About the School of the Environment

An Earth Science major was established at SF State In 1943 under the direction of the Geography Department. This degree program was phased out, and through the 1950s geology, meteorology, and climatology courses were offered as part of a physical science program when the campus moved from its original downtown location to its current location on 19th Avenue. After the campus moved, the Division of Science was subdivided into the Departments of Biology, Mathematics, Engineering, Physics, and Physical Science. Geology and Meteorology, together with Astronomy and Science Education, were part of the Physical Science Department which offered a BA program in Physical Science with a concentration in Geology or Meteorology. The Geology Department was established in 1965 and experienced a period of faculty growth during the 1960s. In the mid 1980s the department changed its name to the Department of Geosciences to more accurately reflect the partnership between Geology and Meteorology. A minor in Meteorology was created in 1980 and the BA concentration in Meteorology was revised and expanded to provide a more quantitative grounding in the atmospheric sciences. Expansion of the Meteorology program was of particular importance because it allowed further expansion of course offerings and met the certification requirements of the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

In 1990, the department instituted a BS degree in Geology in response to the increased expectations for geology undergraduate students from industry and government agency employers. In the 1990s it became clear that a Masters degree had become the entry-level degree for many professional jobs in geosciences, and the department implemented an MS degree in Applied Geosciences in 1997. The program was designed to allow a variety of geoscience foci for students so that student research could be closely aligned with faculty research programs and prepare students for industry careers. As a culminating experience, students were expected to engage in research – which could be completed under the auspices of a local governmental agency (like the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park 30 miles to the south) or a geoscientific or environmental firm – write a master’s thesis, and give an oral defense. A decade later, the Masters degree was renamed to the MS in Geosciences to be more inclusive of newly hired faculty doing research unrelated to industry.

Around 2012 the university went through a significant restructuring. The Geography Department moved from its previous college to the College of Science & Engineering. During that transition both departments were concerned about attracting students and both wanted to move their curriculum to an interdisciplinary focus with an applied environmental focus. To reflect that change, and to reflect the shift in research and teaching from classical meteorology toward climate, we changed our name from the Department of Geosciences to the Department of Earth & Climate Sciences. The degree revision process that began in 2012 was completed and our revised degree in Earth Sciences was approved in 2015. This degree program had three emphases: Geology; Hydrology; and Oceans, Weather and Climate. Most recently in Spring 2022, we proposed to merge two of these emphases so that we will soon have just two emphases – one emphasis in Geology and another in Climate and the Environment. 

In 1997 a group of faculty and students from across a wide range of departments including Geosciences, Urban Studies, Geography, Political Science and International Relations joined together to create an environmental studies program at SF State. Fundamental to the effort was the recognition that understanding and addressing the environmental crisis requires a deep interdisciplinary approach and that perspectives from no single program were sufficient. It was seen as especially important that students had grounding in the natural sciences to understand natural systems and human impacts on those systems, combined with a grounding in social sciences to understand the causes of environmental destruction, possible solutions, and the social justice issues related to both impacts and solutions. In this way, the program was consciously designed as an interdisciplinary environmental studies program, distinct from environmental science programs. These were the same foundations that have driven the formation of interdisciplinary environmental studies programs all across the country, which now number in the hundreds.

As a program at a university that has social justice at the heart of its mission, a diverse student body, and which was the home of the first College of Ethnic Studies in the U.S., it is perhaps not surprising that ENVS has since its inception been ahead of the curve in embedding social justice into its interdisciplinary curriculum. Interdisciplinary environmental studies programs address the relationships and interfaces between natural and social systems. Student and faculty members of the SFSU program’s founding committee identified injustice as a core characteristic of global and national social systems, and considered that understanding it demanded an interdisciplinary curriculum that included the humanities along with the physical and social sciences. In recent years, despite recognition by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) that environmental justice is a crucial part of environmental studies education, it has not yet been fully embraced and incorporated into many interdisciplinary environmental education (IES) programs (Garibay et al 2016). Fortunately, and in part because it is a stand-alone program, SFSU Environmental Studies has enjoyed the autonomy necessary to establish social and environmental justice firmly at the center of both its B.A. and B.S. degree programs.

