Environmental Studies Department, 2005 – 2006 Cycle
Program Planning Committee Report to the Provost
July 8, 2008
B.A. Environmental Studies (General)
B.A. Environmental Studies - Multiple Subject Teacher Preparation (BA-MSTP)
B.S. Environmental Studies (General)
B.S. Environmental Studies - Concentration in Environmental Impact Assessment (BS-EIA)
B.S. Environmental Studies - Concentration in Energy (BS-Energy)
M.S. Environmental Studies
The Program Planning Committee (PPC) commends the Environmental Studies Department for
its support of a large number of cross-listed and cross-disciplinary courses in a range of
environmental issues, and for the dedication of its faculty and staff, especially the department
chair. The PPC also would like to commend the department for its great effort in community
outreach, resulting in a pool of part-time lecturers and external thesis committee members to
serve the department’s needs. The PPC appreciates the department efforts in preparing the selfstudy with thorough information about the department’s curricula, organization, operation,
faculty and student profiles, resources, budget, and plans for the future.
The external reviewers’ report, by Karina Garbesi, Ph.D. from the Department of Geography and
Environmental Studies, Cal State East Bay, and Daniel Press, Environmental Studies
Department, UC Santa Cruz, mainly discusses problems. They see “miniscule” funding, too high
part-time/full-time faculty ratio, and faculty and staff having inadequate space, excessive
workload, and poor working conditions as key concerns for program stability. The external
reviewers state that broad interdisciplinary units such as Environmental Studies Department do
not fit well within a single college. As an interdisciplinary unit, some new faculty need startup
funds for laboratory spaces and for teaching and research similar to start-up funds in the
sciences. The external reviewers urge the university to increase financial support to the
Environmental Studies Department. They recommend that the department focus only on the
programs and concentrations for which it has expertise and resources, and recommend reducing
graduate enrollments to improve faculty workload. The reviewers also mention that the
department should allocate resources to programs and concentrations that have demand in the
form of majors instead of course enrollment. The department should not propose any new
programs or concentrations until resources and expertise are available, and should distribute
graduate advising to faculty members evenly.
The Environmental Studies Department does not fully agree with the external reviewers’
comments. The department agrees with the comments regarding lack of administrative support,
low ratio of tenure-track to temporary faculty, lack of faculty startup funding and laboratory
space, high workload of faculty and staff, and low university resources allocated to the
department. The department disagrees with the external reviewers’ suggestions about the
institutional position of the department under the College of Social Sciences, reducing graduate
enrollments as a solution to excessive faculty workload, and the lack of faculty expertise in some
concentration areas.
The College of Social Sciences (COSS) Review Committee believes that the Environmental
Studies Department allocates resources to many unnecessary programs, concentrations,
Environmental Studies Department
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requirements, and under-enrolled classes. The COSS committee recommends the department
have a more concentrated curriculum with fewer options and concentrations. The college
committee would like to see more flexibility in the culminating experience for the master degree
such as the adoption of an exam or project option.
The College of Social Science Dean’s report suggests the department consider comments from
the college committee and outside reviewers to reduce the total number of concentrations. The
Dean also suggests the department consider the recommendation to reduce graduate enrollments
and encourage graduate students to take more courses in other departments. The Dean however
mentions that all decisions are up to the department faculty.
The Department of Environmental Studies has laid a good foundation for its assessment
activities and has developed student learning outcomes and assessment plans. The department
however has not done much in data collection and analysis, has not reported assessment
activities regularly to the college nor to the University and has not shown evidence of improving
student learning. The WASC team in their March 2007 visit encouraged all programs to put
greater focus on program (rather than course) assessment and use data (course and other sources)
to evaluate the achievement of program outcomes at graduation. Should the department need
help with assessment activities, the Director of Assessment and College Facilitators are available
to provide suggestions and support. In accordance with the 2006 Program Planning Guidelines,
in the next program cycle, the self study should include program assessment plans, the university
assessment reports, and an evaluation of the results of assessment efforts with particular attention
to modifications that have been made to improve student achievement of learning goals and
outcomes.
The final step in the program planning process is a meeting with the Provost Sigler (or her
designee), Vice Provost for Academic Budgets and Planning Nance, AVP of Undergraduate
Studies Cooper, the AVP of Graduate Studies and Research Stacks, Dean Hegstrom, and
Department Chair O’Malley. The department should contact Svetla Ilieva in the Office of
Undergraduate Studies to schedule the final meeting. The following topics for discussion are
summarized from the reports:

The discussion of prioritizing existing programs and concentrations based on faculty
expertise that may lead to the possibilities of consolidating several programs and
concentrations and/or liquidation of programs and concentrations with low majors.

