November 2006
Norman, Oklahoma
Report to AAG Council
From
The Pacific Coast Region
Data for this report are compiled from an email survey of department and
program chairs in the Pacific Coast Region, an email survey of the membership of
Association of Pacific Coast Geographers and anecdotal information picked up at the
Annual Meeting of the APCG, held September of this year in Eugene, Oregon. The data
in Figure 1 are updated from responses by 16 chairs and program directors who indicated
changes from Spring 2006 (two programs reported to me for the first time).
Figure 1
RELATIONAL DATA FOR SOME PACIFIC COAST GEOG DEPTS & PROGS BETWEEN 2000/1 & 2005/6
UPDATED 10/20/06
California
T/TT
fac
lect
grad
studs
Majors
Budget
Humbolt State U.
csuh
DOWN
SAME
NO
PROG
SAME
SAME
Cal State Longbeach
csulb
UP
UP
??
UP
DOWN
Cal State Northridge
csun
UP
UP
SAME
UP
ADEQUATE
San Diego State U.
sdsu
DOWN
SAME
UP
DOWN
DOWN
Cal State, Chico (geog & planning)
csuc
??
??
UP
UP
DOWN
San Francisco State U.
sfsu
UP
VARIES
??
??
DOWN
San Jose State U.
sjsu
SAME
SAME
SAME
SAME
DOWN
UC Los Angeles
ucla
UP
DOWN
SAME
SAME
SAME
University of Southern Cal
usc
SAME
SAME
SAME
SAME
Cal State Dominguez Hills
csud
DOWN
??
SAME
DOWN
Sonoma State U
ssu
DOWN
??
SAME
NO
PROG
NO
PROG
DOWN
DOWN
Cal State Poly, Pomona
cspp
UP
SAME
??
??
DOWN
UC Davis (grad group in geog)
UP
NONE
UP
NONE
SAME
University of Redlands
UP
NONE
UP
NONE
UP
San Joaquin Delta College
SAME
SAME
NONE
SAME
SAME
Alaska
University of Alaska
new
geog
program
(2008
APCG
host)
Arizona
Northern Arizona U
nau
DOWN
UP
SAME
SAME
??
U. of Arizona
ua
DOWN
UP
UP
UP
UP
Portland State U.
psu
UP
SAME
SAME
SAME
Southern Oregon U.
sou
DOWN
UP
SAME
NO
PROG
DOWN
DOWN
Oregon
1
Nevada
U. Of Nevada at Reno
Washington
U. of Washington
unr
UP
UP
UP
UP
UP
UP
SAME
UP
SAME
Western Washington U.
wwu
??
??
UP
UP
UP
(hugely)
Idaho
U. of Idaho
ui
UP
UP
UP
DOWN
DOWN
Hawaii
Hawaii Pacific University
hpu
UP
UP
NO
PROG
Minor
SAME
BC
U. of British Columbia
ubc
UP
SAME
SAME
SAME
UP
Simon Fraser U.
sfu
UP
SAME
UP
UP
UP
U. College of Fraser Valley
ucvf
UP
SAME
??
UP
Trinity Western U.
twu
SAME
SAME
??
NO
PROG
DOWN
DOWN
What follows are anecdotal comments from Department and Program Chairs
about the state of geography at their institutions and how the AAG may help their
missions. I then provide a brief commentary on the state of the APCG and the annual
meetings in Eugene, Oregon. The report is concluded with some comments gleaned from
an email survey of the APCG membership.
