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General Requirements for the Major or Minor

General university degree requirements stipulate that 1) at least four units of the major or three units of the minor be taken in residence at Puget Sound; 2) students earn at least a cumulative GPA of 2.0 in courses taken for the major or the minor; and 3) all courses taken for a major or minor must be taken for graded credit. Any exceptions to these stipulations are indicated in the major and minor degree requirements listed below.

Requirements for the Major in Environmental Policy & Decision Making

  1. The Environmental Policy and Decision Making major is a secondary major that can be chosen only after a primary major in another field is chosen. A major in Environmental Policy and Decision Making cannot be completed unless a primary major in another department or program is also completed. Because of extensive course overlap, the primary major cannot be Environmental Arts and Humanities.
  2. Completion of the following 8.25 units:
    1. ENVP 200
    2. ENVP 202 (0.5 units) or any three courses in natural sciences (BIO, CHEM, ENVS, PHYS)
    3. ENVP 203 (0.5 units)
    4. ENVP 253 (0.25 units)
    5. ENVP 400
    6. A minimum of two environmental policy elective units (see list below)
    7. Three additional elective units from the lists of environmental policy, environmental arts and humanities, earth and environmental sciences or general electives (see list below).
  3. At least two of the courses used to fulfill the electives for the Environmental Policy and Decision Making major must be outside of the student's primary major department or program.
  4. Six requirements for the Environmental Policy and Decision Making major must be completed on campus at Puget Sound, including ENVP 200, ENVP 202 (unless 202 is replaced by three courses in the sciences), ENVP 203, one policy elective, and ENVP 400.

Requirements for the Major in Environmental Arts & Humanities

  1. The Environmental Arts and Humanities major is a secondary major that can be chosen only after a primary major in another field is chosen. A major in Environmental Arts and Humanities cannot be completed unless a primary major in another department or program is also completed. Because of extensive course overlap, the primary major cannot be Environmental Policy and Decision Making.
  2. Completion of the following 8.25 units:
    1. ENVP 200
    2. ENVP 202 (0.5 units) or any three courses in natural sciences (BIO, CHEM, ENVS, PHYS)
    3. ENVP 203 (0.5 units)
    4. ENVP 253 (0.25 units)
    5. ENVP 400
    6. A minimum of three environmental arts and humanities elective units (see list below)
    7. Two additional elective units from the lists of environmental policy, earth and environmental sciences or general electives (see list below).
  3. At least two of the courses used to fulfill the electives for the Environmental Policy and Decision Making major must be outside of the student's primary major department or program.
  4. Six requirements for the Environmental Policy and Decision Making major must be completed on campus at Puget Sound, including ENVP 200, ENVP 202 (unless 202 is replaced by three courses in the sciences), ENVP 203, and ENVP 400.

Requirements for the Major in Earth and Environmental Science (BS)

Completion of the following 13.25 units:

  1. Two units from CHEM 105, 110, 120
  2. BIOL 112
  3. One unit from MATH 160, 260
  4. One unit from MATH 180, MATH 181, CSCI 141, CSCI 161
  5. Two units from ENVS 101, 105, 140
  6. ENVP 200
  7. ENVP 253 (0.25)
  8. ENVS 250
  9. Four units of Earth and Environmental Science electives (see list below).

ENVP 400 Senior Seminar in Environmental Studies is recommended but not required.

Requirements for the Minor in Environmental Policy & Decision Making

  1. Completion of the following 5.25 units:
    1. ENVP 200
    2. ENVP 253 (0.25 units) Topics in Environmental Justice
    3. ENVP 400
    4. A minimum of one policy elective units (see list below)
    5. Two additional elective units from the lists of policy or general electives (see list below).
  2. Three requirements for the Environmental Policy and Decision Making minor must be completed on campus at Puget Sound, including ENVP 200, one policy elective, and ENVP 400.

