Mission Statement

The mission of the Institute for the Study of the Environment  is to understand the environment and the human place in it through intellectual inquiry and practice. A liberal arts education is central to this mission. The Institute encourages all Albion students to develop an awareness of the physical makeup of the biosphere and an appreciation of the vulnerability of the ecosystem. It further encourages students to explore environmental issues from a multidisciplinary perspective and to recognize that their own actions have environmental consequences. The Institute serves the campus by stimulating and providing a venue for campus-wide exploration of the interplay among environmental issues, values, and other areas of intellectual inquiry in a liberal arts setting. This exploration includes such areas as aesthetics, politics and the formation of public policy, history, communication, and spiritual or philosophical world views. Through dynamic interaction between environmental theory and practice, locally based but recognizing that the environment knows no boundaries, the Institute enriches its immediate and extended communities.