2024-2025 Binghamton University Academic Guide
Environmental Studies
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 Return to: Harpur College of Arts and Sciences
Binghamton University’s Environmental Studies Program seeks to prepare each student for life as a citizen and as a leader, who is equipped to understand and address the complex environmental challenges facing our communities, our nations and our planet. Graduates of our program will be able to tackle environmental and societal concerns in four critical areas:
- Critical thinking skills for understanding and confronting problems that involve the intersection between the natural and human worlds at multiple scales
- Fundamental knowledge about the three E’s of sustainability: environment, economics and equity
- Methodological training for generating and analyzing data needed to investigate, explain and mitigate environmental issues and problems
- Communication abilities to share information with technical and non-technical audiences
Our society faces numerous environmental challenges such as global climate change, species extinction, soil erosion, air and water contamination, and habitat loss. Such environmental degradation undercuts the health and economic well-being of our communities, especially in places with people who have the fewest resources to respond.
Efforts to build communities that are resilient to environmental challenges and resulting social impacts require an integrated understanding of complex natural and social systems that also address issues of human rights and social justice. Our environmental studies and environmental science degrees at Binghamton University are designed to foster a transdisciplinary perspective on the interactions among humans and their environment in the face of present and future needs. Our approach to environmental studies embraces the complementary ideas that effective environmental policy is based on a solid understanding of physical and social science. At the same time, scientists working on environmental problems must understand the policy, planning and economic frameworks in which their studies will be applied.
We offer two degrees: a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Environmental Studies. Both degrees provide undergraduates with an interdisciplinary program that addresses the interrelationships of humans with their environment and the practical problems resulting from these relationships. In addition to taking the core courses required of all environmental science and studies majors, students complete specializations that develop a cross-disciplinary perspective, with a problem-oriented focus. These specializations are Earth Systems, Economic Systems, Ecosystems, and Sustainable Systems. Within the framework of the environmental science and studies, a student may obtain the interdisciplinary background prerequisites for such professional fields as food systems, environmental planning, urban and regional planning, policy analysis, environmental law, ecosystem management, environmental education and environmental analysis or graduate programs in these fields, as well as in sustainable communities, environmental geology and environmental chemistry.
Because of the diverse background required of students majoring in our environmental science and studies degrees, prospective majors must plan their academic program carefully. Majors should complete the core requirements (see below) for the environmental science and environmental studies majors as early as possible. At the time students declare their intention to major in environmental science or environmental studies, they choose a specialization and should, in consultation with their program advisor, decide on the courses making up their specialization and plan their academic program. Many of the upper-level courses require prerequisites and advanced planning.
Honors Program in Environmental Science and Environmental Studies
Graduation with honors in environmental science or environmental studies is granted for superior independent work, usually in the form of an honors thesis. To qualify, students must have demonstrated excellence in coursework and must receive the approval of a faculty member to register for ENVI 498 and ENVI 499. Normally, honors students enroll in ENVI 498 in their next-to-last semester to start their research and in ENVI 499 in their last semester, during which they complete the thesis. The student’s work must be submitted to a thesis committee consisting of the supervising professor and at least one other faculty member associated with the Environmental Studies Program.
Programs
Return to: Harpur College of Arts and Sciences
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