Colgate’s Environmental Studies Program is designed to enhance students’ awareness of the complexity of regional and global environmental issues and to underscore the consequences and impacts of the human experience on the environment. Students in the Environmental Studies Program learn to think, speak, and write clearly and articulately about environmental issues from a variety of perspectives.
The Environmental Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program located within the Division of University Studies and taught by faculty from a number of departments who apply their knowledge and expertise to teaching and research endeavors that cross disciplinary boundaries.
The program administers five majors: Environmental Studies plus four departmentally affiliated majors: Environmental Biology, Environmental Economics, Environmental Geography, and Environmental Geology. All five majors include a common core of courses that ensures an interdisciplinary experience. At the same time, each student achieves depth in analytical ability by taking a specified suite of courses, usually in a particular discipline, chosen in consultation with her or his advisor. To fulfill environmental studies graduation requirements, students must possess a minimum overall GPA of at least 2.0 in all courses counted toward their major, both ENST courses and those taken in other departments and programs. Students considering any of the majors administered by the Environmental Studies Program are urged to consult with a member of the advisory committee during their first year at Colgate.