Geology Deparment is a small department in the college. The department once had four faculty members and more than 20 students in 1970's. It declined to two faculty and a dozen of students since 1980. In 1999, Dr. Van Horn joined the department. He took charge of the geography courses and also participated in the new Environmental Science program. The student body expanded a little in 1990's, but remained to be one of the smallest department in the college. The faculty to student ratio is always less than 1:5 in the history of the department.

In 2005, Dr. Van Horn is tenured and Dr. Kovach formally retired after 30+ years of service. Dr. Judge joined the department in the fall to teach sedimentology, paleontology and earth history.

Even the deparment is small, but it is one of the most academic productive department in the college. One goal of the department is to let "every" student have at least one experience to read his/her research work in the Geological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting. Click this link to view student research work read in GSA meetings during the past decade.