Ewin A. Eods Lamar University Beaumont, Texas 77710
The Coordinating Board of the Texas Colleges and University system granted Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas, an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science degree program, January 20, 1969, to train and inform our students in the control of pollution and improve the quality of the environment. Lamar has graduated forty students since the inception of the program. Subsequently, seven have received professional and graduate degrees in public health and the sciences a t the University of Texas, Lamar University, and Tulane University. Thirty-three have received environmental positions in governmental agencies and similar positions in the manufacturing of wood products, chemical and oil refining complexes. Opportunities offered by those groups were created by the enactment of recent laws which called for cleaner air and water. The program combines the instructional resources of the biology, chemistry, and civil engineering departments a t Lamar University in the training of personnel to implement legislation designed to insure an optimum environment through the control of land, air, water, and noise pollution. The program of instruction is designed to insure flexibility for personnel desiring training to fill positions in the governmental environmental health programs as well as in industrial and private environmental programs. The program offers basic training for graduate school preparation in chemistry, biology, civil engineering, and professional schools of public health, i.e., Master of Public Healthdegree and M.S. in Public Health and Hygiene. Specifically, the training that students receive in these disciplines is directed toward identification, measurement, and control, with ultimate abatement of undesirable environmental problems caused by man and his machines. The disciplines of the biological sciences that are basic to most environmental problems are general biology, microbiology, terrestrial ecology, and limnology. This accounts for twenty-four semester hours of the biological sciences. The knowledge of chemistry is also fundamental to the problems of environmental degradation, as well as its regeneration. Modern chemistry has contributed much to
Environmental
the environment of man, its high standards, its comforts, communication, long-lasting materials, fine life-savilg drugs, high quality food and water to mention only a few. Now, chemistry must perform even better to save us from our things and our machines. Chemical 1iterature.i~rich in almost all the facts required to solve our problems. The three essential steps in solving certain pollution problems are documenting the biological damage, identifying the source of the damage, measuring the chemical changes, and finally, designing a system to engineer the whole process in a planner that will not degrade the earth or any part of it. This degree program includes basic courses in all disciplines of chemistry with some thirty semester hours of course work. The civil engineering phase of the program contains required courses that offer the basic concepts of strength of materials, hydraulics, public health law, sanitation, and fluid flow. The degree program requires twenty-four semester hours of courses taught in the department of civil engineering. The water and wastewater problems are presented by engineering instructors in order that no departmental line is crossed. Thus, the trainee can communicate with his engineering colleagues. Also, the program requires five courses of English-two courses of composition, two courses in literature, and finally, one course in technical writing. Another feature offered by the degree program is its block of twenty-seven semester hours of elective courses. The student may select all of these courses. He is encouraged to make wise choices that will complement his particular field of environmental specialization, i.e., more engineering courses, if one is going into operations. If one is expecting to enter certain graduate schools of science, one should take more biology and chemistry courses. Several students have elected to take a block of courses in the college of business administration. Few elective courses have been chosen for no apparent reason. The electives allow students in these fields to change their major objectives with small loss of semester hour credit. Also, students are frequently not lost by the department or college. Simply, the student finds training which is attractive, offering- ao. parent security, and job opportunities.
Volume 50, Number 10, October 1973 / 675
