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From its endorsement by the Maryland State Board for Higher Education in
October of 1978 as a University of Maryland system-wide graduate program, the Marine
Estuarine Environmental Sciences (MEES) Graduate Program has developed as a broad-based, interdisciplinary environmental science graduate program. During its early years, a "development committee" oversaw the administration.
Throughout the years, faculty and students have been associated with many units of the University System of Maryland (USM) - the Baltimore (UMB), Baltimore County (UMBC), College Park (UMCP), and Eastern Shore (UMES) campuses, the Center of Marine Biotechnology Institute (COMB), and at the laboratories of the Center for Environmental Sciences (UMCES) including Horn Point Laboratory (HPL), the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL), and the Appalachian Laboratory (AL).
The first MEES students were admitted in January 1979: Cassandra Jones and
David Michael Robichaux, both at the M.S. level. Dr. Jane Orzel-Yager earned the first MEES Masters degree in December 1980; she continued on in MEES to earn her Ph.D. in 1986. The Program conferred its first Ph.D. in August 1982 to Dr. Ranmali Devlina Wijayarantne. By the fifth anniversary of the Program, enrollment approached 100 students.
A reorganization plan was developed, approved by the Board of Regents, and implemented in 1986. This reorganization centralized MEES administration under a Director (Dr. Robert E. Menzer) located at UMCP and an Assistant Director (Dr. Stephen Rebach) located at UMES. A MEES Advisory Committee, with representation from each of the campuses and UMCES, was also established. This committee (officially called the MEES Graduate Program Committee) was responsible for the academic content and quality of graduate study.
Following Dr. Robert Menzer's 1989 retirement announcement, and while the MEES Director Search Committee was working in the early 1990s, the UMCES Graduate Faculty Council convened for the first time and the Chancellor's Marine Affairs Coordinating Council (CMACC) undertook a study of the MEES Program to strengthen its effectiveness as the system's primary course of environmental studies at the graduate level. An identification of academic program areas developed by MEES faculty at UMCES was intended to provide a focus for increased participation of faculty members. In 1992, when Dr. Kenneth Sebens was appointed Director of the MEES Program, Dr. Wayne Bell, Acting Associate Director for Education of UMCES, submitted "Curriculum Tracks in MEES" report completed by UMCES graduate faculty.
A reorganization of the MEES Program curricular structure was implemented in 1993 to form six areas of specialization: ecology, environmental chemistry, environmental molecular biology and biotechnology, environmental science, fisheries science, and oceanography. The Program Committee structure and appointment process was also changed, with the determination that the MEES Program Committee or other appropriate mechanisms for faculty advise to the MEES Director was to be a matter for MEES Program Faculty and Director to decide internally. It was also determined that the MEES Director should report to the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at UMCP.
The MEES Program has been in existence for 30 years and has grown from 37 students in 1980, to 160 in 1990, reaching a high of over 270, a current enrollment of around 180 students. The MEES Program functions as one of the primary 'environmental' graduate programs for the USM and serves as a successful example of cooperation among six institutions (UMCP, UMBC, UMB, UMES, UMCES, UMBI). The MEES Program has become highly visible, both nationally and internationally, due primarily to the high quality of its faculty members, their international reputations, program alumni, and the strong student interest in environmental science and in its applications in solving environmental problems.
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