Environmental Education Program

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Several years ago I supported legislation, spearheaded by Congresswoman
Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) that provided, through the Defense
budget, scholarships, fellowships, and grants for environmental
education. We (at the time, CAREER/PRO) applied for a grant, but we did
not receive any funding through this program. Still, as the following
excerpts from the program's official reports show, it has been
successful.

Now the five years are up, and unexpended funds must be returned unless
Congress includes in this year's Defense bill language extending the
authorization. No new money is required, just a one-paragraph amendment.

For more details about the Environmental Scholarship, Fellowship, and
Grant program, including a description of participating campuses, see
http://www.denix.osd.mil/denix/Public/News/OSD/Scholarship/program.html

Lenny Siegel

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS (SECTION 4451 of PL 102-484)

One of the unusual characteristics of this program is the Congressional
mandate for broad consortium involvement, which required inclusion of
other institutions of higher education, appropriate state and local
agencies, private industry councils, community-based organizations, and
businesses. One result is that 312 fully funded scholarship and
fellowship awards (Section 4451 of PL 102-484), ranging from one to four
years in duration, have been offered by 46 institutions of higher
education, with wide geographic distribution. Of these, there are 161
undergraduate scholarships (45 at the associate level; 116 for a
baccalaureate degree) and 151 graduate fellowships (123 for master's
degrees and 28 for doctorate's.) To date, 94 undergraduate scholarships
and 101 graduate fellowships have been awarded to qualified students.
There are 67 undergraduate scholarships and 50 graduate fellowships that
remain available at this time. A summary announcement of all
scholarships and fellowships is shown at TAB F.

One other unique aspect of the scholarship and fellowship component of
this program is that each recipient must agree to "pay back" the
Department of Defense for the education they've received. Specifically,
they must sign an agreement to serve as a full-time employee in an
environmental position in a DoD Component (e.g. the Army, Navy, Air
Force, or any Defense agency) for a period of one calendar year for each
undergraduate school year, or part of a school year, for which a student
receives scholarship assistance, and two calendar years for each
graduate school year, or part of a school year, for which a student
receives fellowship assistance. There is, however, nothing in the
agreement that requires that a position be offered to a person who
successfully completes the education. However, if no position is offered
within 90 days after completion of the degree, as specified in the
agreement, the agreement shall be terminated.

In an effort to comply with the letter and spirit of Section 4451 of the
National Defense Authorization Act, the DoD has requested assistance
from each of the Military Services in recruitment and placement of these
award recipients. There are limited environmental positions within DoD.
When positions are available, graduates of this program must compete for
them. DoD maintains a "stopper list" of current or former civilian
employees who have or will have lost their jobs due to downsizing and
base closure and are given preference in hiring for vacant civilian jobs
within the DoD components. Thus, unless graduates of this program also
qualify for the "stopper list," they must be considered behind those who
do and any other applicant who qualifies under another program with
other special hiring authority.

During the 1995-96 academic year, the DoD Environmental Scholarship and
Fellowship Program produced its first 24 graduates. Of these, seven
obtained employment within the Department of Defense (TAB G). Despite
the fact that the 90 day waiver period has passed for seventeen
graduates without resulting DoD employment, only one of these has
elected to enforce the waiver. The remaining sixteen continue to be
interested in finding employment within the DoD. In addition, a minimum
of 25 more students will receive their degrees under this program in the
coming year (TAB H). DoD is working diligently to develop an effective
placement mechanism so that it can add to its core of professionals from
this program through the year, 1999.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS - TRAINING GRANTS (SECTION 1333 of PL 103-160)

Under the Grants section of the program, environmental training has been
made available for two eligible groups: displaced DoD employees and
contractors, and young adults. To date, over 40,000 instructor hours of
training have been delivered to more than 2500 trainees by the various
grantee institutions. An additional 4,582 instructor hours of training
are slated to be provided to almost 700 eligible displaced defense
workers and young adults, for a total of an additional 447,000 trainee
classroom hours. The training delivered through this program has been
quite diverse and included one-day short courses, month-long
certification programs, full-year and degree completion programs; the
various training programs are outlined at TAB I. Most of these programs
involve hands-on, work-based site learning, frequently using military
installations for field work or the full training. A number of the
grantee institutions have incorporated the training programs into
existing training programs.

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight (AKA SFSU
CAREER/PRO)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org