[WFA*] Vote on February 21 on the Dept of Society, Environment and Health Equity

[Jennifer Hughes]

Dear WFA* Constituents and allies.


Many of our constituents have been working hard to bring to fruition a new department of Society, Environment and Health Equity. The vote is this week.  While the WFA itself is not taking an official position, we are forwarding communication to our list at their request.  We do urge you to participate in the upcoming Senate Divisional meeting and to vote.


WFA Co-Chairs and Steering Committee



Dear WFA members,


At the WFA Fall Retreat, we shared plans for a new Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity (SEHE) in CHASS. Our proposal is coming up for a vote at the Senate Divisional meeting on FEBRUARY 21 (1-3pm online via zoom) and we would like to ask for your support.


SEHE is designed to house two undergraduate majors: A BA in Environmental Studies and a BA in Health Equity Studies. Here's our Executive Summary<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1laxO9jXcYIFY4AtzkBzY1LelXk-i-gnJ-yW6nTgqGJg/edit?usp=sharing>, which also includes a link to the full proposal.


As you can read in our proposal, there is an urgent need for this department. We believe that SEHE can help to enrich and enlarge UCR’s partnerships around environment, sustainability, and human and more-than-human health, while offering UCR students a meaningful program of study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences that is relevant to their careers, Inland Empire communities, and the future health of our planet. SEHE will use existing resources; it will require no additional faculty FTE and minimal additional staff. With the creation of SEHE, UCR will join seven other UCs that already offer interdisciplinary environmental studies-affiliated undergraduate majors. SEHE graduates will be well placed to enter graduate training in public policy, business, city planning, public health and related fields.


SEHE proposers are WFA members who have worked for many years to support UCR's mission and our students. Three of the proposers built the existing Sustainability Studies major from scratch; it is now (as of Spring 22) the second-fastest growing major in CHASS. If the new department is not approved, that major will sunset. We ask WFA members to consider supporting our work to build institutional infrastructure for our students. As WFA members have noted in the past, this kind of work is often marginalized and devalued on our campus.



[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/AWf7QijpPIXba6uohzHukUbNQ_yj6PqQHtUUHCKfyyiHKMQaC2gwyhVCSEyZFk5rGKhUggqhOM79gqUscJVMNZoumpiKRLMaDN4bn8GC_ozaQ38mNyWqOkIYeIlnUGUnOSXK_CrwNJ-jTV59BQwGa5g]


SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH EQUITY


Senate Divisional Meeting 2/21/23



  *   This proposal gives students the option to pursue a major in the arts, humanities and social sciences oriented around the environment and health.

     *   Our faculty have expertise in ethnography, sociology, history, literary analysis, geography, feminist theory and political science, with a particular expertise and emphasis on community-based research methods. Our faculty’s record of research spans areas such as rates of vaccine acceptance, the history of nuclear radiation, occupational health and healthcare labor, the logistics industry, carbon accounting, environmental justice, race, health and medicine, climate emotions.


  *   If the new department is not approved, the highly successful Sustainability Studies major may sunset. Sustainability Studies is the second fastest-growing major in CHASS (S22).


  *   There are careers for future SEHE graduates. Sustainability Studies alumni are employed in sustainability and environment-related careers. SEHE curricula are designed to prepare students for advanced study and community-based work related to social justice, environment and health disparities.


  *   Environmental Studies and Environmental Humanities programs that focus on arts, humanities and social sciences, are growing across the country. The proposed SEHE department is innovative in focusing on environment and health. The intersection of environment and health is especially relevant to our students and communities in the Inland Empire and beyond.


  *   The SEHE Department will be a partner for sustainability initiatives across campus.



Jennifer Scheper Hughes
Professor
Department of History
University of California, Riverside
https://nyupress.org/9781479802555/the-church-of-the-dead/

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