Indiana State University Expands Environmental Science Program With New Field Station

Indiana State University, based in Terre Haute, has added a new field research station along the Wabash River, expanding the amount of hands-on fieldwork students in its environmental science program can conduct studying river water quality and riparian ecosystems.

The station, funded through a combination of state capital funds and a private donation from a western Indiana foundation, gives students year-round access to water sampling equipment and expanded lab space directly on the riverbank, replacing a much smaller and aging field site that had been in use for more than two decades.

"Being on the water is not an add-on to what we teach here, it's the core of the program," said the chair of Indiana State's earth and environmental systems department. "Every student in our program spends real time collecting their own data on the Wabash, and the old site was becoming a genuine limitation on how much of that we could do."

The university's environmental science program has grown steadily in recent years as interest in Midwestern river restoration work has increased among students pursuing careers in environmental policy and conservation. Faculty said the new field station will allow the program to run two full research sections simultaneously rather than rotating single groups through limited site access.

Indiana State University, a public university with an enrollment of roughly 10,000 students, has built a regional reputation for its environmental science offerings, drawing partly on its location directly along the Wabash River in Terre Haute.