“A constituency able and willing to fight for the long-term human prospect must be educated into existence. It must be scientifically literate enough to recognize politicized science for what it is. It must be courageous enough to face facts squarely. It must be committed enough to avoid the seductions of cheap citizenship. It must be intellectually alive enough to demand careful and thoughtful analysis of public problems. It must be able to tell the difference between ecological sense and nonsense.” - Dr. David Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College.
Environmental issues are complex and multi-dimensional and cannot be understood or addressed from any single discipline. OU’s Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences has established the environmental studies program for students who wish to develop knowledge and skills in specific areas related to environmental issues while remaining grounded in an interdisciplinary outlook. The environmental studies major offers an extremely flexible degree plan with a core of five courses, all but one selected from lists of options in physical and natural sciences and skills and methods. In addition to the core students must also select nine courses distributed over three basic categories: environmentally related humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.
A wide variety of courses from all across the university comprise the lists from which the student chooses. The lists include courses in environmental studies, philosophy, English, anthropology, political science, biology, plant biology, economics, history, and history of science, among others. Students have used the flexibility of this program to focus on such things as wildlife conservation, renewable energy, environmental policy, general environmental studies, water issues, and the like. Majors and minors will be well and broadly prepared for work in nonprofit and for-profit organizations, environmental advocacy, environmental policy, outdoor and environmental education, and natural resources management.
The environmental studies major works well in combination with the nonprofit studies minor. It can also be a good double major with fields such as letters, political science, history, international and area studies, plant biology, biology, and communications. For those students with a strong interest in environmental issues who plan to major in business, journalism, education, geography, meteorology, or health sciences, the environmental studies major would work well as part of a double degree program. The environmental studies major is also a great lead in for graduate school in various areas of ecology, conservation, communications, journalism, law school, environmental education, resource management, and environmental management, among others.
