Colgate?s Environmental Studies Program helps students to understand the complexity of environmental issues and to underscore the consequences and impacts of the human experience on the environment. Students in environmental studies learn to think, speak, and write clearly and articulately about environmental issues from a variety of perspectives. The environmental studies curriculum combines interdisciplinary breadth with depth in a chosen field of study.

The Environmental Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program located within the Division of University Studies and staffed by faculty from a number of departments who apply their knowledge and expertise to teaching and research endeavors that cross disciplinary boundaries. The program administers five majors: environmental studies plus four departmentally affiliated majors including environmental biology, environmental economics, environmental geography, and environmental geology. All five majors include a common set of courses that ensures a common interdisciplinary experience. Each student achieves depth in analytical ability by taking a specified suite of courses, usually in a particular discipline, chosen in consultation with her or his adviser. To fulfill environmental studies graduation requirements, students must possess a minimum overall GPA of at least 2.00 in all courses counted toward the major, both ENST courses and those taken in other departments and programs.