Environmental Studies Program

The Environmental Studies Program grew from Humankind Tomorrow, a winter term project offered from 1978 to 1980. By the late 1970s enough faculty members were interested in environmental issues to push for the establishment of a curricular committee in Environmental Studies. The committee successfully applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop courses on the subject in the humanities, received in 1982. With the success of the committee and growing student interest, the committee decided to apply for program status for a subject envisioned as interdisciplinary in nature. The college reviewers for program status were two of the most eminent senior members of the faculty at that time–Milton Yinger in Sociology and Norman Craig in Chemistry. They strongly endorsed program status, and the faculty voted in favor of it.

A tenure-track position was approved by College Faculty Council in 1981, but it was a beginning assistant professor position, and the new program needed a more senior faculty member. In 1989, David Orr, an experienced and highly energetic faculty member, was hired and began to develop the program more effectively. Orr’s vision and dynamism reshaped the program and provided the momentum required to move the program into the 21^st century.  Until 1994, when the College hired a new president, Nancy S. Dye, Orr was unable to gain administrative support for a “green” building for the program. Dye approved plans for an energy-efficient building to house the program, constructed in 1999 as the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Envionmental Studies. A second tenure-track faculty position was filled in January 2001, and a third position was authorized for the program in 2002.

The Lewis Center exemplifies the program’s teaching philosophy, which recognizes that real world experience and practical engagement complement traditional coursework. The building runs a Living Machine wastewater treatment facility, maintained primarily by students. An extensive data monitoring system allows the center's staff and Oberlin college maintenance staff to track the performance of various systems in the building.

Students are encouraged to use their creativity and initiative to analyze and address local, regional, and global challenges. In many cases, work begun in the context of classes and independent studies have developed into fellowships, organizations, policy change, and even careers.

Beyond the Lewis Center, the entire college facility and the Oberlin community function as laboratories for environmental problem solving. In fall 2006, for example, Oberlin College became the first of its peer institutions to sign the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. In 2009 and 2010, the Sierra Club’s magazine ranked Oberlin as one of the top 100 "cool schools" in America for the environmental awareness of its students, faculty, and staff.

Sources Consulted

Manuscript history (2 pp.) of the Environmental Studies Program by Clayton Koppes, Professor of History, 5 December, 2002 (in case file).

Oberlin College Environmental Studies Program website at https://www.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies, accessed September 11, 2024.

Note written by Anne Cuyler Salsich and updated by Emily Rebmann.