Spring 2027

US Environmental Policy and Regulation

Surveys American environmental policy and regulation, focusing on specific statutes, policy arenas, and primary-source case material to examine legal/regulatory structures and geographic/social contexts.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Morgan Robertson3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson

The class requires a heavy time commitment for reading and assignments, with outcomes depending significantly on the effort students invest.

What you’ll be able to do

  • dentify the spectrum of major U.S. environmental regulations, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, CERCLA, and regulations involving environmental justice, climate change, and market environmentalism.

  • Discuss the specialized language of environmental policy and regulation.

  • Identify, through current case material, how these policies manifest in our daily interactions with the environment and government.

  • Describe the social and environmental background to each policy debate using critical and geographic viewpoints often adopted by social scientists.

  • Write long-form reports synthesizing regulatory issues with reportage on a major environmental policy issue.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ENVIRST/GEOG 439 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.70/5 from 27 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.0/5 raw quality · 2.8/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson

Morgan Robertson’s course was described as fascinating and intellectually demanding, with one student noting that the heavy workload came from extensive reading and assignments. However, another student criticized the course for using outdated slides and readings, assigning busywork, and finding the instructor difficult to reach outside of class.

Earlier reviews highlighted Morgan Robertson’s engaging lectures and supportive teaching style, noting that he was flexible with deadlines and allowed students to redo assignments if they were dissatisfied with their grades.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.39 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.77 GPA, 85.4% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 96.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MORGAN ROBERTSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 450
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 450

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson

Morgan Robertson delivers interesting lectures and is knowledgeable, making the course content fascinating for students who engage deeply with the material.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.39 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.77 GPA, 85.4% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 96.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson

The class requires a heavy time commitment for reading and assignments, with outcomes depending significantly on the effort students invest.

Past student reviews · Morgan Robertson

Students found the professor hard to reach outside of class and criticized the use of outdated slides and readings, as well as assignments that felt like busywork.

Topics

  • American environmental policy and specific statutes
  • Legal and regulatory aspects of environmental regulation
  • Geographic and social features of environmental cases
  • Primary-source case material for environmental decision-making

Skills

  • Identify major U.S. environmental regulations including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, CERCLA, and policies on environmental justice, climate change, and market environmentalism.
  • Discuss the specialized language of environmental policy and regulation.
  • Identify how environmental policies manifest in daily interactions with the environment and government using current case material.
  • Describe the social and environmental background to policy debates using critical and geographic viewpoints.
  • Write long-form reports synthesizing regulatory issues with reportage on a major environmental policy issue.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
ENVIRST/GEOG 439 · Spring 2027

US Environmental Policy and Regulation

Recorded 2026-10-14
ENVIRST/GEOG 439 · Spring 2027

US Environmental Policy and Regulation

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:360:024147",
    "course_id": "ENVIRST/GEOG 439",
    "course_uid": "course_226f14e105fdacbb4d0f59c9",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024147",
    "source_subject_id": "360",
    "title": "US Environmental Policy and Regulation",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:416:024147",
    "course_id": "ENVIRST/GEOG 439",
    "course_uid": "course_226f14e105fdacbb4d0f59c9",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024147",
    "source_subject_id": "416",
    "title": "US Environmental Policy and Regulation",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "d74ddfa494d3f4c7f6d188e5f88adaee5e10a059922413b40c75dd159747486a",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}