COUNCIL BLUFFS — The state Board of Regents granted UI officials permission to add two new programs — a bachelor of arts program in ethics and public policy and a bachelor of arts program in enivronmental sciences.

The ethics and public-policy program will provide a cross-disciplinary approach connecting the study of philosophy, economics, law, and sociology. The program is unique to the UI, with no other institutions in the state offering it.

The environmental-sciences program will provide students with a more flexible alternative to the existing bachelor of science program in environmental sciences.

The board also gave UI officials permission to terminate the bachelor of arts program in oral health science.

Admissions to graduate studies in German were suspended with regents’ approval as well. UI officials had already suspended admissions for the current year, after the program had generated only four applications this fall.

— by Shane Ersland