Though the University Council’s Curriculum Committee voted in December to add new engineering majors, it may still be “a couple years down the road,” said the committee’s chair.

“I think it’s going to take awhile because a lot of this involves money,” David Shipley, chair of the Curriculum Committee, said in a phone interview Friday. “With the current economy it’s going to take awhile. We’re looking at a couple years down the road.”

The Curriculum Committee approved the addition of civil, electrical and mechanical engineering majors at a Dec. 5 meeting. Shipley said the next step is for the proposal to be considered by the Executive Committee on Jan. 20, and will then go to the University Council on Feb. 5 if approved.

The proposal must also be approved by the Board of Regents before the majors can be added.

“This is a pretty big step for the University,” Shipley said.

If the majors are approved there may be duplication in course offerings at the University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

“I don’t think it will negatively impact [Georgia Tech],” Shipley said. “I think the state is large enough and populous enough to handle a couple of excellent engineering programs that might duplicate.”

Andy Smith, senior vice provost for academic affairs at Georgia Tech, said his concern with creating the new program is that Georgia Tech is already graduating thousands of engineers each year.

“I think what would have to be determined is why Georgia Tech is not supplying the engineers the state needs,” Smith said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Georgia Tech graduated 1,500 undergraduate, 750 masters and approximately 340 doctorate students in 2007, he said.

“I would wonder why we need to have more engineering programs with that number of engineers being graduated,” Smith said. “I think we do a pretty good job of serving the state in terms of making sure all qualified students who want to major in engineering can do so.”

Georgia Tech students have differing opinions on their in-state rival offering the same majors.

“I think it’s a good thing that UGA will get engineering majors, seeing as one of the major problems in the United States right now is the lack of engineers,” Chase Bradley, a senior computer science major at Georgia Tech said. “However, I don’t think Georgia Tech is really too concerned with it.”

“It would be as if Georgia Tech was getting a law school. The only way UGA would be affected was if Georgia Tech’s law school started attracting people looking for an easier alternative,” he said.

Benjamin Turner, a junior mechanical engineering major at Georgia Tech, said the new majors are good for his school.

“It’ll suck away the bottom 20 percent of engineering students from Georgia Tech,” he said. “And it will raise the bar here.”
The main issue is how the University will pay for the majors, Shipley said.

“We have a great [engineering] faculty, but might not have the right faculty to teach electrical engineering or mechanical engineering,” Shipley said.

The University offers 10 engineering degree programs. The focus areas include agricultural, biochemical, biological, computer systems and environmental engineering.

Georgia Tech offers 82 engineering programs.

“I can’t see this harming what Tech does,” he said. “I imagine there will be opposition down the road, but that will be awhile.”