In the Summer of 1985, Doug Dittman and I were both in our junior year in the Environmental Studies program. In addition, we both worked at the Kansas Biological Survey on the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Assessment project in one of those tiny trailers found on West Campus. It was that summer that we both realized that there was no group on campus that could provide environmental information to students. In addition, we both would be graduating in a year and needed to think about getting an environmental type job, something other than counting macroinvertebrates in a petri dish. I guess it might be the formaldehyde coupled with the insaneness brought on from looking through a stereoscope for 8 to 10 hours a day which lead Doug and I to create the idea of the Environmental Studies Student Association (ESSA).

Early in the fall of 1985, Doug and I announced that we were forming ESSA and tried to get as many Environmental Studies students as possible. Since we mentioned we would also be talking about environmental jobs, most of the students felt it might be worth while. The first big meeting of ESSA invited former KU Environmental Studies alum Ms. Betsy Roth of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to speak about environmental careers. This meeting was attended by approximately 35 students, including several graduate students, Dr. Steve Hamburg and the current Director of the Environmental Studies program - Dr. Jerry DeNoyelles. The meeting was held in the Kansas Union cafeteria and later moved to the Hawk's Crossing. Dr. Hamburg stated during the initial meeting that ESSA should not be linked to the Environmental Studies progarm.

After a couple more meetings as a groupd, Doug and I felt that the group had become more than a "Student Association," and that students from all disciplines should be encouraged to join the organization. Doug and I realized that Environmental Studies students could be any thing they wanted to be, but it is their heart driven passion to improve the world that is the common bond. In the Spring of 1986 the group became Environs. The name of the group and our mascot of the Belted Kingfisher were carefully selected and voted on by the group as being representative of our beliefs and values. There was no official motto, creed, of charter, but to summarize my beliefs of what Environs meant to me, I'd like to draw upon a memory of a heated discussion I had with several of my fellowstudents in Environs concerning acid rain policy. At the conclusion of the discussion, all of us were in agreement... "An interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues is critical. This argument is based upon the biological principle that "diversity imparts stability." This pragmatic approach forces all of us to recognize and realize that scientific, business, and political interests must be reconciled in order for good policy to emerge."