Illinois State University Approves New Renewable Energy Undergraduate Degree

The Board of Trustees at Illinois State University approved a new undergraduate renewable energy degree this month. The multi-disciplinary bachelor’s degree will provides a broad overview of renewable energy industries.

The new degree will include a technical sequence as well as an economics and public policy sequence. 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 University recognizes that renewable energy is a fast-growing industry that will call for many new workers in the future.

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.

This is excellent! I wish I had had this kind of program at my university during my undergraduate studies. This is the first undergraduate degree of this kind I know of. If others are aware of other undergraduate renewable energy degrees at other universities or colleges, please mention them in the comments section.

This kind of degree should be offered all over the country. We need to be training many of our brightest young minds to tackle the challenges ahead on the road to a sustainable energy future.

And according to this Grist article, colleges and universities would be smart to start offering more energy-focused courses. Enrollment in energy classes is “off the charts” at UC Berkeley, Grist reports, and more and more students are reporting that they plan to enter the renewable energy field after graduation.

Just another sign that young people grasp the scope of the challenges and opportunities ahead in the efforts to fight global warming, end our addiction to fossil fuels and transition to a sustainable energy future!

[Jesse graduated last year from the University of Oregon, having taken every upper-division energy-focused course offered at the campus - all one of them!]

About Jesse

Jesse is a graduate of the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon (Class of 2006). While at the U of O, Jesse worked on a number of campus sustainability initiatives, including helping kick-start the Campus Climate Challenge at the UO and starting an initiative to bring clean wind power to UO dorm students. Jesse is currently the co-director of the Breakthrough Generation fellowship program at the Oakland, CA-based Breakthrough Institute (check out the Breakthrough Generation blog here). Before joining Breakthrough, Jesse spent two years as a renewable energy policy analyst and advocate with the Renewable Northwest Project, a Portland, OR-based non-profit promoting renewable energy development in the Pacific Northwest. Jesse is still an active youth climate activist and helped found the Cascade Climate Network, the first ever, region-wide effort by Northwest youth to launch a coordinated campaign for climate solutions and a sustainable, just, and prosperous future in 2007. Jesse is also a veteran blogger, having maintained the energy and climate change news and commentary blog, WattHead for the past two and a half years.

3 Responses to “Illinois State University Approves New Renewable Energy Undergraduate Degree”

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1 R Margolis May 23rd, 2007 at 11:50 pm

Sounds like they are off to a good start. Especially having it through the Technology Dept will give it gravitas with other sectors outside the college.
2 Ayman Qutaifan Nov 26th, 2007 at 7:07 pm

Believing in the future of the renewable energy for the good for us and our coming generations
I like to know about any study on that field and I like truly to join that so please give me any program about it
And how can I get major on this subject