Moratorium lifted, opens window for new degrees
New majors can now be added to Utah colleges and universities because a moratorium on new programs has been lifted by the Utah Board of Regents.
Any state institution must have all degree programs approved by the Utah Board of Regents, Sydney Peterson, assistant provost at Utah State University said.
“They [students] thought someone here on campus was blocking it, that wasn’t the case at all,” Don Fiesinger, dean of the College of Science, said.
“I think our highest priority is to get that BS [bachelor of science] in biochemistry. We have a lot of students quite interested in that major,” Fiesinger said.
Right now students may have an interest in a particular topic but cannot get the major they need for it, Fiesinger said.
There has been a lot of research and employment opportunities in biotechnology, Fiesinger said, and a degree in biotechonolgy will also have bearing on graduate school opportunities for students.
Some degrees were in the final processes to be added when the moratorium was put in place, he said, delaying program development.
“The chief academic officers felt it [the moratorium] was preventing them from moving some of the really good programs, so they made the recommendation to lift it,” Peterson said.
During the two years the moratorium was in place, the Board of Regents strengthened the review process for new programs and now feels comfortable lifting the it, Peterson said.
There are currently five different programs under development that were affected by the moratorium at USU – a doctoral program in business with specialization’s in accounting, business information systems, management, marketing and operations management, a master’s and doctoral program in aerospace engineering a bachelor’s of science in biochemistry a bachelor’s of science and master’s in applied environmental geoscience and a doctoral program in geology, Peterson said.
Three of those degrees were in the College of Science, Fiesinger said.
“It’s certainly frustrating, but we also understand what was going on there with the Board of Regents,” Fiesinger said.
The Utah Board of Regent’s governs Utah’s system of higher education. The board oversees, among other things, the establishment of policies and procedures, budget and finance, proposals for legislation and develops relationships with the government, as said on the Utah Board of Regents Web site.
There were some concerns about adding new degrees to various student colleges and universities when the state was in such a tough financial environment and situation, Fiesinger said.
The big concern is that if everyone rushes down with a whole bunch of degree proposals, there will not be enough funds to accommodate them, Fiesinger said.
“They’re still very concerned about adding degrees where there isn’t adequate support financially,” Fiesinger said. “They [the board] do a pre-review before they get the full proposal.”
-amysueh@cc.usu.edu