Two New Jersey universities are shaping special curricula to appeal to students with a serious interest in the environment.

Future engineers at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken will soon be able to take an environmental minor which is being designed to help them learn how electrical, chemical or mechanical engineers do their work to improve the environment as they develop or manufacture products or build electrical systems.

Monmouth University offers a bachelor of science degree in marine and environmental biology and policy. Students in this area of study focus on how the urban environment interacts with a coastal area and the public policies that develop or that are needed from that interaction. In conjunction with the new undergraduate degree, the university has established the Urban Coast Institute to conduct research and study the interaction of the coastal environment and tidal waters in an urban setting.

You can read more about these alternative educational offerings and others–including computer gaming and training for the casino industry–in Schools offer non-traditional majors which appeared in today’s Bergen Record.