April 17, 2000

The Board of Trustees Tuesday approved two new bachelor of science degrees, one in biomedical engineering, and the other in engineering physics. Both degrees would be jointly offered by the School of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The B.S. in biomedical engineering responds to "the growing commercial sectors that combine the fields of engineering and biology," said Fred J. Maryanski, interim chancellor.

The B.S. degree in engineering physics will be an interdisciplinary program with a strong foundation in physical science and engineering.

Both programs must be approved by the state Board of Governors for Higher Education.

The trustees also said they will agree to a tuition freeze for 2000-2001 provided that the Legislature approves the freeze and provides, as it has for the past few years, funding equivalent to the tuition that would have been collected. If the freeze is not approved by the Legislature, tuition will rise three percent.

In other business, the trustees voted to name the new visitors' center, which will open in September, The Philip and Christine Lodewick Visitors Center, and to name a new theater with a thrust stage to be built in the Fine Arts Center the Nafe Katter Theatre. The trustees also approved names for several rooms in the School of Business Building currently under construction: The Denis M. McCarthy Finance Conference Room; the Ted Rosenberg and Mary McVay Classroom; Jonathan and Beverly Schofield Student Leadership Center; Louis H. Ulizio, Jr. Student Breakout Room; and the Handler Family Accounting Faculty Office. The names are those of donors to the business school.

The trustees also approved name changes for the Division of Extended and Continuing Education, now to be called the College of Continuing Studies; the classics major, which will now be known as "Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies"; the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering within the School of Engineering, to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the Department of Sport, Leisure and Exercise Sciences within the Neag School of Education to the Department of Kinesiology.

Karen A. Grava