Environmental Policy Electives

  • CONN 309 Applied Environmental Politics and Agenda Setting
  • CONN 410 Science and Economics of Climate Change
  • ECON 225 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
  • ECON/ENVP 327 Climate Change: Economics, Policy, and Politics
  • ENVP 210 Fundamentals of U.S. Environmental Law and Policy
  • ENVP 310 Environmental Decision Making
  • ENVP 322 Water Policy
  • ENVP 326 People, Politics, and Parks
  • ENVP 328 Nuclear Narratives of the American West
  • ENVP 342 Field School in Conservation and Development
  • ENVP/PG 382 Global Environmental Politics
  • ENVS 310 Water Resources
  • ENVS 315 Energy Resources
  • IPE 331 International Political Economy of Food and Agriculture
  • PG 305 United States Environmental Policy

Environmental Arts and Humanities Electives

  • BIOE/REL 272 Public Health Ethics
  • CONN 332 Water and Wild Nature
  • ENGL 328 Advanced Poetry Writing (Topic: "Ecopoetry")
  • ENGL 374 Writing Climate Justice
  • ENVH 310 Global Eco-Cinema: Aesthetics and Practice
  • GERM 380 Green Germany: Nature and Environment in German Culture
  • GERM 425 Nature and Human Being in the Anthropocene
  • HIST 364 American Environmental History
  • HIST 369 History of the West and the Pacific Northwest
  • HUM 330 Tao and Landscape Art
  • PHIL 285 Environmental Ethics
  • REL 444 God in the Anthropocene
  • STHS 325 Natural History Museums and Society
  • THTR 200 The Theatrical Experience

Earth and Environmental Sciences Electives

  • BIOL 211 General Ecology
  • BIOL 370 Conservation Biology
  • BIOL 377 Field Botany
  • BIOL 379 Ornithology
  • BIOL 411 Advanced Ecology
  • BIOL 477 Marine Biology
  • CHEM 231 Analytic Methods (0.50 units.)
  • CHEM 330 Instrumental Analysis
  • CHEM 333 Environmental Analytical Chemistry
  • CONN 350 Modeling Earth's Climate
  • CSCI 141 Programming for Natural Sciences
  • CSCI 161 Introduction to Computer Science
  • ENVS 301 Sedimentary Geology
  • ENVS 303 Earth Surface Systems & Processes
  • ENVS 304 Volcanology (0.50 units.)
  • ENVS 305 Earth History
  • ENVS 306 The Fossil Record
  • ENVS 307 Introduction to Field Methods and GIS
  • ENVS 310 Water Resources
  • ENVS 315 Energy Resources
  • ENVS 320 Environmental Geochemistry
  • ENVS 324 Biogeochemical Approaches to Environmental Science
  • ENVS 325 Geological and Environmental Catastrophes
  • ENVS 330 Regional Field Geology
  • ENVS 340 Climate Change
  • ENVS 390 Directed Research
  • ENVS 492 Senior Thesis
  • ENVS 495 Independent Study (Variable credit up to 1.00 unit.)
  • ENVS 496 Independent Study (Variable credit up to 1.00 unit.)

General Electives

  • AFAM/ENVP 301 Environmental Racism
  • CONN 307 Hooch: The Natural and Social Science of Liquor
  • ENVP 204 Learning in Nearby Nature (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 335 Thinking About Biodiversity
  • ENVP 343 Buddhist Environmentalisms
  • ENVP 345 Community-Based Methods for Environmental Research
  • ENVP 350 Puget Sound Environmental Issues Part I: Politics and Public Participation (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 351 Puget Sound Environmental Issues Part II: Laws and Land Use Designations (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 352 Sustainability in Everyday Life (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 353 Environmental Careers and Callings (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 354 Contemplative Environments (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 355 Sacred Ecology (0.25 units.)
  • ENVP 495 Independent Study (Variable credit up to 1.00 unit.)
  • ENVP 496 Independent Study (Variable credit up to 1.00 unit.)
  • ENVP 498 Internship
  • ENVS 250 Introduction to GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
  • IPE/SOAN 407 Political Ecology
  • SOAN 205 Heritage of Asia: Nature, Culture, and the Politics of the Past
  • SOAN 316 Cultural Politics of Global Development
  • SOAN 481 Special Topics