The Outline Syllabus
The University of California
Center Sacramento (UCCS) inaugurated its Environment Program
in the Summer of 2005. The Program matches select UC
students with environmental internships in Sacramento and
provides opportunities for scholar interns resident in
Sacramento to complete
related academic course work.
UCCS is an academic initiative of the Office of the UC President, to establish a residential academic and internship program in the state capital.
The Course
Students enroll in a special offering of Environmental Politics and Administration, arranged with UC Davis Summer Sessions. This is a four unit, letter graded upper division course regularly offered at the University. The course develops an understanding of the interactions of values, politics, science, and management shaping solutions to some of California's most pressing environmental and energy policy problems. The substantive content of the course is described on this and other pages of this web.
The Students
Participating students are selected from all eight of the campuses where the University has undergraduate programs. The Program is also open to graduate students.
THE INTERNSHIPS
This academic course is taken in conjunction with an internship, where students are placed with an environmental organization and work under on-site supervision for twenty-four to thirty hours a week, or more by agreement. Academic credit for the internship is given separately from this course.
The Faculty
Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Director of the UCCS Environment Program. gawsmith@ucdavis.edu
The Texts
Required:
Steven Cohen,
Understanding Environmental Policy (Columbia University Press, New York,
2006). Paperback. ISBN 0-231-13537-8.
Eugene Bardach,
A
Practical Guide for Policy Analysis, 2d edition (CQ Press,
Washington D.C., 2005). Paperback. ISBN 1-56802-923-3.
Note: This is the standard UCCS text used in conjunction with the
development, drafting, and completion of term papers by students in all
of the internship tracks. It is a basic reference.
Judy Orttung, Protecting the California Environment: A Citizen's Guide (League of Women Voters of California, San Francisco, 1980). Note: Each student will be given a copy of this book. It is now out of print, but the author has generously given permission for its reproduction.
Recommended:
Stephen Bocking,
Nature's Experts: Science
Politics, and the Environment (Rutgers University
Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 2004). Paperback. ISBN 0-8135-3398-8.
David Carle, Introduction to Water in California (University of California Press, Berkeley, 2004). California Natural History Guides No. 76. Paperback. ISBN 0-520-24086-3.
Carolyn Merchant (Ed.), Green versus Gold: Sources in California's Environmental History (Island Press, Washington D.C., 1998). Paperback. ISBN 01-55963-580-0.
Craig Thomas, Bureaucratic Landscapes: Interagency Cooperation and the Preservation of Biodiversity (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2003). Paperback. ISBN 0-262-70089-1.
Students should buy the required books (Cohen and Bardach) from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com or some other online bookseller before the first day of class.
The Class Meetings
The course meets every Tuesday during the summer term from 2:00 to 5:00 pm in the UCCS Conference Room, 1130 K Street, Suite LL 22, Sacramento, CA 95814. During the week, scholar interns follow a work schedule set by their on-site supervisors.
The Format
At every class session scholar interns meet and confer with the instructor of the course and, on some occasions, with invited guests from the UC system, from executive agencies and legislative offices, and representatives of public interest groups.
The Requirements
Scholar interns must attend and participate in all course sessions, take a final examination, and write and present a major research paper. Wherever possible paper topics will be coordinated with internship placements. After an initial introductory session, the course deals in sequence, week by week, with the topics listed below. Students are responsible for the readings itemized in future web pages, one for each of these topics. The final course meeting is devoted to students' presentations of their term paper research and analysis.
The Preliminary Weekly Schedule
JUN 19 Move In
[For each of the following topics there will be substantial assigned readings beyond the basic texts. Most of them will be drawn from legislative, agency, interest group, and academic web sites].
JUN 20 Instruction
Begins, First Class Meeting.
Environmental Boot Camp, 1: California's Economic History and the
Process of Agency Formation
What Are the Major Environmental Agencies in California, When and Why
Were They Formed, What's Their Expertise, Who's In Them, Who Runs Them,
and What Exactly Do They Do?
JUN 27 Environmental
Boot Camp, 2: California's Political History, the Making of Mandates,
and the Enforcement of Accountability
How is the California Legislature Organized to Deal with Environmental
Issues, What Sorts of Marching Orders (Mandates) Have They Given to
Agencies, Where Do Environmental Bills and Budgets Come From, and What
Do Interest Groups and Public Opinion Have To Do with All This?
JUL 04 Independence Day Holiday.
JUL 11 Understanding California Water Policy.
JUL 18 Understanding the Infrastructure for Economic Development in California: Focus on Flood Protection.
JUL 25 Understanding California Policy for Oceans, Coasts, and Fisheries.
AUG 01 Discussion and Finalization of Term Paper Themes and Outlines.
AUG 08 Understanding Environmental Policy Innovation in California: How Being Green is the New Black.
Special Event: Environmental Policy in East and Central Europe: Lessons for California, with Professor Zoltan Illes, Central European University, Budapest, and Dr. Magdolna Rozs, Hubert Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis and Visiting Scholar, UC Center Sacramento.
AUG 15 Understanding Alternative Energy Policies in California: Coping with Climate Change and $70 Oil
AUG 22 Finals, Part 1. Formal Presentations of Papers.
TBA Finals, Part 2. The Written Exam.
Copyright ©
Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith, 2006.
All federal and
state copyrights reserved for all original material presented in
this course through any medium, including lecture or print.