[Geog_Jobs] Kudos, Work Study, and Geology

[Sinha, Gaurav]

That's great for Duane and Tom. We should post this on our social media feed.
Also, how do we get such news featured on our departmental webpage, Edna? Our webpages are quite static and it would be nice to have a way to link to OU news stories about our faculty and student achievements to be featured.

From: GeographyList <geographylist-bounces at listserv.ohio.edu> On Behalf Of Wangui, Edna
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2023 10:03 AM
To: geographylist at listserv.ohio.edu
Subject: [OU_GEOG] Kudos, Work Study, and Geology

Dear Colleagues,

In this email you will find the following news/updates:

  1.  Kudos to Duane and Tom
  2.  Work study update - Mya McCarthy
  3.  Response to Geology

1a. Please join me in congratulating Duane who will soon receive the prestigious Blue and Gold Award from his almer mater Montana State University.  Duane will be receiving the award later this month.  I have pasted a description of the award below:

This award was created in 1968 and is the most prestigious award granted by Montana State University. It honors individuals who have rendered great lifetime service or who have brought national or international distinction to MSU or the state of Montana. Candidates must have achieved prominence through a combination of his or her profession, family, country, world, university, philanthropy or humanity. Recipients are recommended by the MSU Alumni Foundation Board of Governors, to the President of the University and are celebrated at various events during Homecoming Weekend.

1b. Kudos to Tom who has received funding from the Office of Global Opportunities to continue offering a 2-week virtual international exchange module on Social and Biological Dimensions of Wildlife Conservation in Kenya.  The module gives students access to conservation policy experts and practitioners pioneering new approaches to community-based conservation. The module is incorporated into GEOG 3430: Global Issues in Environment and BIOS 4810: Animal Conservation Biology.

2. HR informed me a couple of days ago that Mya McCarthy (our Work Study student) no longer qualifies for work study.  She will no longer be able to work for Geography.  HR is working with me to find a replacement for Mya.

3. Below is the message that I sent to Geology.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to this discussion and commented on an earlier draft.  Greg wrote back to let me know that they would incorporate our comments in a revised proposal.



Thank you for your patience as Geography faculty evaluated the proposed name change for the Department of Geological Sciences.  We appreciate the opportunity to comment on this proposal at this early stage.  Geography faculty members discussed the proposed changes at our faculty meeting on September 8. They expressed some concerns.



Geography faculty members felt that the proposed name change would be confusing to OU students.  The proposed name would be abbreviated EES which is very similar to the new ESS major.  Geography, Geological Sciences and other departments contribute to the ESS curriculum and we also share in student advising. We would like to avoid this confusion.



More importantly, the proposed name (Earth and Environmental Sciences) is too broad and too inclusive of content taught in other departments at OU, including substantial content taught in Geography. For example, "environmental science" involves the life sciences and chemistry, in addition to content taught in geology.  Similarly, "earth science" would incorporate atmospheric sciences (meteorology) and the study of the biosphere (biogeography, ecology, etc), which again extends beyond geological sciences and into Geography and other disciplines.



The example programs that use the term "Department of Earth and Environmental Science" are doctoral programs that offer a much more comprehensive curriculum than OU Geological Sciences.  Other schools that contain a Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences include Columbia University, University of Minesota, University of Iowa, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, University of Illionois at Chicago, Michigan State University, etc.



Geography faculty members felt that your current name Geology is still favored across the world and is a well-recognized discipline. Additionally, geography faculty felt that "Environmental Geoscience" may be a more accurate representation of what you do than the more general "Environmental and Earth Sciences".



A few important corrections:

  1.  The new ESS major is not housed in Plant Biology, it is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences.
  2.  Table 1 does not include the name of our new major (Climate, Environment and Society)

Thank you

Edna

Elizabeth Edna Wangui, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Geography
Ohio University
Lindley Hall 378A
Athens OH 45701
Tel: 740-593-1097
Fax: 740-593-1139
https://www.ohio.edu/cas/geography

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