Degrees
We offer three options to students seeking a Master of Earth and Environmental Resources Management (MEERM). You can get a degree with the completion of a thesis or without, in our intern-based program for environmental professionals with strong, existing environmental workplace experience and publication history. You can also get a dual JD/MEERM in environmental law through a collaboration with the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Listing of all MEERM courses
Your Career and Funding
The MEERM Program is designed to accommodate, as much as possible, the needs of students already working in their chosen career. If you're already working and seeking to enhance your capabilities, we encourage you to seek financial support from your employer. Other funding for graduate students is limited but includes departmental teaching and research assistantships, internships, and school of the environment assistantships.
An Interdisciplinary Program
A graduate committee administers the program on behalf of the Environment and Sustainability Committee. The Committee reviews curriculum needs and assists in development and coordination of interdisciplinary course offerings.
Collaborative projects with the public and private sectors are ongoing. The principal departments and colleges that are active in this interdisciplinary degree program, in addition to the School of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, include the Departments of Biological Sciences and Geography, Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Arnold School of Public Health, the Moore School of Business, the College of Engineering and Computing, and the School of Law.
Coursework and Requirements
To qualify for graduate courses in earth or environmental resources, students are required to demonstrate sufficient background in one or more fields, gained by academic study or experience, to ensure academic success. All are required to complete six hours of integrative seminars.
The program requires a total of 36 credit hours, which includes at least six hours of integrative seminars, plus 6 hours of credit for completion of a thesis or internship-based workplace deliverable. All Graduate School requirements, such as the number of 700 level courses, grade distributions, and comprehensive assessments, must also be met.
By design, no core curriculum is specified except the two required integrative seminars to be taken from the following courses:
Current issues, policies, and regulations pertaining to environmental studies. Emphasizes integrated multidisciplinary approaches toward identification, evaluation, preservation, mitigation, and/or utilization of environmentally sensitive material and sites.
Examination of the effectiveness of environmental policies and methods relative to current issues and needs.
This seminar is designed to explore and develop practical advocacy skills in the area of environmental representation and to provide an understanding of advocacy in administrative, legislative, and litigation arenas. Cross-listed Course: LAWS 804 Prerequisites: permission of instructor.
Examination of the intellectual, cultural, and ethical frameworks within which environmental problems arise and are solved. Cross-listed Course: PHIL 835
An approach to problems of resource management by lecture and seminar using case studies in mineral, energy, hydrogeological, and environmental science.
Environmental project planning and management. Types and magnitudes of environmental problems; environmental pathways; environmental data acquisition and analysis; protection versus restoration; risk assessment; site assessment. Prerequisites: GEOL 560 or permission of instructor
Individual programs of study are developed with an interdisciplinary committee chaired
by an appropriate advisor in the department that most closely matches the student's
interest and background. To ensure a truly interdisciplinary education, at least one third of the student's course work must be in earth and environmental
resources and one third in management, finance and economics, with no more than 50
percent in either field.