Environmental Issues and Policy

The concentration in Environmental Issues and Policy provides students with an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human interactions in relation to the global environment. The concentration will allow students to apply the different perspectives of the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences to environmental and natural resources issues. This concentration will allow students to assess and understand the complexity of environmental problems and how to search for their solutions. Students may enroll in courses from four different colleges including the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Sciences, Business Administration, and Urban and Public Affairs.

BAIS graduates with a concentration in Environmental Studies & Policy are prepared for career opportunities in international business, governmental and non-governmental environmental agencies, international advocacy organizations, and charitable or research agencies. With additional graduate training, students can look for careers in secondary or university teaching, environmental law, planning with a focus on environmental audits or assessment, and management.

(Print version)

Course Distribution Requirements

Courses taken to fulfill the 24-hour concentration should be drawn from a minimum of 3 disciplines with at least 1 discipline in the College of Sciences. At least 9 of the 24 hours of course credit should be at the 3000-level or above. No more than 9 hours of the 24 hours can be in a single discipline (additional hours in a discipline can, however, be taken as electives).

Courses List for Environmental Issues and Policy Concentration:

ANTH 3320 Amazonia: People, Culture, and Nature
ANTH 4768 Anthropology and Policy
ANTH 4770 Contact, Change, and Cultural Survival: The Anthropology of Colonialism (pre-req: ANTH 2051 or 2052 or consent)
ANTH 4777 Transnational Processes: Migrations, Borderlands, Globalization (pre-req: 6 hours of ANTH or consent)

BIOS 2663 Introduction to Environmental Biology (pre-reqs: BIOS 1061 & 1063 or BIOS 1071 & 1073)
BIOS 2813 Economic Botany (pre-reqs: BIOS 1063 or 1073)
BIOS 3653 General Ecology (pre-reqs: MATH 1111, BIOS 1073, 1071, 2014)

ECON 4250 Health Care Economics (pre-req: ECON 1203)
ECON 4253 Environmental Economics (pre-req: ECON 1203 or 2200)
ECON 4264 Economics of Natural Resources (pre-req: ECON 1203 or 2200)
ECON 4400 Economic Foundations for Managers (students cannot receive credit for both this course and ECON 1203 or 1204)

EVSP 1100 Intro to Environmental Sciences & Policy
EVSP 2100 Intro to Law & Regulatory Institutions (pre-req: EVSP 1100)
EVSP 3100 Environmental & Natural Resource Law (pre-reqs: EVSP 2100)
EVSP 4100 Approaches to Environ. Problems (pre-reqs: EVSP 3100)
EVSP 3323 Principles of Environmental Engineering (pre-req: CHEM 1018)
EVSP 3097 Special Topics (when appropriate)

GEOG 1600 Environmental Geography
GEOG 2158 Conservation
GEOG 2254 Elements of Economic Geography
GEOG 4150 The Geography of Hazards & Disasters (recommended: GEOG 1600)
GEOG 4220 Agricultural Geography (pre-req: 3 hrs. GEOG or consent)
GEOG 4290 Special Topics in Economic Geography (When appropriate. Pre-req: GEOG 2254 or consent)
GEOG 4320 Tropical Lands and Their Utilization

GEOL 1005 Environmental Geology
GEOL 1927 Earth Resources (pre-reqs: GEOL 1001 and 1003)
GEOL 2070 Waters of the World
GEOL 2150 Surficial Processes (pre-reqs: GEOL 1100 and MATH 1126)
GEOL 4096 Special Topics: Estuarine Environmental Science
GEOL 4222 Coastal Geomorphology (pre-req: consent)
GEOL 4658 Environmental Geochemistry (pre-reqs: CHEM 1011 or 1018 and 2217)
GEOL 4710 Environmental Field Methods

HIST 2000 Environmental History
HIST 2080 The Impact of Science on Western Society

MANG 4473 Environmental Management (pre-req: senior standing or consent)

MURP 4140 Environmental Planning
MURP 4145 Coastal Zone Planning and Administration
MURP 4160 Development of Environmental Management
MURP 4500 Energy Planning for Cities and Regions
MURP 4800 Urban Ecosystems

PHIL 4205 Environmental Ethics

POLI 4710 Politics of Developing Areas.
POLI 4760 Environmental Politics in the Developing World.

SOC 2871 The Environment as a Social Problem (pre-req: SOC 1051)
SOC 4871 Sociology of the Environment (pre-req: SOC 1051)
SOC 4903 Population Problems (pre-req: SOC 1051)

URBN 3140 Introduction to Environmental Planning
URBN 4150 Planning for Natural Hazards
URBN 4810 Environmental Justice in Urban Environments (pre-reqs: MURP 4030 or 4140 or consent)