Last Friday, the Board of Trustees for UA system made the first step toward adding two new degree programs to the College of Engineering by approving the “Notifications of Intent to Submit a Proposal” to develop two new Bachelor of Science degrees.

The College of Engineering is proposing the addition of degree programs in architectural and environmental engineering.

Joe Benson, interim provost, said Friday’s approval is the first step in the process.

“The next step is preparation of a full proposal, which will be submitted to the Board of Trustees and, if approved, forwarded to Alabama Commission on Higher Education. This will be reviewed at ACHE, and comments will be solicited from other institutions in the state. The ACHE staff will then make a recommendation to the commission, which will vote on approval,” Benson said.

The University intends have both degrees available beginning fall 2014.

Kenneth Fridley, the Department Head of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, explained the idea for the new degree plans was proposed a year ago.

“The faculty considered these both about a year ago,” Fridley said. “We did our work on determining whether it was something that was viable for us. We did our research in terms of other programs that are similar to the ones we proposed, and we actually presented that to the provost during the spring and then got approval to put it on the Board of Trustees’ agenda.”

The goal is to have all of the approvals in place in time to start recruiting the incoming freshman class of 2014 next spring.

Both degree programs will pull from classes already available in the College of Engineering. The college currently offers minors in both architectural and environmental engineering, but Fridley said the creation of the two degrees will help students to specialize their skill set and prepare them for unique career opportunities in specific fields upon graduation.

“We already have minors in both of these fields. They are very popular. For us to have a high-quality and accredited program, there is only one course that we [will] need to add,” Fridley said.

The necessary course will be a specialized class for environmental engineering.

Once approved, these degree programs will be the only ones of their kind offered in the state, Fridley said. There are currently more than 50 environmental engineering programs offered throughout the nation but only 17 architectural engineering programs. Assuming approval, University will become the 18th school to offer the program in the U.S.

“We see that as being kind of a national splash for us,” Fridley said.

He added that the formal proposal is to be submitted to the Board of Trustees when they meet in September.