The mission of the Department is to promote intellectual, professional, and personal excellence through the highest quality instruction, research, and service in the Environmental, Earth and Geospatial Sciences.
Education of the next generation of future leaders capable of applying scientific knowledge to societal problems, such as the sustainable use of natural resources, mitigation of natural hazards, and the impact of the human footprint on the environment, is closely aligned with the North Carolina Central University’s principal mission to "prepare students academically and professionally to become leaders capable to advance the consciousness of social responsibility in a diverse, global society." The vision of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Geospatial Sciences is to establish NCCU as a recognized regional, state and national resource for students and society as well as professionals who work in the many fields encompassed by the environmental, earth, and geospatial sciences.
The department is located in the Mary Townes Science Building (MTSB), along the west wing of the first floor and the east wing of the second floor. The department houses the following laboratories: a geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) laboratory, an environmental science laboratory and a geophysics laboratory.
Three labs have designated spaces for graduate student use; all graduate students also share two graduate student offices. There are designated rooms for storage, rock and mineral samples and a plotter. A seismology station monitoring equipment and servers are located in the Geophysics lab. All departments share classroom space in the MTSB, with the exception of one classroom that is dedicated to GIS and remote sensing instruction and is outside instruction time open to students working on geospatial projects.
The GIS/RS lab boasts of competent instructors capable of delivering instruction in a classroom or professional setting. In addition to instructor-led courses in GIS, global positioning system (GPS), and remote sensing, the GIS lab also acts as a conduit for online courses that are available at ESRI's virtual campus. The courses on the virtual campus range from beginning GIS courses to advanced application programming. Access to these courses is free for all faculty members and students at NCCU.
