Updated: Aug. 30, 2024, at 4:05 p.m.
The Department of Geography and Environment rebranded itself and reformed its master’s program to match the growing popularity of its environmental studies programs over the last year.
The department added “environment” to its title and changed its master’s degree curriculum to become more STEM-focused by changing its course requirements and lowering its credit total. David Rain, the department chair and professor of geography and international affairs, said the changes better represent the department’s makeup as its environmental studies programs have swelled in popularity due to the increasing interest in climate change and the environment amid worldwide calls for urgent action regarding the climate crisis.
“We’ve gone from zero to 60 in a couple of years now, with over 60 majors and it’s popular,” Rain said. “Students are coming and it’s for obvious reasons, climate change, you name it, there’s some kind of environmental crisis going on.”
In 2023, there were 41 environmental studies students, 41 environmental and sustainability science students and 40 geography students enrolled in the department’s undergraduate programs, according to enrollment data. Rain said the popularity of the environmental studies programs had been increasing steadily but gained momentum after the department introduced the environment and sustainability science major in 2020.
The environmental studies program focuses on environmental impacts and communicating about them through a humanities and social sciences lens, according to the department website. The environmental and sustainability science program focuses on more quantitative skills, including course requirements in more upper-level math and science classes.
“We were thinking, they’re just cannibalizing the environmental studies, so it’ll be a zero-sum,” Rain said. “But no, they’re way more who are into science, want to do that more. They might be looking for a job working in climate, climate policy or something like that, so it sort of became a whole thing unto itself.”
Rain said he proposed the name change during a department retreat in Maryland last fall, where department faculty were “very supportive” and voted to approve it. He said the department received final approval from the University bulletin and the Office of the Registrar in June.
Rain said the department added environmental studies programs in 2004 after the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences shrunk the Department of Geology, which used to house environmental studies programs, to a program. The department now includes geography, environmental studies and environmental and sustainability science degree programs as well as minors in geographic information systems and sustainability.
Rain said the department decided to rebrand and reform the master’s program in geography and environment to make the degree more STEM-centric by implementing new course requirements to appeal to students wanting to study science and the environment. He said the new change will offer international students more time in the U.S. by aligning the program with the Department of Homeland Security’s definition of a STEM degree.
The Department of Education assigns classification codes to academic degrees to track fields of study and completion rates nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security offers 24-month extensions post-graduation to F-1 academic visas for students in programs with STEM-related classification codes compared to 12-month extensions for non-STEM programs.
Rain said the new master’s program offers more flexibility for students by reducing the required credits for students writing a thesis from 36 credits to 30 credits. He said the new program adds requirements for students to take classes about geographic information systems, human geography and the environment, including courses offered through the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration’s new environmental and sustainability policy program, which launched this academic year.
Rain said the original master’s program will still operate for its final year this year for students who want to finish their degree in the former program, but the department has encouraged students to request readmission to the new program. He said the program has 12 incoming graduate students this semester in addition to the existing ones who transferred from the original program.
Rain said to maintain flexibility for students, the program needs to add more courses besides the ones offered by the department, the Trachtenberg School and the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area — a group of universities in the D.C. area that share resources, including the opportunity to take classes not offered at their home institution.
He said the department has struggled to hire new faculty members, including replacing faculty that have left within the past few years, due to CCAS budget restraints, hindering the quantity of new courses they can offer.
Michael Mann, a professor of geography and the department’s director of graduate studies, said the department has been growing STEM offerings over the past few years by expanding GIS and physical geography classes. He said new requirements to take classes about GIS, the environment and human geography offer students background in all aspects of geography as a discipline.
“Many of our students are doing GIS and modeling, but I think that if you want to model the environment, you really have to understand the processes behind that,” Mann said. “This will be helpful in that they’ll get some domain expertise as well, whether that’s sort of qualitative methods or human geography or scientific methods, through the sort of environmental requirements.”
Mann said he sent a Google Form to existing students to readmit them into the new program by transferring their information from GWeb and DegreeMap. He said he also worked with international students to adjust their visas due to the degree’s new classification.
John Lesko, a graduate student in the geography department, said he is happy with the changes since he is interested in environmental geography and the requirement changes bring an interdisciplinary approach to the degree. He said the lower credit requirement allows him to save nearly $12,000 since it lessens his course load.
Lesko said the department notified existing students of the changes a month ago and he is leaning toward transferring to the new program. He said he wishes the department used more student input when crafting the new curriculum, like on the possibility of offering a lab-based physical geography course.
“I do wish there had been some student input, especially on what classes are in each group or could be offered for each group,” Lesko said. “The name change could look better on a resume than just geography and the structure also does force people to be more interdisciplinary in the classes they choose. And I think that that’s good for the department and the field as a whole.”
This post was updated to correct the following:
The Hatchet incorrectly reported Rain’s title as department chair and professor of geography, Rain is also a professor of international affairs. We regret this error.
