College of the Pacific

Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies

The Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science major is a liberal arts degree designed to impart students with the practical skills and knowledge required to critically evaluate environmental problems and issues and provide applied solutions.

The major is decidedly interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on the underlying natural processes relating to the environment and understanding and employing the scientific method.

The major will normally consist of an 11-course distribution requirement plus a five-course concentration in one of the contributing fields: biology, geology or economics.

This concentration must be approved by the student’s adviser.

Depending on the field chosen, the concentration may add three or four courses to the major, which would bring the total to 14 or 15 courses.

Instead of a concentration, the student may pursue a second major in one of the contributing fields.

The 11-course distribution requirement is as follows:

Area I: Natural Sciences

• One course in chemistry: (CHEM 23 or CHEM 25)
• Two courses in biological sciences from the following:
  
  
  • BIOL 35-Environment: Concepts and Issues
  • BIOL 39-Introduction to Botany
  • BIOL 41-Introduction to Biology
  • BIOL 51-Principles of Biology I
  • BIOL 61-Principles of Biology II
  • BIOL 77 Marine Birds and Mammals
  • BIOL 79-California Flora
  • BIOL 130 Plant Kingdom
• Two courses in earth sciences from the following:
  
  
  • GEOS 41-Environmental Geology
  • GEOS 43- Environmental Science for Informed Citizens
  • GEOS 51-Physical Geology
  • GEOS 53-Geologic Evolution of the Earth
  • GEOS 55-Physical Geography
  • GEOS 61-Geology of California
  • GEOS 144-Geomorphology
  • GEOS 145-Engineering Geology

Area II: Environmental Policy/Resource Management

• Three courses from the following:
  
  
  • CIVL 171 Water and Environmental Policy
  • ECON 157 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (requires ECON 53)
  • ECON 171 Political Economy (requires ECON 51 or 55)
  • GEOS 45 – Soil, Water & War
  • INTL 174 Global Environmental Policy

Area III: Humanities

• Two courses from the following:
  
  
  • HIST 52 – John Muir’s World Environmental History; HIST 136 – American Environment History; PHIL 35 Environmental Ethics.

Area IV: Practicum

• One of the following:
  
  
  • GEOS 187 – Internship
  • GEOL 197 – Undergraduate Research
  • BIOL 197 – Undergraduate Research in Biology