A College of Fine Arts department chairman has been named the associate provost of undergraduate education, a post that entails planning the new school-wide honors program that is supposed to replace the University Professors Program.

Musicology chairman Victor Coelho, who is also the music chairman in the College of Arts and Sciences, will work with deans to coordinate studies between the university’s colleges, according to a Sept. 5 internal email from Boston University Provost David Campbell.

Coelho will leave his two chairman positions as he assumes his new role, which involves developing the new honors program and the “core” curriculum program, as well as to examine interactions between undergraduate and graduate programs, the email states.

Coelho said many schools have similar positions to ensure someone is dedicated to working with undergraduate education.

“[In] an undergraduate curriculum . . . you can see a lot of opportunities for creativity and collaboration,” Coelho said, adding he plans to look into how departments work together and how students can move more easily between them by breaking down barriers and reopening communication.

“There are so [many] cross-cultural programs that are stuck because the programs tend to be quite descriptive,” he said. “They don’t offer a lot of freedom.”

By opening discussions across programs, Coelho said students will be able to bring the “aesthetics of one culture into another.”

Although he declined to reveal specifics about his plans for the honors program that will replace UNI , which was cut by President Robert Brown in August, his main goal is to not lose any of UNI’s values in the transition.

“UNI was a first-class program, and whatever happens, it has to move into another first-class program in all levels,” he said. “It’s all about making a smooth transition from [UNI] to a program that has the same ideals and ability to bring people from different fields into a kind of unit.”

“[The new position] fits in with the overall university’s strategic efforts,” said BU spokesman Colin Riley. “[Coelho] will be responsible for coordinating and enhancing all aspects of undergraduate education.”

Coelho said he sees a connection between music, especially from his specialty in the Renaissance, to almost everything in the world.

“The Renaissance is kind of a naturally curious world about other things and other cultures, so I have always looked at music in terms of cultural things,” he said.

In musical performance, Coelho said it is important to interpret pieces into modern times by using contemporary language, and it is equally important to apply this method to education.

“That kind of perspective is something that I bring to the job,” Coelho said. “Using education on the undergraduate level, using information about the past and the contemporary education. Let’s look at all the dynamics that are possible.”

He added, “Music is a very good field from which to go to this level of being the provost.”

Campbell did not respond to messages left at his office.