The improvement of resource allocations and faculty workload in graduate thesis
advising by the adoption of other options than theses for graduate students.

The improvement of faculty scholarly work by better collaboration with the SJSU
Foundation in faculty proposal writing.

The improvement of writing the self-study report and presenting curriculum assessment
results, including improvements to student learning through curricular and/or pedagogical
development.
If the Department would like to propose other issues for the meeting, please discuss the
appropriateness of the topics with your Dean. The next self-study is due spring 2010 for program
review in AY 2010- 2011.
Environmental Studies Department
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Program Planning Committee
Marina Aminy
Arlene Asuncion
Mary Calegari
Peter Chua
Elaine Collins
Bob Cooper
Thuy Le
Bill Nance
Dan Perales
Jacqueline Snell
Pam Stacks
Gary Stebbins
Patricia Stroh
Marlene Turner
Ashwini Wagle
Cc:
Rachel E. O’Malley, Environmental Studies Department Chair
Tim Hegstrom, Dean, College of Social Science
George Vasquez, Interim Associate Dean, College of Social Science
Bob Cooper, AVP Undergraduate Studies
Pam Stacks, AVP Graduate Studies and Research
Bill Nance, Vice-Provost
Environmental Studies Department
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Appendix: Summary of the Program Planning Report
B.A. Environmental Studies (General)
B.A. Environmental Studies - Multiple Subject Teacher Preparation (BA-MSTP)
B.S. Environmental Studies (General)
B.S. Environmental Studies - Concentration in Environmental Impact Assessment (BS-EIA)
B.S. Environmental Studies - Concentration in Energy (BS-Energy)
M.S. Environmental Studies
Self-Study of 2005 – 2006 Program Planning Cycle
Summary of the Self-Study Report
Existing Programs
The Environmental Studies Department offers undergraduate and graduate programs as listed
below:
1.




General B.A. Degree in Environmental Studies (120 units)
(13 units) Preparation for the major (mainly lower division)
(25 units) Required Environmental Studies core sequence
(18 units) Advisor-approved minor
(29 units) Advisor-approved electives in Environmental Studies




B.A. Multiple Subject Teacher Preparation Degree in Environmental Studies (120 units)
(72-81 units) MSTP coordinated breadth curriculum
(24 units) Requirements in the major: 12 units core courses 12 units concentration
(3 units) Internship
(10-16 units) Electives in the major




General B.S. Degree in Environmental Studies (124 – 126 units)
(22 - 24 units) Preparation for the major (mainly lower division)
(25 units) Required Environmental Studies core sequence
(18 units) Advisor-approved minor
(24 units) Advisor-approved electives in Environmental Studies
2.
3.
4.

BS-EIA Degree in Environmental Studies with Concentration in Environmental Impact
assessment
Same as for general BS except that 18 units advisor-approved minor are replaced by 18
units concentration in environmental impact assessment

BS-Energy Degree in Environmental Studies with Concentration in Energy
Same as for general BS except that 18 units advisor-approved minor are replaced by 18
units concentration in energy



M.S. Environmental Studies
9 units required graduate seminar core courses (3 courses)
15 units advisor-approved electives
A master thesis (with a thesis proposal)
5.
6.
Environmental Studies Department
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o Each thesis has 3 committee members, 2 from the department and 1 can be
outside
Proposed/Planned Programs
The Environmental Studies Department has proposed one new concentration and planned two
new concentrations as listed below:

BS-ERNEM Degree in Environmental Studies with Concentration in Environmental
Restoration and Natural Resource Management (proposed for approval in Fall 2007)

Same as for general BS except that 18 units advisor-approved minor are replaced by 18
units concentration in environmental restoration and natural resource management
2.
B.A. Degree in Environmental Studies with Concentration in Water Resource Policy

Same as for general BA except that 18 units advisor-approved minor are replaced by 18
units concentration in water resource policy

