Graduate students in the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media plan to propose to school officials in December an interdisciplinary environmental communication program.

“Environmental communication is the basis on which we can make other environmental-related areas come together,” said Bernardo Motta, a doctoral student in journalism who is leading the initiative. “We can expose all that knowledge to the public. If we start now, we have a good chance of changing something for the better.”

Motta said five existing courses in the College of Communication and Information would make up most of the program’s curriculum, which would be available to undergraduate and graduate students. However, the proposal, which Motta and his cohorts will present to Peter Gross, director of the journalism school, includes two new courses:

• A 500-level course titled, Seminar in Environmental Communication Theories and Practices
• A 400-level course titled, Environmental Media Management

The school would have to pay faculty to teach the new courses for the first year, Motta said.

However, the proposal includes possible funding sources. Motta said former Tennessee Sen. Al Gore is a potential contact.

Additionally, Motta said several faculty members outside the College of Communication have agreed to help write grant proposals for the proposed program.

In fact, according to the proposal, 292 UT professors teach in environmentally related fields, and 36 UT departments are involved in environmental research.

However, Motta said a program focusing on environmental communication does not exist at UT - at least not yet.

“The resources are (at UT),” Motta said. “The idea now is just to create the links. Around the whole United States, all the other (environmental) programs … probably would not be as complete as what we can offer here.”

Motta said he is optimistic that the proposed program will be accepted and that it will benefit the college.

“It’s going to be a program that’s going to help students learn,” Motta said. “It’s going to bring money to college, bring better students to the college, and it’s going to be good for name of college.”