Starting next fall, Ferris stu­dents will have five new degree pro­grams to choose from.

Four of these pro­grams, energy sys­tems engi­neer­ing, mol­e­c­u­lar diag­nos­tics, allied health and fash­ion stud­ies will be bach­e­lors pro­grams, while dietary food ser­vice man­age­ment will be an asso­ciate program.

An entrance to Parsons New School in New York where Kendall College of Art and Design stu­dents study­ing the new major in fash­ion stud­ies will spend their final year. Photo by Dan Hamilton | News Editor

The fash­ion stud­ies pro­gram, which will be based out of Ferris’ Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, will include three years of study on cam­pus, with the fourth year study­ing in New York at Parsons New School for Design, the home of the pop­u­lar tele­vi­sion show Project Runway.

“They [stu­dents] will be exposed to fash­ion design experts who will teach them how fash­ion is cre­ated, branded and sold and, in the process, develop a net­work of con­nec­tions within the fash­ion world,” said Kendall President Oliver Evans.

The pro­gram will use almost all cur­rent Kendall resources, with the excep­tion of a new pro­gram chair that will be hired on.

Caitlin Reid, a Ferris senior in restau­rant and food indus­try man­age­ment, said that she knows some­one who stud­ied fash­ion at Grand Rapids Community College for two years, later trans­fer­ring to Columbia College in Chicago, and sav­ing her money.

“That would be great for stu­dents going into it …they get to go to a highly thought of fash­ion school as well. It’s cheaper in the long run because those schools are expen­sive if you go for all four years,” said Reid.

The four other approved pro­grams will be located on the main cam­pus in Big Rapids.

Provost Fritz Erickson is par­tic­u­larly excited about the energy sys­tems engi­neer­ing degree.

“The launch of this new degree pro­gram will sig­nif­i­cantly impact career oppor­tu­ni­ties for our grad­u­ates who will meet a global need for engi­neers who can develop and imple­ment alternative/renewable ener­gies and energy effi­ciency related tech­nolo­gies in build­ings and prod­ucts,” said Erickson.

The asso­ciate pro­gram in dietary food ser­vice man­age­ment will be inter­dis­ci­pli­nary, in that both the col­lege of busi­ness and col­lege of allied health devel­oped the courses. The pur­pose of the pro­gram is to train stu­dents with skills to run a sus­tain­able care facil­ity as well as pro­vide patient ser­vices. The lat­ter of these, how­ever, will be under the super­vi­sion of a reg­is­tered dietician.

The mol­e­c­u­lar diag­nos­tics pro­gram will also be the first of its kind in Michigan. Graduates will most likely go into the field of genet­ics testing.

While the new degrees rep­re­sent unique and grow­ing fields, the Ferris Board of Trustees also voted to end the Bachelor of Science in Management degree due to its sim­i­lar­ity to the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree.