As many of you may already know, Dr. Danta is the Geography
Department Chair. As the department chair, he is very busy with
administrative duties and is currently teaching only one class,
Europe. However, throughout past years he has thought about twenty
different courses.

His original research interest was Eastern Europe. However, in the
past several years, his concentration has shifted towards the San
Fernando Valley as a place of research in both economics and
landscape. His graduate students have pursued research of anything
from cemeteries in Los Angeles County, to fire ecology, to examining
a single building on the CSUN campus. When asked what he loves about
teaching geography he answered: All the great students I get to meet
through the interviews from Geography 300 class (this is a
paraphrase).

As for the job market available for Geography students, Dr. Danta
suggests that currently the main occupations are in environmental
consulting and GIS. However, he believes that with the new
administration there will be more need for green technology and green
systems, and anything dealing with clean energy production. In his
opinion, by 2012 (which is the next, next administration), the
emphasis will shift to water resources. He suggests students study
water resources and water conservation. He says that geographers know
how to look at maps, interpret them, and plan for the future.
Geographers put everything together, where as hydrologists, or other
specialists, only look at one part of the problem. He suggests
students take any of the related classes with Dr. Dark, Dr. Cox, Dr.
Orme, Dr. Haze, etc.

In his free time, Dr. Danta likes traveling (he adds: "of course"),
mountaineering and rock climbing, which he indicates are two
different things. I asked him if he will have a seminar on wilderness
navigation, and he said he would if he is asked. He is already doing
that for the Sierra Club. So let us all ask Dr. Danta for a
wilderness navigation seminar next semester, it should be fun and
educational.