Building a Shared Vision
PSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has long-standing programs focused on earth, environment and climate adaptation. But with the Pacific Northwest region experiencing more extreme weather, more frequent and severe wildfires and the ever-looming threat of the “Big One,” a need emerged for better coordination and collaboration across our programs to better train a workforce that is prepared to address these challenges and prepare our communities for a future unlike our past.
After a nearly two-year-long process, faculty in the Departments of Anthropology, Environmental Science and Management, Geography and Geology and the Complex Systems (formerly Systems Science) program voted overwhelmingly in favor of creating a new school at the nexus of Earth, environment and society. The hope is that a stronger and more streamlined unit can improve and foster new interdisciplinary academic programming; enhance student outcomes and opportunities; make more effective use of staff resources; maintain and elevate high-quality research; support fundraising; and explore connections to faculty in other units.
The decision to create a new school evolved out of a ReImagine PSU grant aimed at identifying scenarios for collaboration and investment in earth, environmental and climate adaptation-related education and research at PSU. As part of their outreach efforts, the Departments of Environmental Science and Management, Geography and Geology engaged with other units — among them, the Departments of Anthropology and Biology and the Complex Systems (formerly Systems Science) program.
A workgroup explored new ways of collaborating and organizing for greater impact, and by the end of 2022, faculty in the six aforementioned units voted to proceed with a formal Exploratory School Discussion. In 2023, building on the work from the ReImagine grant, workgroups of faculty and staff drafted options and recommendations for how a new school could be structured.
In Fall 2023, faculty in all of the units but Biology voted to merge their departments into a new school. The proposal for the yet-to-be-named school now awaits review and approval by PSU.
If you have any questions or comments, please email newschool@pdx.edu.