid basis that integrates biodiversity, ecosystems and conservation, while building a practical understanding of the ways that natural and conservation sciences are used in policy-making and management of ecological systems.”
• Environment and Development: “The program will develop and test sustainable solutions to current and future environmental problems . . . in both developed and developing countries.”
• Water and Environment: “The goal  . . . is to provide students with training in the hydrologic and climate sciences, and with complementary strengths in environmental economics, biology, ecology, oceanography, coastal systems, social sciences and law.”

-30-

Comments

Comment Guidelines