CSULB
offers new major option
By Rachelle Youngman
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Cal
State Long Beach students with a desire
to pursue a career dealing with today’s
environmental problems and issues now have
the option of majoring in environmental
science and policy.
Jointly offered by the College of Liberal
Arts and the College of Natural Sciences
and Mathematics, the new CSULB major will
allow students to study the impact humans
have on the environment and the interaction
that takes place between human systems and
physical and biological systems. Students
will also study ways in which to alter the
consequences of this interaction.
The Web site for the new major states that
“the purpose of environmental science and
policy is to design, evaluate, and implement
policies that alter the impact of human
systems on physical and biological systems,
and the pathways by which natural and human
systems co-evolve.”
“We’re really excited to be able to offer
a major like this,” said Peter Hodum, Ph.D.,
biological sciences faculty member. “The
new program will be the only one like it
in the CSU system.”
Hodum said the directors, Darwin C. Hall,
Ph.D., economics department faculty member
and Stanley C. Finney, Ph.D., geological
sciences faculty member, have been working
on getting the program started since 1997.
“This has been their passion for six or
seven years.” Hodum said.
According to the Web site, environmental
science and policy majors are able to choose
from either a Bachelor of Arts with emphasis
on the social sciences or a Bachelor of
Science with an emphasis on the natural
sciences,.
Career paths for students in the new major
include working in environmental law, environmental
consulting, education and there are also
many opportunities within federal and state
agencies such as the Department of Fish
and Game.
“You can take it in a variety of different
directions,” said Hodum of the new major.
“It’s designed to give people a breadth
of skills.”
Hodum said the new major has definitely
received interest from students, however,
the program does not yet have the resources
to take on a large number of students because
it is so new.
Hodum said he thinks the new environmental
science and policy major will be a great
success because it is both complimentary
to other majors and offers a great deal
of career variety by itself.
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