A new sign was unveiled Wednesday afternoon on the lawn of the Geological Sciences building to reflect the department’s recent name change to the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
While the new department name was approved two months ago, the department has included atmospheric science courses for about three years, professor and department chair Jim Brophy said. Courses on the environment, oceans and weather all involve the earth, he said.
“These are really exciting times for our department,” Brophy said. “We’re doing exciting stuff, and we’re hoping people will come find out the exciting stuff that goes on within these walls.”
The event was scheduled to come close with both IU Day and Earth Day, which is Saturday. Brophy said he hoped the change of department name would also promote visibility for the new curriculum being offered. He said the name would be more representative of the ever-evolving field because Earth science has evolved tremendously since the department’s second-most recent rechristening in 1992.
Before the unveiling, students, faculty and staff assembled under a tent offering cookies, tote bags and blue punch. Students in attendance spoke highly of the cookies and punch.
The event was well attended with upwards of 50 people crowding around the lawn at one point, and many of the students present were in the department, which included first-year graduate student Chris Helou.
Helou, who studies metamorphic rocks, said while some of her peers who studied similar subjects were a little sad to see the geological sciences name go, it did not feel like the actual curriculum changed negatively. She completed her undergraduate studies at IU as well.
Brophy assembled the crowd near the building’s sign, which was draped in a red cloth. Professor Jim Musser, associate dean for Natural and Mathematical Sciences and Research department, spoke about what he called the rare and exciting circumstances of a department name change.
“It brings the department into the 21st century,” Musser said.
After he spoke, Lisa Pratt, associate executive dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and provost professor in the department addressed the crowd.
“This is only the beginning,” Pratt said. “It’s Earth now and exoplanets next.”
Brophy gave a quick overview of the department’s history, which began in 1886 and ending with the recent changes, which he said were one more step in the evolutionary process of both the school and the field of study. He then brought two faculty representatives from the geological and atmospheric sciences out to pop a bottle of champagne.
As the cork came out of the bottle, Brophy pulled the red cloth off the new sign, which displayed the words “Earth and Atmospheric sciences” in bold below the building’s name.
Some professors, Brophy included, expressed slight annoyance with the lowercase spelling of the word science. He gestured across the street to the recently hoisted banners displaying the name of the department on light poles.
At least they got those right, Brophy said.
