New Great Lakes degrees on the way

Buffalo State has recently announced its intent to develop two new graduate programs in Great Lakes environmental science.

Alexander Karatayev, director of the Great Lakes Center, said the first program will be a traditional master's of arts focused on a research-based thesis project. This option will be intended for students who want to pursue a doctorate, and eventually teach or become an active researcher.

The second program, a professional science master's, will be focused more on business courses and may require an internship in some cases. This track will be intended for students who work or are looking to work for environmental agencies.

"In many cases, a master's degree is better than a PhD because you could be overqualified for at least some of the positions," Karatayev said. "You really need a PhD if you want to teach at a college or university, but other than that, it can really hurt you because there are not too many openings for a PhD."

Mark Severson, dean of the school of natural and social sciences, said through these new programs, the college is looking to meet the needs of students, while at the same time getting them more involved.

"A graduate program like this will benefit both graduate students and undergraduate students because it will be a more active research environment," he said. "At Buffalo State, undergraduates get involved in research and the more people that are in the lab, the better the environment is for that."

The Great Lakes Center is a college-run research institute which examines the Great Lakes and their watersheds. Its facilities include an on-campus toxicology and aquatic ecology lab, as well as a field station at the head of the Niagara River.

The field station houses state-of-the-art research and lab equipment, including several boats and an outdoor classroom. Karatayev said the center is involved in about 20 projects throughout the United States and Canada.

Research Technician Katie Hastings said projects include long-term monitoring of water quality and nutrients, invasive species research and studies on the bioaccumulation of flame retardants in aquatic wildlife.

Currently, the college offers a multidisciplinary graduate program through the Great Lakes Center in which students have the option to design their own course of study. This may involve assisting researchers to set up experiments or process samples in addition to their own projects.

Still, Hastings said there's a lot of room for expansion with the new programs, because students are only at the field station every couple of days.

Karatayev agreed, adding that this move will help to solidify the center's position in the community.

"This will definitely help us not only to accomplish more in the education part, it will also be a really good step in outreach," he said. "I'm hoping we will recruit many of our graduate students from the community, and then they will work in the community."

Severson said the program's letter of intent is currently being sent around to fellow SUNY institutions for comments. While this is happening, the Great Lakes Center will continue to draft the full program proposal.

Once the proposal is finished, the college will bring in experts in field of graduate programs to review the proposal and write an evaluation to address areas where revision is needed. Finally, it will then be sent to SUNY and the New York State Board of Education for approval

Although nothing has been determined, both Severson and Karatayev said they would like to see the new programs be available for fall 2012.

Brian Alexander can be reached by email at alexander.record@live.com.