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BRIEF HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MAJOR AT OBERLIN
In the nineteen fifties and sixties awareness of the human impact
on Earth left the cloistered writings, discussions, and actions of
a visionary minority to become topics featured in the popular press.
The shift was catalyzed by direct awareness of polluted air and water,
and of the loss of open space and wilderness. The affects on human
health and on the general well being of other life were obvious. The
US EPA was established. The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts were passed.
The Endangered Species Act, like the other environmental acts, was
embraced by the general public and politicians of all stripes. Oberlin
joined the vanguard of colleges with environmental programs and initiated
an environmental studies program in the 1970s. Students and faculty
including David Egloff, Clayton Koppes, and Harlan Wilson pioneered
the program. David Egloff became the program's first director in 1980.
At Oberlin during the decade of the 1970s, seven students graduated
with a major in environmental studies; these were individual majors
as a formal program did not exist until 1980. During the eighties
an average of seven students graduated each year with lows of three
in 1984 and four in 1986, and highs of 10 in 1982 and 12 in 1987.
In the mid to late eighties the ozone hole, the possibility of climate
change, pollution of poor and minority communities, and a general
sense of biodiversity loss rekindled public concern for environmental
issues. Colleges renewed their interests in environmental education.
David Orr came to Oberlin in 1990. An average of 16 students graduated
each year in the 1990s with a low of seven in 1992 and 1993, and a
high of 24 in 1998 and 1999. Graduates in 2000 and 2001 numbered 34
and 43, respectively. (Data are from Alumni Association list of Environmental
Studies graduates.) The number of graduates is projected to exceed
50 in the next several years based upon more than 50 declared majors
in the classes of 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Environmental studies is the fastest growing major on campus and is
in the top four most subscribed majors with biology, English, theater
and dance being the other heavily enrolled majors. When David Orr
came to Oberlin, he and a half time secretary were the persons dedicated
solely to the program. Since many of the required courses in the major
are taught by faculty in their respective disciplines, this was an
adequate staff in the early 1990s for a total of several dozen majors
in all class years. In 1999 a second full-time faculty, John Petersen
a natural scientist trained in systems ecology, joined the program.
The search for a third, permanent, full-time, faculty member just
ended with the hiring of Katy Janda, a specialist in ecological design
with an engineering background. Currently the program, in addition
to Orr and Petersen, has David Macauley (a temporary full-time faculty
person), Cheryl Wolfe-Cragin (the manager of the Lewis Center including
the Living Machine and a teacher of some classes), Beverly Burgess
(the program secretary), and Audra Abt (two-year, full-time intern).
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