Students at Penn State's Dickinson School of Law will soon have the opportunity to tackle world issues with the establishment of the School of International Affairs.

The Penn State Board of Trustees unanimously approved the school's creation at its meeting on Friday.

"I'm very excited about that," Penn State President Graham Spanier said. "It will be one of our most significant academic initiatives in 2007."

Cynthia Baldwin, former Board of Trustees chairwoman, said the school will "distinguish us from all other law schools" at the groundbreaking for the Dickinson School of Law's new building at University Park.

"This is something that is not common but it is something that is increasingly required in the global economy and the world we live in today," Annemarie Mountz, Penn State spokeswoman, said. "There has been quite a bit of demand for such a curriculum."

Details of the program are still being solidified. However, according to a letter from Spanier to the Board of Trustees about a year ago, possible areas of study within the school could include diplomacy and conflict resolution, trade and commercial relations, public health and environmental policy, international institutions and transnational governance, and international nonprofit management.

The proposal to create the new school was prepared by a Penn State strategic planning committee whose members were chosen from several academic colleges.

Though Kelly Jones, Dickinson School of Law spokeswoman, said the School of International Affairs is in the "early stages" of planning, students are expected to begin enrolling in its programs by 2008.

According to a press release, the school will offer a professional master's degree in international affairs with several specialty concentrations and will host study-abroad opportunities.

The details of the courses and curriculum will be worked out in the next couple of years and will follow the same procedures that were taken to form the school of Information Sciences and Technology (IST).

"Similar to when we started up the school of Information Sciences and Technology, the startup process will go slow and then build," Mountz said. "Just as with IST, the first faculty that will teach courses are faculty that are already a part of Penn State that maybe have concentrations in international affairs topics."

Mountz also said the majority of the first international affairs students will be students already enrolled at Penn State.

The school will be a part of the creation of a two-campus law school between the new facilities at University Park, and Carlisle's Trickett Hall. University Park's Lewis Katz Building, expected to be finished in 2009, will house the school.

Whether different international affairs programs will be offered at each campus has yet to be decided, Mountz said.

"I know administratively it is being housed within the administration of the Dickinson School of Law," Mountz said. There are functions of an administration that did not need duplication, so those are being combined. Where will classes physically be held? We don't know that yet."