Illinois State University Approves Renewable Energy Degree Program
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO 
on 05.16.07
Following in the footsteps of schools ranging from Arizona State to Canton College, Illinois State University's Board of Trustees approved a new bachelor's degree program in renewable energy. If given the green light by the state's Board of Higher Education Approval, the program would become the first of its kind in Illinois.
According to Moline's WQAD, the program contains two tracks: a student can major in the technical side of renewable energy generation, or study the economics, law and policy of clean power. Additionally, s/he can choose concentrations in Wind or Ethanol -- not surprising in corn country!
ISU's press release also notes that the program will be multidisciplinary in nature:
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.When designing the program, faculty and administrators included a panel of renewable energy industry representatives in the process to insure that graduates will be ready to go to work. We're guessing that, with the recent surge of interest in renewables, they won't have much trouble finding those first jobs. ::WQAD.com and Illinois State University
Photo Credit: Mendota Hills Wind Farm and NREL/DOE
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A bachelor's degree program in renewable energy is precisely what our universities need. because I believe that renewable energy will be the greatest industry to develop this century. Upper level education and training are required for personnal to enter into this growing industry..
adrianakau@aol.com
What other schools in the US offer Renewable Energy Degree Programs?
Most large scale renewable energy projects are broken up into task specific disciplines. Chemical, mechanical, electrical engineering, etc. I don't see what specific skill set this degree provides that would be useful to anyone in industry, other than a supplementary skill to a management position.
This is great to see. As someone frequently mocked for my "dirty hippy" and "disease is worse than the cure" renewable energy views, it's nice to know that generations that come after me will be more versed in this stuff.
If I could quit my lucrative career and study this, I would. For now, I'm going to focus on building an off-grid home and realize my long-term dream to live independent of our crappy infrastructure.
I am very excited for this program and plan on attending ISU and joining this program in the fall of '08. We'll see how it goes!
I've heard a lot about this program, and consider such a solution is great. It's the time to develop new technologies.
Not easy to find universities offering graduate programs energy policies. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!