"The idea had been kicked around for a long time," said Lynn Huntsinger, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. "We felt we weren't meeting the needs of students (in the department) more interested in the social sciences."
Huntsinger said the major will particularly help prepare students for work in at a nonprofit organization to fix environmental problems.
"Not only would they have the social science skills, but they would understand the biological dimensions," she said. "We need people like that in the world."
The new major enhances CNR's strength as a college poised to solve environmental problems. But while the story's headline dubs CNR as the "Environmental College," the S&E major is really one piece of a much broader landscape focused on sustaining environmental, economic, and human health.
See:
Environmental College to Debut New Major