Report from the External Review
Department of Environmental Studies
Cal State Fullerton
Submitted May 9, 2007
On May 7, 2007, we visited the Environmental Studies Program at Cal State Fullerton
with the goal of assessing the M.S. program in Environmental Studies (ENST). We met
with the current program coordinator, the associate coordinator, students, alumni,
associated faculty, the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Dean
of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the Vice President for
Academic Affairs. We reviewed the program Self Study and other material, including
poster presentations of student work, and we participated in a SWOT
(Strength/Weakness/Opportunity/Threat) analysis of the Program with the Program
Council Members.
Cal State Fullerton, as a comprehensive University, has in its Mission and Goals
“To provide high quality programs that meet the evolving needs of our students,
community, and region.” Environmental problems are of paramount concern in southern
California, and Environmental Studies is a field that is growing throughout the state, with
an increasing need for trained professionals. The M.S. in Environmental Studies helps
meet this need, yet the Fullerton campus can do much more at both the undergraduate and
the graduate level.
Programmatic needs
We found that the M.S. program has an impressive history of functioning with very few
resources, and enrollments have remained steady for over 25 years. However, intrinsic
problems with the structure of this program have worsened since the last program review,
including:
 retirement and departure of key faculty members,
 over-reliance on faculty in other departments and colleges across campus for
thesis and project advising without appropriate oversight or FTES/budget
allocation, and
 use of part time, temporary instructors (without the appropriate level of academic
achievement for a graduate program) for core ENST course instruction and
project advising.
These problems lead us to recommend substantial changes and increased investment of
university resources in the immediate future.
We support the recommendation in the self-study to create undergraduate Bachelor of
Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees to enhance the existing degree, and we recommend
minors in Environmental Science and Environmental Studies be developed as well.
These undergraduate-level interdisciplinary environmental degrees would build upon the
existing disciplinary courses offered by cooperating departments among several colleges
as prerequisites and preparation courses for new interdisciplinary upper-division ENST
core courses. Strong interdisciplinary undergraduate degrees have significant demand by
1
both students and employers. These programs would be a great asset to the University
and the wider community CSUF serves, likely attracting more students to the ENST
department and to the associated departments on campus. Undergraduate GE courses in
ENST are also a draw to the University, and should be made available to all CSUF
students. Undergraduate minors in Environmental Studies could serve as a bridge
between undergraduate degrees in related departments and the valuable interdisciplinary
curriculum offered in Environmental Studies. Perhaps most importantly, development of
these undergraduate curricula is needed to fundamentally strengthen the existing M.S.
Degree.
In order to achieve these goals at the undergraduate level, the Program in Environmental
Studies should be converted to a Department, either in the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences, or preferably at a higher, more interdisciplinary administrative level
such as the office of an Associate Vice President. The new curriculum must be
developed by a dedicated core group of tenure/tenure track faculty with interdisciplinary
degrees, training and research and it should continue to involve the high-quality council
of faculty committed to the Program.
We therefore recommend that the University initially recruit a minimum of three fulltime faculty members to staff a new Department of Environmental Studies (ENST) at
CSUF:
 one senior faculty member from within the CSU system to build the GE
component and new undergraduate degree offerings, and administer the
department,
 one interdisciplinary faculty member with emphasis in the natural sciences, and
 one interdisciplinary faculty member with emphasis in the social sciences.
Resources for these faculty members should include release time for curriculum
development at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and research space and
startup funds for the natural scientist(s). In order to move the curriculum forward
expeditiously, these faculty members should be recruited as soon as it is practical to do
so, but they could initially teach in related departments, as appropriate, while developing
the coursework and degree offerings for a minor and Bachelors degrees in ENST.
Master of Science Curriculum
Allocating dedicated faculty members to the Department of ENST would resolve several
of the weaknesses in the existing M.S. curriculum that were identified in the SWOT
analysis, by associated faculty, by alumni, and by students.
The greatest challenge we saw in the M.S. program lay in the uneven quality of the M.S.
degree work. This variability resulted from wide diversity in student preparation upon
entering the program, but it was exacerbated by inconsistent or insufficient mentoring
across associated departments, variability in the core curriculum and ENST degree
advising, and the need for a clearer set of expectations for learning outcomes for all
students who obtain the degree.
2
Faculty and students alike recommended strengthening the prerequisites for the M.S.
degree to include at the least an indication of writing proficiency (such as a writing
sample or the GRE), in conjunction with additional required writing training for
international students and others who need extra support. A statement of purpose that
indicated which faculty member an incoming student might anticipate working with
would serve this function well. We also recommend that the admissions and advising
process be staffed by full-time faculty to a much larger degree, and that prerequisite
courses be strengthened to reflect the complexity of interdisciplinary work. These goals
would be more attainable with dedicated full-time faculty advisors in a department
setting, with a core set of courses at the undergraduate level that establishes a minimum
standard for unconditional admission to the graduate program.
Students also emphasized that they would like to see stronger training in writing included
in the 500-level core courses, and they expressed interest in adding an environmental
history component to one of the core courses to help develop a common vocabulary
among students in the program, an improvement easily accomplished within the design of
undergraduate course-work. CSUF should consider dual numbering of 400/500 level
courses in this context.
Finally, we observed that the course designation 595T is overused in this program. If a
group of dedicated ENST faculty were recruited, a central Environmental Studies elective
course curriculum could be developed and stabilized, resulting in more predictability of
course offerings for the students and more consistent course content.
Overall, we were impressed with the vibrancy of this program, considering the challenges
it faces. Demand for the existing degree is high, and in our experience the demand for
the undergraduate degrees would be even stronger. We believe that the program will not
survive if it remains in its current administrative configuration, however, and the quality
of the graduate degree is in peril if faculty training and scholarly achievement is not
promptly brought in line with academic standards and University goals consistent with
the teacher-scholar model.
Thank you for the opportunity to review this program. We would be happy to make
ourselves available for further questions should they arise.
Authors:
Darwin Hall, Director
Environmental Science
and Policy
Cal State Long Beach
Richard Laton,
Associate Professor
Department of Geology
Cal State Fullerton
3
Rachel O’Malley, Chair
Department of
Environmental Studies
San Jose State University