SPEA grant begins Russia partnership

IU students might have the chance to venture to Siberia soon.

A new grant could facilitate a partnership between the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and both Russia’s Tyumen State University and Tyumen State Agricultural Academy. The partnership would allow IU students opportunities to study in Russia and conduct environmental research there.

“This program would provide IU students the opportunity to work with Russian students on environmental studies,” SPEA associate professor Vicky Meretsky said.

Professors from both universities are currently working to finalize a program that would send IU students to TSU to study environmental issues, as well as Russian language and culture. The U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education provided a $400,000 grant for this project.

The proposed program would begin during the second summer session in 2010 and occur for a three-year series.

Meretsky said that Tyumen is located in western Siberia, and the terrain consists of a combination of steppes and forests. The area contains lots of forestry and agriculture, as well as oil and gas exploration sites.

“It will allow students to see large-scale environmental problems and solutions,” Meretsky said. “There is pollution from oil, efforts to clean up the oil, forestry, ecology and lots of history and culture.”

She said the SPEA program hopes that this partnership will help broaden the environmental horizons of IU students.

Meretsky said the program is expected to be finalized within the next four to eight weeks. “The intent is to create a glossary of environmental science terms in Russian and English,” Meretsky said.

The proposed project would include seven aspects for IU students, according  to an IU press release. Meretsky would teach a four-week second summer session course on Global Environmental Problems and Solutions at IU, where students would use distance-learning technology to communicate with Russian students prior to the trip.

Ten grant-sponsored students would spend two weeks gaining field experience in Tyumen exploring environmental, industrial and cultural sites.


There would also be a survival or advanced Russian course through “intelligent computer-assistated language learning,” which would be offered to students depending on their knowledge of the Russian language.

The focus of ICALL would be about environmental science and research terms. SPEA would offer IU students an academic certificate in international environmental science.

They would also provide opportunities for IU environmental scientists to collaborate on research projects in this area and travel to Russia. There would also be funding for travel to the Tyumen region available to IU students.