Two unique public-health degrees will come to campus soon.

The new undergraduate program in public health was discussed at the University of Iowa Staff Council on Wednesday.

The degrees will be available during the fall 2016 semester as a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science. The B.A. will focus more on social science, and the B.S. will focus more on natural science and mathematics.

Maggie Chorazy, director of undergraduate programs in the UI College of Public Health, presented the new program.

“This is the first time this college has offered a degree to undergraduates,” Chorazy said.

Officials are starting to recruit potential students. However, the program will only take direct admits from high schools. No current University of Iowa students or community-college students will be able to join the program.

Chorazy said this was done with the intent to see how things would work in the first few years of the programs’ existence.

“We are developing our curriculum from the ground up,” Chorazy said.

She noted that graduates could go on to get master’s degrees in public health, and there is a market for graduates with public-health bachelor degrees.

The number of students in the first year will also be very limited as the program continues to progress. Chorazy said that the size will be only 25 majors for the first year, but the hope is to expand by 125 majors per year until it hits around 500.

“We anticipate it will be around 60 credit hours, that would allow for completing gen eds, certificates, and double majors,” Chorazy said.

The Faculty Council also heard a presentation by Teri Schnelle, coordinator for student life assessment and initiatives in the Office of the Vice President for Student Life, regarding the upcoming Speak Out Iowa survey.

The survey will be a completely anonymous voluntary survey geared at gathering information about students’ perceptions about sexual misconduct at the UI. The data will become public in the spring.

“The results will help us figure out how we move forward,” Schnelle said.

Information will be pieced together separately, and participants will not be identified.

Eric Holthaus, the UI sustainability coordinator, gave a presentation to the council on recycling initiatives.

“We want folks on campus to care about sustainability,” Holthaus said.

He also spoke about how the UI is looking to obtain 60 percent waste diversion — the process of moving waste away from landfills — by 2020. He said too much of what people at the UI throw in the garbage should actually wind up in other places. He said only about 24 percent of waste should go to landfills.

He said trashcans and recycling bins should always be paired.