 "Photo: Courtesy of Lori Dengler")
Perhaps inspired by the recent earthquakes, the Geology Department is shaking things up for its annual field camp trip. This year the camp has been shortened from six weeks to four. For some seniors set to graduate this year, the switch leaves them two units short.
The change almost forced geology senior Ryan Rud to come back next semester. “I guess it’ll probably be better for majors in the future, but I wish it wasn’t happening right now when we’re set to graduate.”
His classmate Casey Seals agreed. “I came to Humboldt for the field experience, and I feel like we’re getting shortchanged,” said Seals. Starting next semester sophomores and juniors will get one week in the field apiece.
Geology Department Chair Lori Dengler explained that there will still be the same number of units in the major, but it will help keep the program interesting for underclassmen.
Also, the previous field camp schedule kept students tied up through Fourth of July. This makes it difficult for many to find summer employment. Now they will finish around Jun. 20, which is about the same time as schools on a quarter system.
Dengler acknowledged that the change wasn’t communicated to seniors as well as it could have been. She said that because the program had to wait for approval from the administration, the department was in limbo until very recently.
Whatever hardships the miscommunication may cause for some students this year, she is optimistic that HSU geology will be back into its groove next semester with a redesigned program. The new geosciences degree is designed for students who would like to work in the earth sciences but may not want to spend as much time on physics and higher math. It will still prepare students to work in the field or go on to graduate school.
“HSU geology is a pretty amazing program. It’s really well known across the country,” said Professor Mark Hemphill-Haley.
He should know. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees here studying under many of the same people he now calls colleagues.
For him, field camp is a big part of that. “It’s what we call a capstone,” he said. It provides a way for geology students to tie everything they’ve learned throughout their undergraduate career into one event. Students will be going to a place in the eastern Sierras called Bloody Canyon. They’ll live in tents and spend their days hiking through the mountains and learning to make maps.
“It’s basically six days a week [of] walking up and down hills,” said geology major Shannon Utley. She attended camp last year and said that while it was hellish sometimes, it was also a lot of fun. “It’s a geological right of passage.”
Professor Andre Lehre said field camp is what gives HSU geologists their job-ready reputation. It prepares them with invaluable hands-on experience that is in demand at the workplace.
“You’d be hard put to find a geological or engineering agency that hires geologists that doesn’t employ HSU alumni,” said Lehre.
A steadily shrinking budget has made the trip more of a hardship for many students. The cost for the four-week program, almost $1,800, is placed entirely on the students.
Lehre said the Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach doesn’t understand the differences in educating a liberal arts student and a natural resources or sciences student. Science majors require more materials, more labs and more field trips than other students. The California State University schools are given money based on the number of students. Lehre said that almost 45 percent of HSU students are in either natural resources or science which means that HSU has to stretch its budget far more than some schools with fewer majors in the sciences.
Like almost every other department at HSU geology faces a lack of funding. Except for one member all faculty members are over 50 years old, and most have been here for many years. Since 2003 they have wanted to hire another professor, but the administration says there are not enough students to justify it. Two rare machines, an x-ray detraction unit and an x-ray florescence unit, valued new at about $500,000 each, have both been out of operation. The school cannot afford the warranty for the machines. The x-ray florescence unit was fixed this week, when funds from an anonymous donor were used to call in a technician. The x-ray diffraction unit is still sitting unused.
In 2009 a former HSU geology student was named as one of four Carnegie Professors of the Year. Professor Rob Thomas teaches at the University of Montana Western, but said that the years he spent at HSU were extremely influential. The family atmosphere he encountered in the geology department left him with a deep respect for the faculty, some of whom he still keeps in touch with. “One of the things we all notice as Humboldters is that people aren’t really eager to leave after graduation. I think that’s a really good sign.”
In a time of climate change, geology students and professors are proud of their profession.“Your main evidence for addressing climate change is geology,” said Dengler. Senior Ryan Rud agreed. “When earth is on its last legs, they’re gonna come running to the geologists.”
Besides the cost, other hurdles await the seniors. Geology club president Curry Wykoff called field camp a way to see if the future geologists really have what it takes to make it.The long hours of hiking at high elevation would be too much for some. They’ll have to deal with the temperature extremes of the Sierras, but mostly they’ll have to learn to live without the comforts of civilization.
“Does English have anything like this?” asked Wykoff. He grinned and looked around at his fellow geology majors. “Maybe a portfolio or something,” someone answered. Wykoff laughed and shook his head. “No other program has something this hardcore.”
1 comments
"Dengler acknowledged that the change wasn’t communicated to seniors as well as it could have been." well, WHY NOT? Dengler goes on to explain they needed department approval, but why are they choosing to leave seniors out in the cold? why aren't they just giving them their 2 more units so they can move on and out of HSU, and make room for astronomically large freshmen classes?