A commitment to sustainable energy has brought solar panels and new opportunities for students to Creighton, said Dr. Michael Cherney of the Creighton Physics department.

Through the efforts of the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J.; Lennis Pederson, facilities management and planning administrator; Fred Salzinger, of the health sciences office; and others, Creighton has received more than $2 million in grants. Cherney said the grants support training programs, research and a demonstration facility for sustainable energy. The Omaha Public Power District has also been an enthusiastic partner, Cherney said.

“It has really become about the community as well as Creighton,” Cherney said. “It is more than just a showcase for Creighton University.”

OPPD can use the facilities to show what sustainable energy can do and all the different ways it can be used, said Cherney. Metropolitan Community College also uses the facilities to teach an installation class. Cherney said that the project has become about being a green campus and a commitment to collaborative learning with other schools. There are plans to include the Peter Kiewit Foundation at University of Nebraska at Omaha in the future.

“All the solar panels you see along Burt Street will be maintained by students. Everything can be taken apart and replaced by students in the classes. It truly is an outdoor classroom,” Cherney said.

In 2011 there will be a new Bachelor of Science and new Bachelor of Arts degrees available in ‘New Technology Energy’. The degrees are still being created, but the professors involved in the process agree the curriculum will be very hands on.

“The hallmarks of the program will be the focus on projects, the multidisciplinary approach and how closely the students will work with both their peers and faculty,” said Dr. Jack Gabel, also of the Physics Department. “The program really will be on the cutting edge of technology. This truly is something that will be very unique to Creighton.”

Gabel and Cherney both emphasized how well the program will integrate with Creighton’s Jesuit education system and set of values. Gabel

said students will not only learn the technology, but they will also confront the ethical issues and the social issues of sustainability head on.

“When we sat down and started writing the degrees we realized how closely they fitted into the Jesuit values and education goals,” Cherney said. “The program will really be aware of the student as an individual.”

The students will have a chance to really be in an integrated learning environment that collaborates with the outside community. Cherney said the classes will be taught by many different people, all experts in their area of study. The idea is to expose the students to people outside the Creighton community, so when they go out into the working world they already know what is out there, Cherney said.

Everyone involved in the project has high hopes for what is to come, Gabel said. They already have plans to build four new labs on Creighton’s campus, along 20th Street. The new labs would include an electronics lab for electronically testing; a material science lab for experimenting with solid-state matter; a computer module lab; and a rapid testing and prototype lab.

The labs would allow students to really look at every aspect of sustainable energy. Gabel said it is feasible that students would be able to become innovators and test new prototypes and maybe even market them. Gabel admitted it might not happen for a long time, but in the future it is definitely possible. Clean energy is an issue that will be prevalent and ever changing for a long time, Gabel said.

“It isn’t just a passing fad,” Gabel said. “People are seeing that it’s an ever person issue.”

The labs, panels and the program have a lot of potential for growth, Gabel said. Right now the panels are generating only about 4 percent of the campus’ energy needs. Gabel said that hopefully in the future that number will increase.

“In the 20 years I have been here I have not been as excited about anything as this. It’s really in line with the Jesuit values, the students’ needs and the topic area,” Cherney said.