Robert Redford creates ecology program with California college

TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 09: Director Robert Redford arrives at "The Company You Keep" Premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images) / Jason Merritt

A California college has teamed up with Robert Redford to create a program where students can combine environmental studies with media and liberal arts.

Pitzer College, one of the seven Claremont Colleges, is creating the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability with a $10 million gift from Nicholas and Susan Pritzker, parents of a Pitzer graduate who support environmental causes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Redford is a trustee of the college and serves as its special adviser on the environment.

"As long as there is an inch of possibility [for conservation efforts] then I think we have to give it everything we have to do something about it," he said during a news conference Monday.

The program's aim is to create environmental communicators and advocates. Its centerpiece will be a 12-acre coastal sage scrub ecosystem, an endangered habitat where students can study problems and come up with solutions.