MES Thesis and Internship Defense announcements for Spring 2007 are listed here

This orientation gives incoming MES Students a chance to meet their fellow first-year students, some faculty members, and representatives from MESSA (the MES Student Association). Additional information is provided about the MES Program, and students will have a chance to ask any questions they may have.

All new and returning students are invited to celebrate the start of the school year event. This is an opportunity not only to catch-up with old friends, but also to meet new people! If you have any questions please contact Bree Tomlinson for details.

The Graduate School Office at the College of Charleston will host the First Annual Graduate Research Poster Session in order to highlight the research projects of the seventeen Master’s Programs at The Graduate School of the College of Charleston. Eleven MES students will present their posters:

Presenter: Professor Mitchell Colgan, Chair, Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Director of NASA’s South Carolina Space Grant Consortium.

Popular debates aside, scientific evidence strongly indicates human activities are increasingly altering the Earth’s climate. Come see Al Gore’s recent blockbuster documentary about our inconvenient planetary crisis. Then stay and discuss the documentary with a scientist who studies global climate change.

Sponsored by the Addlestone Library's series: Eco-Topics at the Addlestone: From Academia to Activism. For additional information, please contact Cathy Evans; (843) 953-8040.

Presenter: Professor Reid Wiseman , Department of Biology.

This film uses basic arithmetic to explain the inevitable consequences of exponential human population growth and unlimited use of the earth’s finite resources.  He poses the following questions for discussion:  “Can Zero Population Growth (ZPG) be reached only if it is integrated with Zero Economic Growth (ZEG)?”  “Can both goals be reached in a capitalistic global society?”  “Are the ‘End-Timers’ delusional?”  “Can scientific humanism rescue us?”.

Sponsored by the Addlestone Library's series: Eco-Topics at the Addlestone: From Academia to Activism. For additional information, please contact Cathy Evans; (843) 953-8040.

Presenter: Tim Willard (MES Student) , Sustainable Campus Initiative.

Did you know that American schools spend more on energy bills than they do on computers and text books combined? Did you know that the average home in the Southeast uses 30% more electricity per month than the national average? Please see the film, and then join Tim Willard afterwards as he shares creative ideas about how each of us can reduce our usage of non-renewable energy resources.

Sponsored by the Addlestone Library's series: Eco-Topics at the Addlestone: From Academia to Activism. For additional information, please contact Cathy Evans; (843) 953-8040.

This is the Fifth Annual Master of Environmental Studies Student Association (MESSA) 8K Run/Walk to preserve and improve water quality in the Charleston area.

All proceeds from the 8K for H20 will be donated to Earth Force. Earth Force engages young people as active citizens who improve the environment and their communities now and in the future. They do so by training and supporting educators in programs that enable young people to lead community action projects focused on creating sustainable solutions to local environment issues in the community.

Visit the 8K for H2O Website for more information and registration details.

Presenters: Trenholm Walker (lawyer), and Dana Beach (Director of the Coastal Conservation League).

The CCL and the Sandy Island Community Action Club collaborated over the course of 3 years to turn away development from the island and to provide permanent protection.  Trenholm Walker provided legal representation for the residents pro bono during that period and served as the liaison between the community and the Coastal Conservation League.  Q & A to follow.

Sponsored by the Addlestone Library's series: Eco-Topics at the Addlestone: From Academia to Activism. For additional information, please contact Cathy Evans; (843) 953-8040.

Presenter: Bill Saunders, Director and CEO of the Committee on Better Racial Assurance (COBRA).

What was the African American culture of Johns Island like fifty or more years ago, and how was it impacted by the development of Kiawah Island?  More importantly, what kind of impact will currently planned urban development have on Johns Island?  Bill Saunders will talk about the history and culture of this rural sea island – the second largest island on the East Coast – and the potentially devastating consequences that urban development will have on long-standing communities and Gullah culture.

Sponsored by the Addlestone Library's series: Eco-Topics at the Addlestone: From Academia to Activism. For additional information, please contact Cathy Evans; (843) 953-8040.

