Overview

The College of the Environment (CENV) at Western Washington University houses five units: the Dean's Office, the Institute for Watershed Studies, the Department of Environmental Studies, the Department of Environmental Sciences, and the Department of Urban & Environmental Planning & Policy. This page is the top level entry point for the college. Each unit has its own child page with full contact, staffing, and facilities detail. For the college's mission, history, and public facing information, see the official CENV website.

Key Contacts & Leadership

• Dean: Teena Gabrielson | teena.gabrielson@wwu.edu | 360‑650‑3521

• Operations Manager: Mary Tully | mary.tully@wwu.edu | 360‑650‑2391

• General College Contact: cenv@wwu.edu | 360‑650‑3520

Location

CENV is not housed in a single building. Units are split across two buildings on campus:

• Arntzen Hall (AH): Environmental Studies (ENVS) and Urban & Environmental Planning & Policy (UEPP), plus most of the college's shared classrooms and undergraduate labs (AH016, AH024, AH219, AH225, AH217).

• Environmental Studies Building (ES): Environmental Sciences (ESCI), the Institute for Watershed Studies (IWS), and the Dean's Office (ES539), plus the main graduate research labs and the college's primary conference room (ES534).

Departments & Units

• College of the Environment: Dean's Office. Administrative, advising, and operational leadership for the college. Runs undergraduate advising, diversity recruitment and retention, graduate program and internship coordination, and college level IT support.

• Institute for Watershed Studies (IWS). Research institute focused on watershed and hydrological science, including active Lake Whatcom monitoring. Runs field instrumentation for stream flow, discharge, and sensor based data collection (Flowtracker, WinFlow, Flowlink), not just classroom instruction.

• Department of Environmental Studies (ENVS). Interdisciplinary program combining social science, natural science, and design. Prepares students for sustainability, planning, policy, and environmental justice work through hands on research and community engagement, with heavy GIS and remote sensing infrastructure (ArcGIS Pro, ENVI, AgiSoft Metashape).

• Department of Environmental Sciences (ESCI). Hard science department blending biology, chemistry, geology, and physics with applied environmental science. Fieldwork and lab heavy, with specialized research equipment across its labs: spectrometers, gas analyzers, stereomicroscopes, CTD sensors, and oceanographic instrumentation.

• Department of Urban & Environmental Planning & Policy (UEPP). Prepares students for sustainable urban and regional planning, environmental policy, and public engagement careers through experiential learning and applied research, supported by SPSS, GIS, and SketchUp in its graduate research lab.

Facilities & Spaces Supported

College wide shared spaces called out here; department specific spaces live on the child pages.

• ES539: Dean's office for the College of the Environment.

• ES534: Main CENV conference room, ES534/ES524 conference room area, equipped with a Logitech Rally Camera.