Courses are partially from existing water elective courses in the department such as
Water Resource Management (EnvS 128) and water Policy in the Western U.S. (EnvS
129), however it may incorporate other relevant policy and planning courses such as
Politics and the Environment (EnvS 140), and courses covering other related resources,
such as Geology and the Environment (EnvS 111) and Hazardous Waste (EnvS 112).
3.
B.A. Degree in Environmental Studies with Concentration in Green Building Design

Same as for general BA except that 18 units advisor-approved minor are replaced by 18
units concentration in green building design

This degree could incorporate existing coursework in Solar Home Design (EnvS 132),
Environmental Planning (EnvS 142) and Environmental Management (EnvS 167), but it
may also require development of additional courses covering green building strategies in
general, including water conservation, green building materials, and regulatory and
certification incentives.
Resources and Personnel
Below are summaries of faculty, staff, and department resources:

The department has 5 full-time faculty members, which includes 2 full-professors, 1
associate professor, and 2 assistant professors.

The department is currently in the process of hiring a new faculty member in
Environmental Education and Sustainable Forest Management.

The department has 11 part-time lecturers (8 with master degrees, 2 with Ph.D. degrees
and 1 with a law degree). Most of the part-time lecturers have 0.40 assignments.

The department has one staff member at three-quarters time. The staff is sharing office
space with the Geography department

The department’s funds for AY 2006-2007 include:
General Fund:
$4,136
Environmental Studies Department
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Concurrent Enrollment Fund: $13,391
Lottery Fund:
$2,850
Student Enrollments
Undergraduate and graduate student enrollments and degrees awarded for each program from fall
2001 through spring 2007 are shown below.
BS and BA Majors Enrolled, 2001-2007
Env. Studies
(overall)
BA/BS
(general)
BA (teacher
prep)
BS (energy)
BS (env.
impact
assessment
2
138
134
N/A
2
Spring 2002
126
118
0
7
1
Fall 2002
110
106
0
3
1
Spring 2003
96
94
0
1
1
Fall 2003
92
92
0
0
0
Spring 2004
102
102
0
0
0
Fall 2004
90
90
0
0
0
Spring 2005
91
89
0
0
2
Fall 2005
91
87
0
2
2
Spring 2006
99
94
0
3
2
Fall 2006
119
99
1
10
9
Spring 2007
151
118
3
17
13
Fall 2001
BS and BA Degrees Awarded, 2001-2007
Env. Studies
(Overall)
BA
(general)
2001/2002
37
22
2002/2003
46
25
2003/2004
26
2004/2005
BS
(general)
BS
(energy)
11
3
0
16
5
0
10
1
14
1
0
27
16
0
11
0
0
2005/2006
24
8
6
10
0
0
2006/2007
31
7
0
14
6
4
% Change
2001 – ‘07
-16.2162
-68.1818
0
27.2727
100
300
Environmental Studies Department
BA
(teacher
prep)
0
BS (env.
impact
assessment
1
page 6 of 12
Master of Science Enrollment
Master of Science Degrees Awarded
Curriculum Changes from the Last Review Plan (2000)
The changes summarized below are due to faculty desire to update and refine requirements as
well as the university mandate to reduce time-to-degree for students.

The total number of units required was reduced by reducing prerequisites from 32 units to
between 22 and 24 units for the BS degree and from 17 to 13 units for the BA degree and
by reducing the electives by 3 units.
Environmental Studies Department
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
The choice of prerequisite science courses for the B.S. degrees was broadened to include
the introductory biology series as an option.

The concentrations in Energy and Environmental Impact Assessment have been
streamlined to 18 units each.

A new concentration in Environmental Restoration and Natural Resource Management
(ERNRM) was submitted for approval to the University in fall 2007.

The B.A. teacher preparation degree was revised in coordination with other campus
departments to meet state guidelines and to meet the needs of future teachers by
preparing them for the classroom environment.