Invited Input from Department and Program Chairs
In contrast to the previous two years, those who checked in from California this
Fall are happy to report stability with regard to numbers of graduate students, majors and,
to a lesser extent, budget. Geography at UCLA is pleased to announce three new hires in
urban, desert geomorphology and GIS respectively in 2006 and is currently searching for
a specialist in feminist/gender/sexual geography. Continuing the news from Los
Angeles, Michael Dear reports two (maybe 3) new hires at USC He also reports
interdisciplinary hires in Climate Science and Latin American Studies that will help
geography. Cal State Chico’s geography and planning department reports relatively little
growth. Concern is raised by chair Jacqueline Chase that geographers across the CSU
system are being splintered into interdisciplinary programs such as environmental studies
and global studies. She is pleased to report that graduates from Chico do well in planning
careers. Elsewhere in California, departments report a more optimistic outlook than in the
past. Individual campuses in the California State system report some declines in
operating budgets although many geography departments are hiring. Humboldt State and
San Diego State Universities hired new faculty this year and the latter currently has two
searches to offset retirements in the last three years. The number of majors in geography
is also encouraging with HSU and Cal State Longbeach reporting increases. HSU is
active in the California Geographical Alliance, with Steve Cunha heading up several
educational outreach programs. The National Council for Geographic Education met at
Lake Tahoe this year under the co-host/co-directorship of Dr. Cunha. Amongst other
things Cal State Longbeach is very active in the Association of Pacific Coast
Geographers and will host the meetings in 2007. CSU Northridge also reports in on a
positive note with regard to hires, with two current searches. This will bring the
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department up to 14 full-time faculty and 5 FERP, in addition to 21 part-time faculty and
lecturers. San Francisco State University geography has 3 tenure track searches underway
this year and hopes for another next year (this offsets two retirements and two
resignations last year). Dr. Nancy Wilkinson points out that SFSU, like other Cal State
Universities, has been plagued by budget reductions to cover systemic problems.
“Departmental taxes” are often raised to offset in drops in funding elsewhere (e.g. a
decrease in funding from foreign student applications since 9/11). At SFSU, a highly
successful GIS Certificate Program enables funding of faculty travel, lab upgrades and
equipment needs. SFSU is very excited to be the host institution for the AAG 2007
meetings.
According to JP Jones at the University of Arizona, administrators from that state
love the discipline of geography. Dr. Jones was the only chair from Arizona to report this
time around (I believe that Arizona State University is currently looking for a new chair).
My discussions with faculty from Phoenix and Flagstaff suggest that a rosy state of
geography in Arizona is indeed the case. Despite cutbacks in higher education,
geography in the three state universities seems to be stable or doing well. The University
of Arizona reports three new hires starting in September 2007 and another anticipated
next year. In addition, the number of graduate students and majors in all three institutions
is stable or high (UofA do not want any more).
Geography at the University of Idaho continues to do well, finding new ways to
integrate with other programs at the University. These include a new program in
sustainable development for Idaho communities, a water resource research initiative, and
a sustainable environment initiative. They have several NSF funded research projects
now, and more are expected in near future. Geography at Idaho is revising its curriculum
to strengthen its offerings in physical science, GIS, and global and regional studies. A
recent positive external evaluation enabled the department to position itself for new job
hires.
The Geography Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa reports three
new faculty hires over the last three years. Their emphases have moved from
population/medical geography to marine conservation and management, reflecting the
interests of new faculty. An area of concern is the drop-off in new graduate students. The
number of teaching assistantships that they offer is decreasing (3 years ago it was 12;
reduced to 10 two years ago; and dropping to 7 next academic year), and their ability to
attract good students via this route is greatly diminished. Dr. Ross Sutherland, the new
chair, wonders if the AAG might help by making graduate students aware of potential
funding sources to support their degree programs.
This Fall, Dr. John Richards took over as department chair at Southern Oregon
University. The uncertainty surrounding what will happen to geography at SOU
highlights concerns that the AAG has for small departments in small universities.
Currently, SOU has four full-time faculty, three of whom are Full Professors. They have
one part-time temporary instructor who teaches their introductory physical geography lab
under the "Environmental Studies" prefix, 6 hours a year. This year they are hiring three
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part-time instructors for one 4-hour class, each as a sabbatical replacement for their one
Associate Professor. SOU has one geography graduate student in their interdisciplinary
Social Science Master's degree program. The bad news is that geography at SOU has
between 23 and 39 majors, down from 79 four years ago. This decline does not bode well
when the University's budget is been cut 1.6 million dollars this year, continuing an 18year trend, and resulting, so far, in a 10% reduction in services and supplies budget. As
one of their full professors (Dr Reynolds) is retiring, the department is fighting another
opportunistic cut to faculty, as occurred when a previous professor retired. If they are
unsuccessful, according to Dr. Richards there is a high probability that we will be
absorbed into the Environmental Studies program.
The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers
“Founded in 1935 by a gathering of geographers including graduate students and
faculty from universities, normal schools, and junior colleges, the Association of Pacific
Coast Geographers has a long and rich history promoting geographical education,
research, and knowledge” (APCG website). The APCG publishes the annual Yearbook,
first printed in 1935, that includes abstracts of papers from the meetings and a number of
full-length peer-reviewed articles. The Yearbook is under the new editorship of Dr. James
Craine (CSU, Northridge) and is now electronic (it is part of Project MUSE, a widely
used academic database that provides full-text coverage).
