Self-Study Appendices

Standard1 Appendix. Western Carolina University and Environmental Science Mission and Vision Western Carolina University Western is a campus of the University of North Carolina system, located on approximately 600 acres in the unincorporated town of Cullowhee. The university is the primary provider of higher education in Western North Carolina and enrolls approximately 9,500 students in some 220 undergraduate and 40 graduate programs of study. Western Carolina University creates engaged learning opportunities that incorporate teaching, research and service through residential, distance education and international experiences. The university focuses its academic programs, educational outreach, research and creative activities, and cultural activities to improve individual lives and enhance economic and community development in the region, state and nation. Western Carolina University is committed to becoming nationally recognized as actively engaged in the economic health of the region. It will lead and support others in strategies to create a prosperous future for the people it serves. Via selective internal program investments, systematic partnership outreach and thoughtful deployment of capital assets, WCU seeks to nurture an ever-expanding economy and community of knowledge in Western North Carolina. In adopting new roles to support economic growth, WCU continues to embrace fully its roles in strengthening intellectual inquiry, community, social institutions, culture and the arts. Direction six of the University’s Strategic Plan (January, 2009) includes the goal that Western Carolina University will expand its focus on education and research tied to environmental sustainability, with particular emphasis on biodiversity and land use. This goal includes three initiatives: Implement the STARS (Sustainability, Tracking and Rating System) accountability system to monitor its goal to become an environmentally conscious campus; Implement additional advanced degree programs in the environmental sciences focused on applied research related to environmental issues and to take advantage of unique institutional resources; and Align as appropriate institutional resources, curriculum, and community outreach to address critical land use issues, including environmental reclamation, land use planning, and sustainable development Environmental Science Program The B.S. In Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary degree program with an emphasis in natural and applied sciences. Objectives of the program include: 1) providing a specialized education which will make graduates competitive for entry level positions in the environmental field, 2) building on curricula in traditional science programs to develop a program which is attuned to the specialized needs of existing job markets, 3) preparing students for entry into specialized graduate programs in environmental science, 4) reinforcing WCU's role as a center for environmental research and teaching in the Southern Blue Ridge area and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Distinctive characteristics of the program include: 1) Highly flexible, truly interdisciplinary degree program There are only three ES courses (two 100- and one 400-level); all other coursework is from throughout the sciences. Students create individualized degree plans for their 300- and 400-level courses that are approved by the Executive Committee. The flexibility easily accommodates completion of minors, international experiences, internships, participation in the UNC School for the Environment field semester (at the Highlands Biological Station), etc. 2) Young program but steady growth Steady growth in majors and numbers of graduates since the program began Fall 2004, with first graduates Spring 2007 3) Service-learning capstone ES495 students work as a group to address a need in the community. Previous projects have included energy audits and recommendations for the Highlands Biological Station and for businesses in Dillsboro, data collection and recommendations for the WCU’s STARS energy use program, and a carbon emissions assessment for the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. 4) Student engagement Relatively high proportion of Juniors and Seniors are involved in activities that enrich their academic experience including internships at DOE laboratories, international experiences, volunteer work (Jackson County Green Energy Park, evaluating WNC sedimentation ordinances, etc.). Many students are involved in research through the Biology and GNR Departments. Standard2 Appendix. Environmental Science strategic plan and planning process - 2007 What do we look like now? Environmental Science (ES) is a relatively new, growing, interdisciplinary degree program at WCU. It emphasizes natural and applied sciences, along with human interactions with the environment. An executive committee (see members listed above) meets periodically to make decisions on topics such as curriculum, and advising. The strength of the ES program is its distinctive interdisciplinary blending of environmental courses from several disciplines from the College of Arts & Sciences and one program in the College of Health & Human Sciences. The ES program began accepting majors in the fall semester of 2004. It has grown from zero to approximately 30 majors, with students beginning to graduate spring semester 2007. This growth is consistent with anticipated numbers in the original planning documents. One of the entry-level courses (ES150) uses an innovative team-taught approach where the team represents the contributing disciplines to the major (mostly faculty on the ES Executive Committee). The capstone experience (ES495) is consistent with numerous initiatives at WCU including service and experiential learning, the QEP and UNC-Tomorrow. For example, the first project (spring semester 2007) was an in-depth energy analysis for the Highland’s Biological Station. Currently, students are working with the Jackson County Green Energy Park conducting an energy analysis for the Dillsboro Downtown Merchant’s Association. What do we want to look like in five years, and what can we do now to make progress toward this vision? One of the greatest current challenges for the ES program is lack of visibility. In addition, the majors suffer from lack of sense of community as they get dispersed from each other in courses across many disciplines. We hope to work on these issues by creating dedicated space for the ES program somewhere on campus. We envision a place where majors can convene to work on capstone or other ES-related projects; a place where ES job and internships can be posted; a place where student work can be showcased; a place where ES majors can have a “home”, to foster a sense of community, etc. We also envision creating a new junior-level seminar or readings type course that will promote a sense of community and ES dedicated space could be used for this course. Increased visibility will help recruitment and retention efforts toward a target of 10-15 students graduating per year (proportional to University targets). We will also be developing new recruiting materials to distribute throughout campus and high schools in western NC to work toward our graduation goals. In addition, we hope to begin publishing an annual or semi-annual ES newsletter to send to alumni and friends of the ES program. With the exception of the Program Director, members of the executive committee are volunteers, with no formal ES appointment. Visibility of the ES program and commitment to the ES program will both be strengthened by having the work loads of ES committee members include officially assigned roles in the management and implementation of the ES program. These faculty could be designated “affiliate ES faculty” or some other designation that would highlight an official interdisciplinary appointment. The outcome of a formal discussion among Department Heads and Deans of programs contributing to the ES program would be a document outlining formalized commitment and official interdisciplinary designation of faculty on the ES executive committee. Visibility of the ES program will be strengthened by creating scholarships for undergraduates, and other development funding. The creation of scholarships will also help recruitment and retention. The ES committee will work with development staff to explore possibilities in this area. Creation of a newsletter should help development efforts. The original planning documents for the ES program included a proposed M.S. degree. The M.S. degree program was ‘put on hold’ until the undergraduate program could prove its viability. With the steady growth in the B.S. program, and the demand/need for opportunities for graduate study in ES, NRCM and Geology, we will be exploring the possibility of reviving the proposed graduate program for advanced studies in Environmental Sciences. Assessment and feedback from the ES program review will help us set additional goals and direction for achieving these goals. Because the ES program relies heavily on the biology, chemistry, environmental health, geology, natural resources conservation and management departments/programs, it is important that they remain viable in their own right so that they can (1) contribute effectively to the curriculum of the ES program, and (2) so that they can support the additional demands that the ES program will generate on them. Further, as enrollment in the ES program increases, we anticipate that there will be a real need to funnel additional resources to some of the departments

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