We are an intercollege, interdisciplinary group of faculty and students focused on studying pressing environmental issues that arise from interactions among natural systems, human infrastructure, and human activities.  Together, our faculty and students aim to understand and solve environmental issues in northeast Ohio, and in similar regions throughout the world.  The four colleges contributing to the Center for Research on the Urban Environment (CRUE) offer a variety of Masters degrees, each with a different foci but with some shared goals and curriculum; this interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to training students allows CRUE to develop environmental professionals with the diverse knowledge and skills required to work on complex environmental issues.  We are motivated by the recognition that no single academic discipline or organization has all the tools needed to address the overarching challenge of our time, which is to simultaneously and sustainably maintain biodiversity, ecosystem services, and socioeconomic development.