For a small program, Environmental Studies has had a disproportionately large and positive impact on the SF State campus. The following are among our most notable achievements. Our faculty led the successful two-year effort to create a University sustainability committee. Formed in 2007 the committee was co-chaired by the VP for Finance and Cortez and the Provost Rosser. ENVS faculty Fieldman and Davidson co-chaired the steering committee for the Focus the Nation climate change teach-in held at SF State in 2008. With the support of then-President Corrigan, the committee put on a two-day event that featured expert and student panels, drew over 4,000 people, and included a talk by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as well as a talk by environmental justice advocate Van Jones that was webcast nationally from SF State. Our faculty co-authored the first greenhouse gas inventory of the campus, and led the successful effort to institute a general education sustainability requirement. Our students led the successful campaigns for SF State to divest from fossil fuels, which was one of the first such campaigns in the country. As a result, SF State became the first public university in the nation to divest and received national press attention, including a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times featuring an ENVS student leader. Currently, Professors Thoyre and Samanta have played central roles in developing an interdisciplinary Climate Change Certificate program that will enable students from across the university to participate as citizens in important debates about climate change and social justice, and to earn a credential that will enhance their career and graduate school prospects.

The origins of the Geography & Environment Department coincided with the founding of the University, making it one of the oldest departments in the CSU System. Geography instruction began in the first years of the San Francisco State Normal School, when in 1901/02  Walter J. Kenyon offered a 10 week Geography course. Kenyon was a member of the original group of faculty selected for the school by its first President Frederic Burk. Originally hired as Instructor of Manual Methods, Kenyon became the first Supervisor of Geography. During the early years, the campus was located downtown on Powell Street near Clay, until the 1906 earthquake when it moved to the Waller and Buchanan site where it remained until 1952/53. In 1916, the geography curriculum consisted of three courses, and by 1923 had expanded to seven, including physical, economic, California resources, human, world regional, and geography teacher preparation. In 1922 Anna Verona Dorris was appointed as the first long-term geography instructor. Educated at the University of California and Columbia University, Dorris's roles were Supervisor of Visual Instruction (cartography and map interpretation) and Assistant Professor of Geography. In the 1920s, Dorris taught such courses as Human Geography, Economic Geography, Geography of the Americas, and The New Point of View in Teaching Geography. Her courses were offered by the Social Sciences unit, which housed Contemporary Civilization, Geography, Economics, History, Sociology and Government courses. Anna Dorris also offered Introduction to Geology and Physiography in the Physical Sciences unit.

In 1935 the Normal School was reconstituted as San Francisco State College, with a liberal arts curriculum and a Social Science Department offering instruction in the fields of Economics, Geography, Government, History, and Sociology. By 1943 courses in cartography, map projections, a regional course on war zones, and political geography were added, then in 1945 a field work course was introduced. The end of the Second World War brought the G.I. Bill, which supported a period of rapid growth in the geography program, the College, and indeed higher education throughout the United States. In 1947/48 the Division of Social Science was created, and the geography major and minor established. The campus moved to its present Lake Merced site in 1952, allowing a period of physical expansion to begin and for academic programs to continue their development. Geography was housed in what is now the Business Building from 1952 to 1965.

The program finally became the Department of Geography in 1961/62, with Dr. Gibson as Department Head. That year also saw our first graduate course. Dr Gibson left in 1962, when Walter Hacker became Chair. Though courses in conservation of natural resources had been offered since the early 1950's, the mid-60's were notably when the department added significant environmental courses to the curriculum in a joint effort with Biology.  Today's Our Endangered Planet (BIOL 318) and Environmental Problems and Solutions (GEOG 600) date back to that beginning.  The undergraduate program included a focus in environmental management starting in 1970. While courses in cartography date back to at least 1943 and interpretation of aerial photography in 1961, the full breadth of geographic information science was primarily developed in the 1970's and 1980's with courses in remote sensing of environment (1977), computer cartography (1979) and geographic information systems (1987). A year later the Department became the home of the Multidisciplinary GIS Center, now the Institute for Geographic Information Science, which includes a research program, certificate program and the GIS Specialty Center for the California State University system.

In 2011, the department moved to the College of Science & Engineering as part of university restructuring into 6 colleges.  Soon afterwards, the department name was shortened to Department of Geography & Environment (2013), and a BS in Environmental Science initiated in Fall 2015.