ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM COLBY COLLEGE YEAR 4 REPORT TO THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION

The 2002/03 academic year was highly successful and one in which we had 44 majors and 32 minors, many of whom conducted independent research projects. The ES Program's success is clearly supported and appreciated by the College. The program is now a significant component in the current strategic plan for Colby as a key growth area.

One explanation for the success of this program is continued dedication of program coordinator Sharon Treat, whose efforts have been extremely important in supporting our students through career activities, internships, the speaker series, and greening pursuits. Ms. Treat taught a well received JanPlan course, Environmental Law (ES237). Due to its success, the course is now regularly taught. In addition, we have now hired a specialist in Geographic Information Systems and domestic policy, who will enter the tenure track in fall 2004.

When we received this grant, our award letter indicated we were to have the grant completed in approximately five years. As you can see from the financial report in Attachment 2, we have funds remaining to complete the full complement of activities proposed, including an ambitious assessment effort. Our plan at this time is to complete the program by the end of fiscal year 2005/06, pending approval of a two-year no-cost extension.

Internships
Ms. Treat assisted students in finding internships to match their academic interests. With support from this Mellon grant, our students participated in a variety of internships during the January term or during the summer break. Details of the Mellon internships of the 2002/03 academic year are described elsewhere on this web site

Summer Research Assistants
Summer assistantships provided the opportunity for students to develop skills and techniques needed for environmental data gathering. These students collaborated with faculty mentors on research projects that could not have been completed during the academic year. With the
current competitive nature of obtaining post-baccalaureate employment and entry into graduate school, our students are well served by having research experience as part of their graduation dossier.

Special Projects
Colby students Hannah L. Arnold '03, Jacoby P. Ballard '03J, and Kelly E. Stoos '04 attended the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. This event was the main international conference on sustainable development since the original Earth Summit in 1992. Because sustainable development is a core theme of this program, these students were able to bring back a wealth of impressions and insights about what went on and why. They presented a special Environmental Studies colloquium on their experiences and spoke to several classes at Colby. This fund also supported registration fees for several Colby students to attend the Maine Water Conference and present the results of their research.

Faculty Travel/Tuition Reimbursement
A key focus area of this grant from the Mellon Foundation is student research. Geographic Information Systems are being used with increasing frequency as the method of choice, particularly in our Environmental Science senior seminar. Because we lost our GIS specialist when he accepted a tenure-track position at another college, the grant was used to partially subsidize the GIS training for our Teaching Assistant in Biology Dan Tierney. Since that time, Mr. Tierney has run the GIS portion of several student projects and has offered a January course in GIS.

Equipment
During the past year, a HP Designjet 5000 PS printer was purchased to create specialty posters up to 42" wide. Many students made large scale posters with map overlays based on their research results for presentations at national and regional conferences and at Colby's Undergraduate Research Symposium in May 2003. Students in the senior-level course, Problems in Environmental Science (BI493), also used the new printer to make posters for their presentations to lake association members. This printer is frequently used and is an outstanding addition to the GIS teaching and research laboratory.

Lecture Series
Outside lecturers are key to teaching students about the process of exchanging ideas among experts on environmental issues. Students have the opportunity to see the diverse ways that careers can develop and to meet experts who take different approaches than the students' professors. When guest speakers are on campus, our students meet with them and have the opportunity to discuss graduate school and professional careers in the environmental arena. The appendix provides a list of the speaker series including the lunchtime colloquium, environmental talks, and other sponsored events that occurred on campus throughout the past year.

Assessment
The College strongly believes in regular assessment of academic programs. Data to assess the performance of the Environmental Studies Program is regularly gathered, and we completed an outside evaluation this year. That report was sent to Gene Tobin.

Appendix

Colby Environmental Studies Lunchtime Colloquium

Wednesday September 18 - Richard Wardwell, Maine Board Of Environmental Protection Member and Environmental Consultant, "The Role of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection"

Wednesday September 25 - Mellon Grantees Hannah Arnold '03, Jacoby Ballard '03j, and Kelly Stoos '04 talk about their experiences attending the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Wednesday October 9 - Tom Tietenberg, Mitchell Family professor of Economic and Director, Colby Environment Studies Program "The Tradable Permits Approach To Protecting The Commons: What Have We Learned?"

Wednesday October 23 - Mellon Interns Discuss Their Experiences. Lauren Henderson '04 (Research On Butterflies), Anna Sommo '04 (Biodiversity Research Institute's Loon Project), Nina Martin '04 (Toxic Action Center), Bethany Craig '04 And Emily Arell '04 (High Country Citizens' Alliance Roadless Inventory Project), Devon Douglass '03 (Environmental Defense), and Lauren Bliss '03 (Mote Marine Laboratory).

