"One Mile of the Hudson River" began as a twinkle in a poet's eye. My co-teacher Carl McDaniel, a biologist and director of the environmental science major, spent a term as a distinguished visiting professor at Carleton College in Minnesota. There he met Keith Harrison, Writer-in-Residence and English professor, who had an idea for a course he called "One Mile of the Cannon River" (which runs through Northfield, MN, home of the college) that was to be a full-time, year-long course. Students would take nothing else that year, but would have all their credit needs met by the Cannon River course.

Upon McDaniel's return to Rensselaer, he and I and a host of others constructed a course that only partly realized the promise of Harrison's idea. We were able to make it a two semester course, but students only get four credits per term. One Mile serves as the major interdisciplinary experience for the environmental science major, but is also an attractive course for environmental engineers, environmental managers and a diverse mix of others. It's staffed by a team of professors from Rensselaer: two historians, an ecologist, a developmental biologist, a geochemist, a hydrologist, an environmental engineer, an ichthyologist, a philospher, an economist, a rhetorician, and me, a political scientist. There are two graduate teaching assistants, Nicole Farkas, from Science and Technology Studies (a multidisciplinary department of humanists and social scientists focused on the interactions of science, technology and society), and Tim Bushnell, a biologist. We were fortunate to receive a $140,000 grant from Rensselaer for course development that helped us underwrite several, contentious faculty workshops, buy a boat, and procure necessary laboratory equipment.

The course is an experiment in bioregional education. Our intention is not to churn out yet more of what Wendell Berry considers the products of higher education - "itinerant professional vandals." Instead, we aim to introduce students to the urgency of sustainably inhabiting a particular place, and to educate citizens who will do something about building a sustainable society of which the River is a cherished and important part. The course, following a rough chronological outline, revolves around four thorny questions: 1) How can the Hudson River be defined? 2) What constitutes a stable, productive Hudson River ecosystem? 3) What constitutes a sustainable pattern of human habitation in the Hudson River Valley? and 4) What is the relationship between a sustainable society and a stable, productive ecosystem? These questions inform the journals students keep, the essays they write, and the projects they plan (Fall semester) and complete (Spring semester). Projects include improving public access to the River through the Hudson River Greenway, investigating the costs/benefits of dams on the River, designing exhibits in conjunction with the Junior Museum (a children's science museum in Troy), and using the River's aquatic vertebrates as water quality indicators. Students are encouraged to coordinate their projects with the activities of some local environmental movement organization (Clearwater, Scenic Hudson, Greenway) working to protect the River or some laboratory (Rensselaer's Fresh water Institute, U.S. Geological Survey, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation) studying the River.

The course is heavily weighted toward field experiences: sampling for zebra mussels, visiting the site of General Electric's PCB dumping, hiking along the Poestenkill (a tributary that runs by campus) down to the River, inspecting the local sewage treatment plant, viewing the Albany Institute of History and Art's Hudson River School paintings, and similar hands-on excursions. We were very concerned the course not become a parade of narrow disciplinary perspectives. McDaniel and I see part of our role as playing interdisciplinary foils on behalf of the students. We're able to quiz the instructor-of-the-week from our unique, critical, but complementary perspectives. Philosopher John Schumacher and ecologist Chuck Boylen, two colleagues who helped us design the course, and each of whom taught a segment, sit in on most lectures and discussions and are able to help students assess meaning and determine significance.

The course has received favorable media coverage, including articles in the campus press, the local papers, a regional magazine, an National Public Radio affiliate, and USA Today. We currently have 14 students in the course and expect in future years to limit enrollment due to increased student demand. The course is part of a general greening effort underway at Rensselaer. Critical environmental courses have sprung up in several departments; there's a new environmental studies program that acts as the umbrella for green curriculum development, a new concentration in ecological economics, and elevated interest in the environment in our schools of engineering, management and architecture. Students are conducting an environmental audit of campus, helping establish an environmental education center, constructing a garden, greenhouse, and orchard complex, and overhauling the campus recycling program. Students have found that developing ecological literacy is lot more fun, as well as considerably more productive, when theory can be linked to practice.