The environmental science major at NC State has moved from the Division of Academic and Student Affairs to the College of Natural Resources within the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. 

Gregory Wilson, an advisor for students within the environmental science major, said he hopes students will have more opportunities available to them because of the change.  

The switch became necessary this year because the environmental science major had about 220 new students of fall 2015 alone, establishing itself within the university. The students within the major can now experience a more college-life experience being part of an actual academic college like all other majors, according to William Winner, founder and professor of environmental science at NC State. 

He believes that the environmental science major has become a huge success here on campus.

“We have, in six years here at NC State, gone from virtually nothing to an environmental science program that has somewhere close to 250 students in the major, over 200 students in the minor and were teaching in the area of 3,000 seats of environmental science courses every year,” Winner said.

The switch will be official as of July 1, when the next semester begins. The students within the major will earn their degrees as part of the College of Natural Resources. Environmental science students graduating this semester will still earn their degrees as part of DASA rather than CNR. 

Nick Loschin, a freshman studying environmental science, had some thoughts on the switch.  

“I like it the way it was, but I think that moving into a college we will have more support, and we might also expose more people to our major,” Loschin said. “The staff is extremely supportive, Dr. Winner is great, Greg is great, everyone who leads the department is absolutely amazing, so I don’t want to see anything like that change at all.” 

The dean for students within the environmental science major will now be Mary Watzin instead of Mike Mullen, who is the dean of DASA.  

“The idea is to bring the program into an academic college where students might have a much broader base of connection with other students who are interested in similar types of things,” Watzin said. 

Though the switch was unprecedented it doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on students within the program, and no issues have been noted yet. Watzin is happy to welcome the new students within the environmental science program into the College of Natural Resources. 

New students coming into the environmental science major will attend orientations with those departments within the College of Natural Resources. 

The College of Natural Resources houses many different majors, such as forest management and natural resources policy and administration.  With the addition of the environmental science program, there will likely be chances for collaborations to be made between students within the academic college.  Also, programs such as the college ambassadors program and scholarships within the college will now be given to students within the environmental science major as well. 

As the environmental science major was the only degree-granting program within DASA, the division now contains only the exploratory studies academic program and continues to provide minors in all areas to students, along with providing other programs such as counseling, ROTC and music. 

“We are excited to have all of you join us and look forward to working with you,” Watzin said.