Friday, October 25 - Ted Wolff '86, Environmental Lawyer, "What Do Environmental Lawyers Do?"

Wednesday November 6 - Wil Burns, Visiting instructor of Environmental Studies and Government "The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change: Where Are We, Where Do We Need To Go?"

Wednesday November 20 - Stephanie Clement '92, Conservation Director Of Friends Of Acadia, "National Parks: Shrinking Budgets, Growing Needs, And The Role Of Partnerships"

Wednesday December 4 - Paul Josephson, Associate Professor of History, "Technology, The Environment And The State In The 20th Century"

Monday January 27 -Hannah Arnold '03 "An Action Guide for Green Power at Colby"

Wednesday January 29 - Visiting ES Professor Peter W. Sly, " The SUV and the Kiva"
Wednesday February 12 - Erika Morgan, Technical Advisor to Maine Interfaith Power and Light and the Maine Green Power Consortium, "Does Green Electricity Have a Place in Colby's Future?"
Wednesday February 26, - Jim Webb, Professor of History, "Quinine and Malaria"

Wednesday March 12, - Katie McShane, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at North Carolina State University and this year a visiting scholar at Harvard University's Center for Ethics and the Professions, "What Should Environmentalists Mean By 'Intrinsic Value'?"

Wednesday April 2 - Jeff Pidot, Head of the Natural Resource Division of the Maine Office of the Attorney General, "Environmental Law from Global Warming to Great Ponds"

Wednesday April 16 - Kent Wommack, Colby grad and Executive Director of Nature Conservancy of Maine, "Sustainable Forests and Market Forces"

Wednesday April 30 - Debra Davidson, a member of the board of the Maine Wolf Coalition and a founder of the Maine Chapter of the Isaac Walton League, "Coyotes, Wolves and Lynx: The World of Wildlife & Politics"

Other Environmental Talks

Wednesday, October 2 - Tim Leach, explorer and lecturer, "Oil and the Arctic: A Personal Perspective"

Thursday October 3 - Gubernatorial Candidate Forum On The Environment

Thursday, October 24 - Douglas Sacra '82, an architect and a 1982 Colby Environmental Studies graduate, "It Pays To Be Green"

Tuesday February 18 - Paul Mayewski, director of the Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University of Maine and chief scientist and expedition leader for the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two, "The International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition"

Thursday, March 6 - Dr. Devra Davis, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and winner of the Bronze Medal of National Book Awards in 2002, "When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales Of Environmental Deception And The Battle Against Pollution,"

Tuesday April 8 - Ross Gelbspan, Author, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Editor and Reporter at the Philadelphia Bulletin, Washington Post and Boston Globe, "History at Risk: The Challenge of Climate Change"

Wednesday, April 2 - Clifford Russell, former Director of the Institute for Public Policy at Vanderbilt University and currently Sowell Visiting Professor of Economics at Bates, "The Choice of Pollution Control Policy Instruments in Developing Countries: Arguments, Evidence and Suggestions"

Monday April 7th- Professor Yi-Fu Tuan, Professor Emeritus of Geography at Wisconsin, gave a guest lecture on environmental philosophy in ES118.

Wednesday, April 16 - Kent Wommack , Director of the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, "Nature Conservancy's Use of New Strategies to Protect Significant Lands"

Thursday, April 17- William J. Bicknell, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of International Health, Socio-Medical Sciences and Community Medicine, School of Public Health, Boston University "Smallpox and Bioterrorism: Fact, Fallacies, and Fuzzy Thinking"

Tuesday April 22, Prof. Dennis W. Thomson, Professor of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University "Environmental Phenomena, War and Terrorism: Taming the Warriors' Hydra and Responding to Terrorist Attacks"

Tuesday April 22, Dr. Larry Radke, Director of Aviation Program, National Center for Atmospheric Research, "Climatic Impacts of the Kuwaiti Oil Fires following Desert Storm"

Wednesday, April 23 - Henk Folmer, Professor of Economics at Tilburg University in the Netherlands,
"Environmental Regulations and New Plant Location Decisions: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis"

Friday April 25 Senator Sharon Treat, Colby's Environmental Studies Coordinator, "Environmental Politics and Law

Wednesday April 30 - Robert Pennock, Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University
"Attacking Clones and Killer Tomatoes: What are the Real Ethical Challenges of Genetic Technology?"

Other Sponsored Events

November, Toxics Action Conference
Keynote speakers Penobscot Nation Governor Barry Dana and Sharon Treat, Senate Majority Leader and Colby's Environmental Studies Coordinator.