Environmental Studies at UMM

In February 2008, the University of Minnesota Board of Regents approved a new formal Environmental Studies major for UMM (click here(pdf) for the major curriculum).

UMM is the National Leader for Campus Green Initiatives

When you come to UMM for Environmental Studies, you don't just get great classes. You get a school that understands sustainability. We had hybrids in our campus fleet before hybrids were cool. Our commitment to local foods is several years old. We have a sustainability coordinator on staff (his name is Troy Goodnough). We are building a green residence hall. We were the first public campus in the nation to erect a commercial-scale wind turbine, and soon will have two more. When our wind power is combined with our new biomass heating/cooling plant, our campus greenhouse gas emissions from heating, cooling and electricity will have been reduced by 80%. That doesn't make us "a" leader. That makes us THE leader.

What does that mean for academics at UMM? Research opportunities. Our wind and biomass facilities are real and functional, but they are also research tools. Already, bales of prairie grass are stacked at the edge of campus as we prepare for experiments to answer crucial, practical questions related to various potential sources of biomass energy. UMM undergraduates will be involved in this research.

UMM Green News

What's happening in Environmental Studies?

Fall 2008: Welcome Dr. Mumford! We happily announce the arrival Dr. Karen Mumford. Her broad background includes a PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota, an MA in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Iowa, and an MS in Animal Ecology from Iowa State University. She has taught at both the University of Georgia and Emory University, and her list of courses taught includes Environmental Policy and Management, Energy and the Environment, Conservation Biology, Ethics and the Environment.

Fall 2008: Welcome back Dr. Kildegaard! Dr. Arne Kildegaard returns this fall to UMM after a year's sabbatical as visiting researcher at the Risø National Laboratory in Roskilde, Denmark. He spent the year productively learning about European policy approaches to the integration of renewable energy into the power grid. In June, Kildegaard presented some of his research at the International Association of Energy Economists annual conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Kildegaard is reportedly "fired up, ready to go" with his Environmental Economics class for fall semester.

Meet our graduates! Kate Beyer (class of 2004). Kate (on left) graduated with an environmental studies degree and now serves as Committee Administrator for the Agriculture, Rural Economies, and Veterans Affairs Committees at the Minnesota House of Representatives (continued)

Practical Experience: Environmental Education at the Prairie-Wetland Learning Center . Ed 3201 Environmental Science and Place-Based Education is a May Session course taught at the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center (PWLC) located in Fergus Falls, MN . (continued)

Summer internships: Katie Laughlin (class of 2010). For the second summer in a row, Katie is working at Cleaning Up the River Environment (CURE) , a non-profit environmental group that works to protect the upper Minnesota River watershed.