Ellington

The UW Board of Regents granted authority to the UW’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) to offer the Master of Sustainable Transportation online degree program. The regents unanimously approved the 42-credit degree yesterday.

Regent Joanne Harrell said she was impressed with the work the CEE department has done.

“You have integrated, in your planning, both online and what I will call offline [components],” she said. “I thought it was quite innovative that you built that in, in the beginning.”

CEE graduate faculty began developing this professional program in March 2010 after realizing the increasing need for sustainable transportation around the globe, evidenced by issues such as the State Route 520 floating bridge around the globe. The master’s degree will provide courses for students to learn how to collaborate with multiple disciplines, such as engineering and policy planning.

Scott Rutherford, CEE professor, said that the lack of effective communication between professions has led to a barrier in increasing sustainable transportation.

“It’s been a frustrating 30 years watching transportation projects not go forward, and some of the reasons they don’t go forward is because professionals can’t talk to each other very well,” Rutherford said. “This program is serving a broad range of people in a multidisciplinary fashion, with multidisciplinary faculty, to get them talking to each other better and to understand the issues across disciplines.”

Because the program will be online, students accepted to CEE will complete the credits by using software that enables class participation. Rutherford said the classes will alternate between recorded lectures and live-classroom experiences and added that this online setup will allow for flexible schedules, as most of the students that will pursue the program will be working professionals.

“It’s really a gratifying experience for me,” Rutherford said. “It is as close to the classroom as I’ve seen anything like this get.”

According to the Board’s agenda, the CEE department anticipates awarding 18 master’s degrees per academic year.

The program will be offered to UW students and individuals not enrolled at the university through the UW Educational Outreach (UWEO) program, which is a program that partners with the UW to create classes, programs, certificates and degrees that can be completed online or during weekends and evenings. The UWEO currently offers 35 master’s programs in topics ranging from applied mathematics to aerospace engineering.

“The degree program will have provisional status with a review to be scheduled in the 2016–17 academic year,” according to the board’s agenda.

Depending on the outcome of the review, the program may be granted continuing status for a 10-year review plan or be altered to accommodate recommended changes.

Reach contributing writer Lindsie Rowe and reporter Daron Anderson at news@dailyuw.com.