The Master of Environmental Studies (MES) Program at the College of Charleston welcomes coastal geologist Orrin Pilkey, who will present “Fetch-Limited Barrier Island Coasts – A Global Perspective” on Wednesday, April 4 at 6:00 p.m. in the Wachovia Auditorium at the College of Charleston.

This public lecture will examine “islands behind islands,” the fetch-limited barrier islands that exist in bays, lagoons, sounds, estuaries and other sheltered environments.  More lightly developed and more affordable than oceanfront properties, the waterfront of these sheltered islands may become the most desirable real estate of all as the coastal zone of the Southeast is poised to experience its next major land rush.

Numbering roughly 15,000 globally, some fetch-limited barrier islands are actively evolving while others are inactive because they are surrounded by marsh or mangroves. Fetch-limited barrier islands differ from that of open ocean barrier islands in that essentially all fetch-limited island evolution occurs during storms, and vegetation (marshes and mangroves) plays a major evolutionary role.

How will these islands be developed? How will development affect the preservation of salt marshes? What impact will this have on shoreline stabilization strategies?  Join Orrin Pilkey for a discussion of the development – and the future – of fetch-limited barrier islands.

Orrin Pilkey is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Geology and Director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shoreline (PSDS) within the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Duke University, and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. 

Dr. Pilkey is world renowned for his scientific insights into basic and applied coastal geology, focusing primarily on developed barrier island coasts.  He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Francis Shepard Award for excellence in marine geology and the George V. Cohee Public Service Award of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.  Dr. Pilkey also became an honorary member of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) in 1992.  He held the office of president of this organization and of the North Carolina Academy of Science. 

Dr. Pilkey is author of The Beaches are Moving: The Drowning of America’s Shorelines, Living by the Rules of the Sea, The Corps and the Shore, and has co-authored or edited 35 additional books and numerous articles in professional journals. His most recent book (2007) is entitled Useless Arithmetic, a critical review of the role of mathematical models in our society’s environmental debates.  He has also served as editor of the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology.  Dr. Pilkey’s work has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Oceans Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and National Geographic.

The MES Environmental Speaker Program is an annual lecture series sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Graduate School of the College of Charleston.

For additional information, contact:

Mark McConnel
Program Coordinator
Master of Environmental Studies Program
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: (843) 953-2000
www.cofc.edu/~environ

If you are planning to graduate this May, you must apply for Spring 2007 graduation by

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12th

You can complete an Application for Graduation through your CougarTrail account (the $25 fee will be charged to your account), or you can pick up an Application at the Graduate School Office (bring a check to pay your $25 fee in person). A pdf of the Application is online at

(pdf file) www.cofc.edu/gradschool/current/pdf_forms/graduationappl..pdf

Students who are eligible for graduation should receive an email from the Graduate School Office with all relevant graduation information.

You can also find graduation information online at:
www.cofc.edu/gradschool/current/graduation.php

This site has complete graduation information from the Graduate School Office, including what you will need to do if you plan to take part in the Commencement Ceremony on May 11th (including such items as what color hood to ask for when ordering your MES regalia at the bookstore: Gold).

***

Also - remember that the final, completed copies of your theses or internship reports must be submitted by the close of business on Friday, April 27th. This means that you should plan to hold your defense by April 13th at the latest, in order to leave time for final corrections, etc. And don't forget to turn in your "Defense Notification Form" two weeks in advance of your Defense date!

The appropriate paper for the final copies can be found at the CofC Bookstore. The Thesis copies are turned in at the Graduate School Office for binding. You turn in your Internship copies, already bound, at the MES Office. The CofC Copy Center (Bell Bldg, Room 501) can copy Thesis and Internship reports, and can bind the Internship reports.

How to format your Internship report? http://www.cofc.edu/~environ/intern.htm

How to format your Thesis? http://www.cofc.edu/~environ/thesis.htm

For additional information, contact:

Mark McConnel
Program Coordinator
Master of Environmental Studies Program
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Phone: (843) 953-2000
www.cofc.edu/~environ