Common ground

Tufts is charter member of new environmental council

Tufts and 40 other U.S. universities and colleges have joined with the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) to launch a new organization that brings together the environmental programs on the nation's campuses.

The Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD) includes deans and directors of colleges of the environment, schools of natural resources and institutes of environmental studies. Molly Anderson, director of the Tufts Institute of the Environment, represents Tufts on the council, which will improve the quality of environmental programs and expand their effectiveness outside of academia.

The past three decades have seen an explosion of environmental science and education programs on university campuses around the world. These interdisciplinary programs have often emerged spontaneously, building on a core of academic programs unique to each campus. The formation of the council marks a maturation of the environment as a field of study. For the first time, academic environmental leaders have a structure for communication, cooperation and collaboration.

"CEDD represents a unique opportunity for academic programs around the country to share our common experiences, improve the quality of our programs and to become a more effective part of the search for environmental solutions," said Anthony Michaels, director of the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California, who is the council's first president.