The state College Board will consider in February adding a bachelor’s degree program in building construction science at Mississippi State University and a master’s degree in criminal justice and social work at the University of Mississippi.MSU provost Peter Rabideau said the board wants to make sure there are not similar programs at other universities.
“Distinction needs to be made between duplicative programs and unnecessary duplication,” he said. “Mississippi universities tend to have duplicative programs.”
According to the College Board’s agenda book, the building construction science program is designed to prepare graduates for careers in construction or construction-related fields by providing an interdisciplinary knowledge of architecture, business, engineering and construction science.
“The program will train students who will play leadership roles in construction,” Rabideau said.
The program, if approved, will be headed by Jim West, dean of architecture.
“It focuses on the management side of commercial construction: the bidding, marketing and understanding how a building goes together, like the construction on campus,” West said.
Although the University of Southern Mississippi offers a program in building construction science, it mainly focuses on the technology and does not teach architecture or engineering.
“USM has a great program, but technology doesn’t license engineering and architecture,” he said. “The graduates usually do drawings and prepare documents. Our program will compliment Southern’s program.”
There are about a dozen schools in the country with similar majors that focus on architecture, business and engineering, West said.
In order to develop the program, thorough reviews of the curriculums at Auburn University, Texas A&M, Purdue University and University of Florida were conducted and used as guides, he said.
“Our curriculum is unique because it is based on studio classes like in architecture for three of the four years,” West said.
He added that the problem-based learning environment combines subject courses and puts more specializations together.
Annie Mitchell, director of media relations for the state College Board, said the proposals will be reviewed at February’s meeting, and if approved, MSU will know within a couple of days. If it is approved, West said he hopes to admit students into the 124-credit-hour program as soon as fall 2007.
“The provost will make that decision, though there are no freshman classes that are unique,” he said.