Renewable Energy Gets a Degree!

"The Future is Renewable". 40+ years ago, "plastics" was the industry every college student's mom and dad could dream and hope that their son or daughter might enter. Today, renewable energy is a fast-growing industry that will call for many new workers in the future. And Illinois State University is doing something about it.

The University's Board of Trustees approved a new bachelor's degree in renewable energy, which will include a technical sequence and an economics and public policy sequence.

According to the university, the degree is a multi-disciplinary undergraduate major that provides a broad overview of renewable energy industries.

The degree will be administered by the Department of Technology, but will draw from existing courses in the Agriculture, Economics, Health Sciences, Geography-Geology, Mathematics Politics and Government and Physics departments. The program will add one new faculty position and 40 majors are anticipated to enroll by the fourth year of the program.

The program still needs the approval of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. If approved, the program will launch in the fall of 2008.

Support for the program will initially come from a U.S. Department of Energy grant, and department resources will be used for long-term program support.

Source: Illinois State University

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