Similarly to the above image, this was taken directly from the Colby Special Collections and more specifically from a Colby Echo article from 1996. For years, Colby had offered environmental studies as a minor for all students but particularly in the 1990’s this field of study garnered interest from more and more students. Spearheaded by the aforementioned Professor David Firmage, this program immediately became a school wide hit. Firmage said that many students had come forward asking for this to be considered as a new major at Colby. This time period was equally met with an increased worldwide concern for the global climate. The two events go hand in hand, as the general public became more concerned with the wellbeing of our planet, so did Colby’s students. This marked a clear change in the College’s core curriculum. As we all know, environmental studies is one of the most popular majors at Colby today. Without the efforts of David Firmage in the 1990’s this would not have been possible. Firmage is one of the most influential members of the Colby biology department during this time period and I feel as though his importance is relatively understated. Every echo article from the 1990’s regarding the biology department mentions his name and his influence on the department yet I failed to find an article about his influence specifically. I hope through this exhibit and future research paper I can adequately portray his influence on the College and the Biology department in particular.
Curated by Ryan Santoro