The report I reviewed is “Envisioning Environment” at UVM.
The purpose of this report is to develop an inventory and make recommendations
about environmental research, education, and outreach at UVM. The task had a broad focused on “environment,
sustainability, and health” or ESH. I learned that the five major
recommendations are to develop an ESH institute, create an associate provost
ESH position, coordinate ESH graduate and undergraduate programs, expand
graduate support, and finally to create an “environmental commons” or a physical
and web-based place for ESH activity.
For the purposes of this blog, I focused my reading on the
undergraduate education. I agree with the strengths related to ESH when it
comes to undergraduate education. Being a part of the Rubenstein School, it is
clear to me that we have many majors, minors, and classes related to various
subjects relating to environmental health and its importance. There are many
opportunities presented to students to become involved in the subject. I
believe that we have a head start in that sense. I think it would also make
sense for UVM to focus some time on marketing for our environmental education
that we already have and try to spark some interest in the incoming students. I
for one am very glad that I was drawn to the Rubenstein School and I think it
is an area that will continue to expand and grow in the future. Something I’m
not sure that I agree with, however, is that it is confusing to explain the
range of options to incoming students. Sure, it can be confusing trying to
decide on a major when you are coming into college, but I think all the
information you need about each major is online. I think a “comprehensive
advising map” would just be a waste of the school’s time and money when it
comes to ESH.
It was helpful to see the view of UVM that this work group
of people has and where we are in terms of environmental health. I think being
in the Rubenstein School makes it easy for me to sort of assume that the whole
school is constantly thinking about the environment and sustainability, but I
have been reminded that isn’t the case and it is important that the awareness
is spread.
I also wrote about UVM's 'Envisioning Environment' campaign and agree that one major issue our university has is communication. We have so many options, are continually adding more, yet seem to be suffering from clarity in communicating these to the outside (and inside) community.
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