The University of Washington Releases Plans for College of the Environment – largest environmental college in the world.

The University of Washington has released plans to create what it says would be the largest environmental college in the world.

The proposed new College of the Environment http://www.washington.edu/provost/coenv/index.html would start with 97 faculty members, 1,135 students and a budget of more than $60 million, according to a UW report released this week.

The new college would merge six existing academic disciplines that focus on oceans, the atmosphere and forests. Over time, it would employ 30 new faculty and staff members, as well as a dean.

"Certainly, higher education in general has a responsibility to tackle challenges that threaten the well-being of the planet," the report says. "The UW is strongly positioned to truly advance the contributions of academia to the very concrete problems of the world around us."

By Nick Perry

Seattle Times higher education reporter

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