The APCG meetings at Eugene, Oregon in Sept 2006 were a great success. Host
Alex Murphy reports 316 people registered for the meeting, making it one of the largest
annual meetings in APCG history. Attendees came from each of the states in the APCG
region. Among the universities with substantial contingents at the meeting were the
University of Oregon; Portland State University; the University of Washington; the
University of Nevada, Reno; San Diego State University; the University of Arizona;
Arizona State University; and several of the institutions in the California State system.
Both the AAG Executive Director (Douglas Richardson) and the 2006-2007 AAG
President (Kavita Pandit, University of Georgia) were also in attendance, a point noted
with appreciation by several APCG members. The meetings had many presentations of
high quality, and were well-attended by undergraduate and graduate students. Murphy
notes that in total 140 papers, 41 panel presentations, and 9 posters were presented during
two days of sessions. Some APCG members lamented (once more) the lack of
contribution from the University of California system. The organizers of next year’s
meeting in Longbeach hope to rectify this by facilitating specific involvement from UC
schools in Los Angeles.
The annual meetings are sponsored in 2007 by CSU Longbeach and in 2008 by
the geography program at the University of Alaska reflecting, I’d argue, the energy and
growth of those two departments.
Invited Comments from APCG Members.
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A member from California believes that the AAG needs to address more fully the
issue of geography in K-12 education. Her argument is that university departments will
continue to remain small or be joined with other departments until geography is
reinstated in the school curriculum. The national association should put their money and
efforts into lobbing elected representatives. There is more than ample evidence, this
member goes on to suggest, that the American population is geographically illiterate.
Alternatively, another member from California and one from Washington note that
during their tenure as geography professors the abilities of students in geography has
increased. Both members note that although it is hard to quantify, there is a general
impression that students are coming to college with a bit more geographic background
now than 10 years ago, so they recognize geography earlier in their college careers and
are more likely to become majors. The member from Washington assumes this is a result
of the AAG's national initiatives for geographic literacy; he does not think that much has
been done at the state level.
Local geography networks are touted as very important by several members. The
Washington member cited in the previous paragraph goes on to laud the work of the
Association of Washington Geographers and notes that there are also important crossborder connections between Western Washington University and geography institutions
in Idaho. In addition, a member in British Columbia notes important connections with the
United States and wishes that the AAG would do more to foster these connections.
A geographer in the CSU laments that most geography programs within this 21
campus system are not growing (an exception, perhaps, is Cal State Long Beach), and
many are being splintered into interdisciplinary programs such as environmental studies
and global studies. That said, she goes on to note that students from her program are
getting jobs, especially in planning, so she would like to get the word out about the
persistent demand for graduates in a very important field that is reflective of how people
use their resources, build their cities and infrastructure, and make decisions about land
use.
A member from the California Community College system voices concern about
hiring of adjunct and full-time teachers in geography when a K-12 curriculum is not in
place. When she first started teaching at her college, she was the only full-timer and
taught 4 classes plus a lab. Over the next 6 years, she increased class sections to 15 and
the college hired another full-time geographer. Now, in her 15th year, she sees
enrollments down and lack of interest. They currently have 13 sections at her institution,
of which 2 are labs. This decline, she argues, is because geography has still not found a
specified place within the college and high school requirements. When, she laments, are
we going to get any geography as a requirement for high school and college graduation?
She points out that the California Geographic Alliance has worked on this, but they have
tried with little positive gain for as long as she has been teaching (25 years). In the
community colleges and in Introductory Geography courses everywhere, she avers,
faculty are expected to teach students the basics of the discipline as well as the science
relating to the course material. She does not know of any other important discipline that
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has to do this. Students come to college prepared with math, history, and even foreign
language basics, so why not geography basics? Would it not be wonderful if the drive for
geographic education began in preschool? The AAG might be able by promoting the
importance of geographical study starting at this earliest age. She ends by noting that
without the demand for geography classes by the time students reach college level,
geography programs in the US will not grow.
The comments in this report are gleaned from several sources including email
surveys and personal communications. They are paraphrased and edited by me, and
although I may not agree with some of the sentiments expressed I take full responsibility
for all mistakes, omissions and miss-interpretations.
Respectively submitted,
Stuart C. Aitken
Thursday, 26 October, 2006
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