UVM seeks to sharpen its environmental edge

For years, the University of Vermont has been talking about raising its profile as an academic center of environmental education and research. This fall, classes will resume amid fresh signs of institutional commitment to take some action.

An "Institute for the Environment" is in the works. A new master's program in "sustainable entrepreneurship" debuts next month in the School of Business Administration. A "Food Systems Initiative" explores food production and its environmental impacts as one of the university's three designated research priorities.

Aiken Hall, both the hub of the environmental program and a longstanding environmental embarrassment for its eco-unfriendly design, was gutted and rebuilt to 21st century green-building "platinum" standard, complete with a green roof and in-house water recycling. Meanwhile, environment has become a hot curricular commodity. The number of graduates majoring in environmental studies — now the fourth most popular major on campus — has nearly tripled in the last decade.

Into this evolving setting steps Nancy Mathews, who began work on July 1 as dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She's a wildlife biologist who came from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she oversaw community-based learning programs as director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service.

She's expected to bring new energy to UVM's environmental enterprise. And she's enthusiastic about the prospect for an environmental institute, which has the backing of UVM's leadership.

Of course, energy and commitment are just two prerequisites to elevating UVM's academic reputation in the environmental field. Another is money, particularly in an era when other universities are investing substantially in their own environmental centers.

Not surprisingly, fundraising will be a major part of Mathews' job, as it has been for other UVM deans hired over the last few years. That's fine with her — it came with her executive duties in Madison.

What she'll leave behind is much of her research career, but perhaps that's just as well. She has written extensively on white-tailed deer behavior and genetics and on chronic wasting disease — which has yet to make an appearance in Vermont.

Giving environment its due

After UVM executives launched the Transdisciplinary Research Initiative in 2009, they received eight faculty proposals for "spires of excellence" — fields in which UVM could be expected to distinguish itself nationally and internationally through judicious investment.

One of those proposals was for a spire on environmental research, focusing on environmental change and adaptation. That one did not make the cut (the three initiatives finally approved were complex systems, neuroscience/behavior, and food systems). In a state that purports to be a leader in environmental thinking, with a flagship university that bills itself as a "green" institution and that even puts its commitment to the environment in its vision statement, that was a notable omission.

Nevertheless, the perception persisted that UVM could do a better job of developing and promoting its comparative strength in environmental research, education and outreach. These activities were widespread but often isolated by disciplines.

A faculty-heavy committee, called "Envisisioning Environment," was charged with thinking about how to put a coherent focus on all this. When the committee delivered its report in early 2013, one of its recommendations was that UVM set up an institute to encourage cross disciplinary collaborations by disparate environmental researchers.

One year later, new provost David Roswosky announced his support for the idea of an institute in a memo to the campus. He said he wanted to see the institute launched by the end of 2014, and appointed another committee — some members of which served on the previous panel — and charged it with formulating a mission statement, a strategic vision and an operating plan for the institute. The committee's recommendations are due in October.

In an email, Rosowsky said it was too early to say what form the institute will take, but that it will not be a degree-granting entity. He said he hopes it will coalesce scholarship across all colleges and schools, facilitate learning and research across disciplines, and attract new scholars to UVM.

"The fundraising is progressing well," Rosowsky said. "We have already secured the first major gift to help advance the Institute."

Mathews sees promise in the prospective institute. From her experience at the University of Wisconsin, she believes that an "umbrella" institute spanning existing departments can serve as an incubator of cross-disciplinary ideas and research.

In the company of first-years

In Wisconsin, Mathews developed a community-learning (or service-learning) project in China, in collaboration with the International Crane Foundation, and she expects to maintain that connection at UVM. Overseas education and service-learning are both well-established UVM programs, but seldom in combination.

Among her other duties, she'll be advising a cohort of 13 first-year students. She said she's looking forward to discussing with them "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation," a new book by Michael Pollan that incoming students are supposed to be reading over the summer.

Mathews succeeds Mary Watzin, an aquatic biologist who left UVM to become a dean at North Carolina State in 2012. Jon Erickson, an economist, filled the position on an interim basis.

UVM appealed to Mathews partly because of its size, she said — it's about one-fourth as big as University of Wisconsin — Madison, measured by enrollment — and because of the interdisciplinary culture of the Rubenstein School and the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. She noted that UVM was one of the first universities in the country to establish an interdisciplinary major in environmental studies, back in the 1970s.

She said she's impressed with the breadth of Rubenstein's course offerings. In her view, they give students opportunities to become generalists, conversant with a range of scientific and public-policy issues, and specialists, with a strong grounding in a particular discipline.

Society needs both, she said.

Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or tjohnson@burlingtonfreepress.com