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Help Save Masters degree Permaculture Curriculum at SRU (fwd)
>Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 09:08:03 -0500
>From: "ANDERSON, CLAIRE" <cma3637@sru.edu>
>Subject: Help Save Masters degree Permaculture Curriculum at SRU
>X-Sender: cma3637@rockmail.sru.edu
>MIME-version: 1.0
>
>I wanted to widely broadcast this letter in order to obtain a broad base of
>support from outside of this university, to prove to this university that
>permaculture is indeed a vital part of the Masters degree program in
>Sustainable Systems, here at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock,
>Pennsylvania, and should not be eliminated. As far as I know, SRU is the
>only university IN NORTH AMERICA that offers graduate courses in
>permaculture; it's the primary reason I came here. Due to the difficulty
>in trying to find a person qualified to teach permaculture at the university
>level and the fact that current faculty seem reluctant, at best, to pursue
>their own permaculture certification (although the University has stipulated
>that this is a requirement of their contracts), the permaculture curriculum
>is in danger of being eliminated, excepting one core course (which would
>only amount to 48 hours of total instruction in permaculture). The students
>here are trying to protect this curriculum, as we believe that it provides
>the vital foundation for all of the other curricula (such as resource
>management, ecoarchitecture, and agroecology), but are having difficulty
>convincing faculty as to the importance of maintaining the permaculture
>curriculum. I believe that this curriculum, with its focus on permaculture,
>sustainability, and holistic ideology, has the potential to serve as a model
>program for other universities. I'm not sure, however, that faculty and
>administration understand this. What I'm asking of you all, is to validate
>the importance of permaculture being taught in American universities. You
>can do this by providing me with some basic information: 1) Your name;
>2)Any college degrees you have earned (and where you earned them)and your
>professional career involvements; and 3) the importance of permaculture to
>you (how you've used permaculture professionally, etc.). The more
>scientific and less esoteric you are in your reasoning, the better chance we
>will have at putting together a solid argument for retaining the
>permaculture curriculum. If any of you also have information on other
>universities that teach permaculture here in the US, please let me know. I
>would also be interested to learn if there are similar programs to the
>Master of Science degree in Sustainable Systems (MS3) at any U.S.
>universities. For a comparison, the MS3 program description can be found on
>the net at: http://www.sru.edu/depts/graduate/ss.html.
>Lastly, if there are any individuals who are certified permaculture
>instructors in the western PA area, who also have an advanced degree
>(masters or Ph.D.), please contact me.
>I want to thank you all for your support,
>in peace,
>claire anderson
>
>524 Stewart Avenue, Grove City, PA 16127-1334
>Phone (412) 458-5116 HOME
>(412) 738-2050 WORK
>