Four new courses have been added: “Life on a Changing Planet (EnvS 10),” “Sustainable
Agriculture (EnvS 154),” “Sustainable Forest Management (EnvS 196d),” and “Global
Climate Change (EnvS 168).”
Curriculum Changes in the Near Future
For undergraduate programs, the Environmental Studies Department has discussed adding at
least three new undergraduate courses to the curriculum in the next several years, and will begin
the paperwork for course approval during AY 2009-2010. The courses are:
 Environmental Literacy and Ethics.
 Green Building.
 Global Environmental Issues.
For graduate program, the department has planned to:
 Develop a rotating topics course in Environmental Studies titled “Current Topics in
Environment Studies,” that will allow faculty to offer repeatable seminars on topics of
current interest and importance.
 Develop a required 1-unit graduate level seminar course that covers research talks by
faculty and graduating students. This course is currently in development and will be
submitted for approval in spring 2008 semester.
 Offer a 200-level independent study course (EnvS 284) in which students can enroll and
participate as lab/advising group meetings.
Assessment
Assessment tools that the Environmental Studies Department currently uses include:
 Standard university teaching effectiveness evaluation form (SOTES).
 In-class peer evaluation for temporary lecturers and tenure-track faculty.
 Course questionnaires designed to answer specific questions regarding the format,
content, and testing instruments used in a specific class (most classes).
 Graduation/annual student surveys and comments from students to the Chair.
 Department interaction with alumni.
 Evaluations from student intern supervisors.
The department has completed an assessment plan and has collected systematic data regarding
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). The department says it has already implemented changes to
its programs based on the assessment results as shown in the Appendix C of the self-study report.
Environmental Studies Department
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However, the self report does not include any appendices. The department says that the annual
assessment cycle includes data collection, organizing data into assessment report, and discussing
assessment data at the department annual retreat, but these activities are not being systematically
reported.
Assessment Plans
The Environmental Studies Department plans to:

Track Environmental Studies Graduates: This project is of high priority, but the workload
of faculty and department chair has prevented the department from achieving it. The
department would like to update information on job placement and career changes of its
alumni for program assessment and fund-raising purposes.

Develop an Environmental Studies Advisory Board.
Five-Year Plan for Faculty Recruitment
The department expects to request at least one more tenure-track position after the currently open
position is filled. If the department continues to grow, the department will request a second
tenure track position to reach full-time/part-time faculty ratio of 80:20. Expected faculty hiring
from 2007 to 2012 is shown in the table below:
Academic Year
2007-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
Notes
Approved tenure track search for Education / Forest Management
Tenure track search for Physical Science / Soil Management
New hire begins. Evaluate whether enrollments can support additional
tenure track position. If so, define the position
Begin tenure track search
New hire begins
External Reviewers’ Report – December 18, 2007
The external reviewers believe that the Environmental Studies Programs at San Jose State
University are strong and large in terms of number of students, number of course and program
offerings, and number of concentrations and options. The main concerns of the reviewers are
programmatic instability, excessive workload of faculty and staff, lack of funding, lack of office
and laboratory space, and lack of administrative support. The reviewers’ recommendations can
be summarized as:

SJSU administration should consider a different administrative structure that can better
support broadly interdisciplinary programs such as the Environmental Studies programs. The
Environmental Studies programs need to have better support to reduce faculty workload, to
increase staff time, to have startup funding and laboratory space for new hires, to increase the
ratio of full-time/part-time faculty to at least 75%, and to have initial support for department
fundraising activities.
Environmental Studies Department
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
CSU should consider working in partnership with the CFA to address the workload gap
between CSU and comparable institutions. Special focus is needed for workload of chairs
and probationary faculty.

For graduate students the department should consider:
o
reducing the number of graduate students accepted in the program to meet
available faculty resources for thesis advising
o capturing graduate advising into required thesis courses to keep students engage
in the thesis process and to compensate graduate faculty

For undergraduate students:
o concentrating only on areas that the department has expertise and resources and
eliminating areas that the department does not have (such as international
development),
o increasing efforts to identify appropriate internships

For faculty
o better distributing graduate thesis committee workload among faculty by
matching the interests of incoming students
o waiting to get permanent faculty and support before building new concentrations
(such as Green Building and Water Resources),
o waiting to make sure a concentration has enough majors before committing
substantial faculty resources to that area (such as Teacher Preparation)
o helping faculty to work closely with SJSU research foundation staff in proposal
writing and research activities.
Chair’s Response to External Reviewers – March 9, 2008
The Environmental Studies Department agrees to the external reviewers’ comments for some
issues but not for others. Based on the recommendations and observations made by the external
reviewers, the department has several requests that can be summarized as below:

Increase administrative staff time, office and lab spaces for the Environmental Studies
Department.

Have startup funding and research space for scientists hired into interdisciplinary
departments such as the Environmental Studies.

Reduce faculty workload and maintain the ratio of full-time/part-time faculty at 80/20. With
the current ratio of tenure/tenure track at about 60% of FTEF, the workload for full-time
faculty and the chair is out-of-balance.

