Survey for Graduating Environmental Studies Majors

Your candid responses to the questions below will help the Program to refine the structure and content of the program so that we may more effectively serve future Environmental Studies majors. IMPORTANT: When you have completed this survey, please send an email to Bev.Burgess@Oberlin.edu indicating that you have done so -- you can't claim your reward until you have done this!

I. Characterize yourself and your choice of majors

1) If you double majored, what was your other major?

2) If you had a minor it was:

3) If you had a double major or minor, explain your choice and whether or not you would make the same choice again:

4) How would you describe the primary and secondary emphasis of your work in ENVS?
Primary: Secondary:

5) You were attracted to Oberlin College in part because of the reputation of the Environmental Studies program
Comment:

6) How many semesters had you been at Oberlin before you decided to be an ENVS major (0 means that you decided before arriving)

7) What factor was most important in helping you to decide to major in ENVS?
8) Your decision to major in ENVS was the right choice for you .
Comment:

II. Courses, requirements, educational approaches and structure of the major

Rank each course listed below according to its importance to your overall understanding of the field of environmental studies. If you did not take the course, leave the field blank.

 Social Science Courses:
ENVS101 (Environment and Society)
ENVS208 (Environmental Policy)
ECON231 (Environmental Economics)
ECON331 (Natural Resource Economics)
ECON431 (Water Resource Economics)
ENVS291 (Sustainable Agriculture)
ENVS310 (Ecological Design)
ENVS320 (Gender, Nature and Culture)
ENVS322 (Energy and Society)
ENVS324 (Fundamentals of Building Performance)
ENVS350 (Practicum in Ecological Design of AJLC)
ENVS360 (Dynamics of Consumption)
HIST145 (Water in American History)
HIST252 (American Environmental History)
HIST283 (Environmental Histories of South Asia)
HIST338 (U.S. Urban Environmental History)
POLT237 (Environmental Political Theory)
PSYC221 (Environmental Psychology)
Other Social Science Course (specify)
Other Social Science Course (specify)

Humanities Courses:
ARTS048 (Visual Concepts and Processes: What’s Natural Isn’t Real)
ARTS065 (Problems in Painting: What’s Real Isn’t Natural)
ENGL255 (The Concept of Nature in Early American Writing)
ENGL366 (Nature and Transcendentalism)
PHIL225 or 212 (Environmental Ethics)
RUSS329 (Literature and the Land: Writing Nature in Russia and America)
Other Humanities Course (specify)
Other Humanities Course (specify)

Alternate Divisional Courses:

ENVS490 (Intro to the Black River Watershed)
ENVS491 (Practicum in Environmental Education)

Natural Science Courses:

BIOL120 (Genetics, Evolution and Ecology)
CHEM101, 102 and/or 103
CHEM151 (Chemistry and the Environment)
GEOL120 (Earth’s Environments)
ENVS316 (Systems Ecology)
ENVS340 (Environmental Systems Modeling)
GEOL115 (Coral Reefs: Biology, Geology and Politics)
PHYS066 (Energy Technology)
Statistical/Analytical methods
Other Natural Science (specify)
Other Natural Science (specify)


1) What courses do you believe should be added or removed from core-course requirements and why?

2) Of the courses that counted towards your environmental studies major, which did you find the most valuable and why?

3) Which courses were most important in helping you to establish your career goals and objectives?

4) Of the courses that you have taken that did NOT count towards your ENVS major, which were most important and relevant to the major and why? Are there courses that do not count that should count?
5) Do you perceive important gaps or weaknesses in ENVS course offerings? If so, describe.
6) Collaborative work that was required by professors, including study groups and group projects, were a valuable component of your experience in environmental studies courses
Informal collaborative work was a valuable component of your experience in environmental studies courses .
Comments on collaboration:

7) As a result of your experience as an environmental studies major you developed

Improved writing skills
Improved public speaking skills
Improved quantitative skills
Improved collaborative skills
Ability to ask analytical questions and develop your own approach to environmental solutions
Specific technical skills that will help you in a job or graduate school
Comments on skill development:
8) Study away helped you to define your goals and objectives as an ENVS major

Comment:

9) You had the capacity to easily communicate program related issues and concerns to the Environmental Studies Program Committee, either through your student representatives or through faculty
Comment:
10) Academically based “Service learning” should be required of Oberlin students (Service learning = coursework in which you work with a business, government or non-profits to accomplish a goal that is of value to that organization)
Comment:
11) ENVS should institute concentrations in natural science, social science and humanities
Comment:
12) You sought and received useful guidance from ENVS faculty in identifying internships, winter terms and summer experiences (leave blank if you did NOT seek help)

Comment:
13) How many of your winter term experiences focused on environmental topics?

14) Experiences you had during Winter Terms and/or your summers were important in helping you to define your goals and objectives as an ENVS major
Comment:
14) Extracurricular activities at Oberlin were an important component of your environmental education

Comment:

III. Advising, advice, accessibility and recommendations
1) Approximately how many times per semester did you typically meet with your ENVS advisor for advising related issues (do not include meetings related to work in courses taught by your advisor)

2) Your ENVS advisor /other ENVS faculty

did a good job of assisting you in navigating the ENVS major requirements
helped you to identify internships and winter term opportunities
helped you to identify graduate programs
helped you to refine your career goals
was generally accessible .
It is likely that you will continue to seek career/graduate school advice from your advisor after you graduate

Comment on the quality of the advising that you received:

IV. What are your plans for the future?
1) Do you plan to apply for graduate school?
2) Your graduate work will focus on
3) You plan a career in
4) If you plan to take time off before pursuing a career or advanced degree, what do you plan to do with this time?


V. General
1) What are the ENVS program’s greatest strengths?

2) What are the most important ways that the ENVS program could be improved?

Don't forget to send an email to Bev.Burgess@Oberlin.edu indicating that you have completed this survey -- you can't claim your reward until you have done this!