Ours is a finite world characterized by ever-increasing population, resource demands by advanced societies and those striving to become advanced, and frequent confrontations of world units of contrasting nature. Therefore, it is necessary that the informed citizen have some idea of the nature, causes, and meanings of variations in earth and human resources. Geography helps impart this knowledge and understanding.

Geography seeks to define and study the patterns of physical and human features of the earth, the relationships between them, the association of features giving personality or character to individual places or regions, the connections and movements between places and the meaning to man of the likenesses and differences among places on the earth. Because it presents an integrated view of the physical and social sciences, geography is of significance to liberal arts and science programs whether the subject is selected as the major, minor, or elective.

The newest offerings with the geography program include courses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Topics include building data bases, thematic map analysis, spatial modeling, digitizing, base maps, spatial data manipulation and applications. GIS provides the development of a research tool in geographic application for solving society's problems.

Dr. Darrel McDonald, Geography Coordinator