Q&A with Provost Robert Grey Editor's Note: Dateline staff writer Sylvia Wright talked this week with Provost Robert Grey about his hopes for the new Graduate School of the Environment. Q: Why does UC Davis need this new school? A: Environmental science and policy are important in their own right, and our campus is a powerhouse in this field. But two things are missing for us to achieve our full potential. One, we need more effective internal coordination of resources, graduate curriculum and administration of graduate programs in the environment. Two, we need greater external visibility for our programs and our faculty. In contrast to a graduate group, a school is both visible and understandable to prospective students, policy-makers, foundations, etc. That visibility is worth a lot in helping the faculty and programs at Davis gain the recognition that they are due. Q: Is there a model at Davis or another campus? A: There are a few schools of the environment. But we're breaking new ground with the concept of a "school without walls." The graduate group is the closest model. And like a graduate group, the proposed new graduate school will have faculty from nearly all colleges and schools. Study of the environment is truly an interdisciplinary endeavor. Interdisciplinary research has become extremely important and it's timely for universities to think about a natural organizational evolution that will better support interdisciplinary activities. Q: At the town-hall meetings, some faculty urged you to include undergraduate curriculum in the new school. But it is not recommended in the current proposal. Why? A: I think it's a more natural evolutionary step to keep the school focused on the graduate level because it builds upon the graduate group model with which we are familiar. Q: What happens next? A: The committee that Dennis Rolston heads will take the current prototype of a plan for the school to the full "working drawing" stage of design. Then it goes for review to the Academic Senate and regents. In the end, the Graduate School of the Environment has to add value to the existing colleges and schools and to the campus. I believe it can pass that test.