Assign university or Tower foundation funds to support staff time for the generation of
private donations. These funds would be designed to result in a net gain in funds for the
department and thus the university.
Environmental Studies Department
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
Allocate 0.4 chair release time for the Environmental Studies Department from the Office of
the President.

Reevaluate both base budget and one-time allocations for the Environmental Studies
Department in comparison with allocations per FTES and FTEF for other departments across
the College of Social Sciences and across the University.

Reallocate some office/storage space in WSQ 117 for instructional and research purposes.
The Department of Environmental Studies currently has 15 lecturers sharing one 10 x 10
cubicle. One full professor has no office on campus and is sharing a corner of a substandard
lab space with the department Chair in the basement of Science 50, posing serious health and
safety problems.
The Environmental Studies Department disagrees with some external reviewers’ comments and
explains its disagreements as summarized below:

The department is content to remain in the College of Social Sciences for many historical and
practical reasons. The faculty however strongly believe that the college should receive a
differentiated $/FTES to support the three interdisciplinary social/natural science
departments (Environmental Studies, Psychology, and Anthropology).

The department disagrees that reducing the number of graduate students is a good solution to
problems in faculty advising load. In order to run graduate student seminars at a minimum
enrollment the department must admit 12-15 graduate students per year.

The department believes that it has expertise in international development. Four of five
tenured members have experience in the less-developed world.

The department disagrees with the reviewers’ comments about the green building and water
resources programs. The department wants to clarify that these programs are not new to the
department as the reviewers suggested but they both have well established components with
strong student and faculty support.

The department disagrees with the reviewers’ comments about teacher preparation and
environmental education programs. The B.A. Teacher Preparation degree is part of a longstanding emphasis on environmental education and enrollment comes from both program
majors and minors. There are also graduate students interested in environmental education
for their thesis projects and students outside of the department who rely on these courses for
exposure to environmental issues.
College of Social Science Committee’s Review – March 24, 2008
Committee Members: Sheila Lydia Ortega, Yoko Baba and George Vásquez
The COSS Review Committee commends the Department of Environmental Studies for its
thorough and forthright self-study, for its new cross-listed and cross disciplinary courses, for
fostering good community relations, and for developing well-identified learning objectives. The
Committee also congratulates the department for its excellent internship program and for the
development of valuable courses.
Environmental Studies Department
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The COSS Review Committee suggests the Environmental Studies Department include a short
“Executive Summary” section at the beginning of its self-study report to encompass both the
conclusions reached in the study as well as the recommendations emanating from the study.
The committee’s major concern is the department “spreading its resources too broadly and
pursuing too ambitious a program of study, especially at the graduate level. While ambitiousness
is a department strength, this may also contribute to some of the problems identified in the selfstudy and external reviewers’ report”. The committee suggests the department be more flexible
in the requirements of the culminating experience for graduate students (such as the adoption of
exam and/or project options) in order to reduce faculty advising load. The committee believes
that undergraduate degrees with a variety of concentrations and an advisor-approved minor
creates an advising burden and requires the department to offer more courses than it can fill with
relatively small number of majors, resulting in under-enrolled classes. The committee
specifically suggests the department consider collapsing several concentrations where the
number of students graduating is very low. Since the department does not (at this moment) have
employment information for its graduates, there is no way to know whether the current
department strategy of casting as wide a net as possible is successful. The current curriculum
may confuse students, resulting in students taking additional courses, and delaying graduation.
Dean’s Review - May 5, 2008
Tim Hegstrom, Dean of College of Social Sciences
Dean Tim Hegstrom congratulates the faculty of Environmental Studies on their recent
accomplishments in building enrollments and majors, for winning some grants, producing some
impressive research, and for a palpable sense of community as evidenced by lots of co-curricular
activities. The Dean suggests the department heed advice from the college committee and the
outside reviewers to keep concentrations from becoming unmanageable. Since graduate
programs are especially costly in faculty time the department should carefully consider capping
enrollments and/or offload faculty workload by encouraging students to take more courses in
other departments. He says “It is important that these topics get discussed at faculty retreats and
other venues, even if the solutions and goals that eventuate are quite different from those
suggested from these outside sources. Ultimately, the department members are in the best
position to decide whether these ideas can be implemented and will work.”
Environmental Studies Department
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