2008 Woodie Awards
Department alive and well
Issue date: 2/24/06 Section: Rocket Letters
To the Editor:
Numerous faculty, students and members of the community have expressed concern to my departmental colleagues and me about the closure of programs in our department. The source of confusion is an article titled "SRU Juggles $2 Million Deficit" published on Feb.12 in the Butler Eagle. The article reported that bachelor's degrees are no longer offered in several programs, including environmental science, geology and applied geographic technology. I'm writing to say that reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. Our Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment offers a Bachelor's of Science (BS) in Environmental Geoscience with a track in geology or a track in environmental science. We also offer a BS in Geography with an applied geographic technology track or an environmental studies track. We used to offer a BS in each of these four tracks, but now we have two BS degrees with two tracks each. Apparently the Eagle article saw this shift from four BS degrees to two BS degrees as the closure of two programs, but the content of the four tracks we currently offer is identical to the content of the four former programs. If you or your readers would like to know more about any of our programs, our dedicated, hard-working faculty would be happy to talk with you. It would take their minds off trying to clear up misinformation about our impending demise.
Jim Hathaway
Professor and Chair
Department of Geography, Geology,
and the Environment
Numerous faculty, students and members of the community have expressed concern to my departmental colleagues and me about the closure of programs in our department. The source of confusion is an article titled "SRU Juggles $2 Million Deficit" published on Feb.12 in the Butler Eagle. The article reported that bachelor's degrees are no longer offered in several programs, including environmental science, geology and applied geographic technology. I'm writing to say that reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. Our Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment offers a Bachelor's of Science (BS) in Environmental Geoscience with a track in geology or a track in environmental science. We also offer a BS in Geography with an applied geographic technology track or an environmental studies track. We used to offer a BS in each of these four tracks, but now we have two BS degrees with two tracks each. Apparently the Eagle article saw this shift from four BS degrees to two BS degrees as the closure of two programs, but the content of the four tracks we currently offer is identical to the content of the four former programs. If you or your readers would like to know more about any of our programs, our dedicated, hard-working faculty would be happy to talk with you. It would take their minds off trying to clear up misinformation about our impending demise.
Jim Hathaway
Professor and Chair
Department of Geography, Geology,
and the Environment
