Environmental College

Residential Colleges -- Bucknell

Morgane Treanton, Environmental College

How do our daily routines and choices affect the environment? What can we do to ensure a healthy environment for ourselves and for future generations?

Members of the Environmental College learn about the ecological impact of human activities, such as the links between consumption, waste, and environmental change locally, nationally, and internationally. We will study a range of environmental issues, look at successes in sustainable development, and also celebrate the wonder of the natural world.

The college offers three different but complementary Foundation Seminars. The first course, "Consuming Nature", examines humankind’s rapid consumption of resources like oil, negative impacts on the environment, as well as the challenges of achieving truly sustainable development. The second course, "Times They are a Changin'", looks at change from geological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic perspectives and considers the change that people can promote through political action. The third course, "The Power of Green Design" explores emering philosophy of sustainable design with an emphasis on architecture and the design of green buildings.

The overall focus of the Environmental College is reinforced at a weekly common class and periodic field trips. Common classes bring students together for guest lectures, films, debates, group discussion, and other activities. Many of the guest lecturers are nationally and internationally recognized scholars, professionals, and activists. Past field trips have included visits to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the eastern Pennsylvania coal region, and a canoe trip on the Susquehanna River.

Environmental College activities outside of class help foster an appreciation of the environment. Outings allow you to enjoy the beautiful natural world in central Pennsylvania. Campus greening projects can help decrease local impacts and raise awareness.

The Environmental College gives you an opportunity to gain a broad introduction to environmental studies, to critically examine the complex scientific, technological, social, political, and ethical dimensions of environmental issues, to meet Bucknell faculty and students with similar interests, and to live in a friendly social environment.