ecological modeling, regional ecology, water and air pollution, nuclear and hazardous waste management, ecological and environmental economics, and aquatic, terrestrial, and wetland systems studies. The program will emphasize basic research on ecological processes and effects, as well as applied research and teaching, to solving the current environmental problems facing the Commonwealth and the nation.
A number of studies show that African Americans suffer disproportionately from health problems caused by environmental pollution primarily because most industrial complexes are located near urban centers [Source: The National Black Environmental Justice Network]. Data show that 71% of African Americans live in counties that violate pollution standards compared to 58% of the white population [The National Environmental Trust, www.net.org]. Asthma attacks send African Americans to the emergency room at three times the rates of whites [Keating & Davis, Air of Injustice, 2002, www.cleartheair.org]. A higher percentage of African Americans living in rural areas are also more likely to be negatively affected because of proximity to landfills and abandoned industrials sites. Children and older African Americans bear the brunt of this adverse situation.
Since HBCUs serve a large segment of the African American population from urban areas and inner cities, they should take a leading role in developing environmental studies programs and integrating such programs into the curricula. Drs. Collette Hopkins and Trevor Turner of Clark Atlanta University discussed these issues in their keynote paper at the 2002 Wiscasset Teaching Symposium [Association of University Leaders for Sustainable Future Publications, vol. 5, no. 2, May 2002]. They identified the lack of resources and a perception that the curriculum is already saturated as major factors preventing environmental studies from being a higher priority in the academic curricula of HBCUs.
Hopkins and Turner suggest a collaborative effort of faculty across disciplines, similar to the proposed MES program at KSU, to develop graduate environmental programs at HBCUs. In addition, they call for developing innovative organizational structures for the use of faculty time and finding creative ways of financing these
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