Restructuring files released

This post is now finished–which is not to claim that it is comprehensive or error-free. My goal was to help readers begin to digest what these changes will mean. If you spot major differences between these files and the previous iteration of the plan, or have any other comments, please drop me a line at dmj2@me.com.   –Dave J

At 8:30 pm on Friday, November 10, Vice Provost DiLalla sent me (Dave J, as FA President) the following Article 9 plans for the restructuring of the university into schools. The chancellor’s FAQ page has also been updated in recent days.

We are only starting to review these files, so these comments are provisional. We will of course be providing more commentary, and initiating more conversations with faculty, in coming days.

One campus-wide change is that while all departments would still be eliminated, they would now live on in a sort of afterlife as “divisions” within schools, and may themselves include several different programs. There is also more language about possible compensation for what would now be called “division coordinators” (which would, however, cut back on savings in administrative costs, though the proposals continue to insist on the estimate of $2.3 million). But the basic thrust of the plan remains, as in the administration’s view these “divisions” would not have autonomy over matters including operating papers, curriculum, fiscal matters, workload, or tenure. They would have a status similar to sub-sections within current departments.

Another change is that there appear to be no new programs in these proposals. However, there is language suggesting examples of new programs that may be added in the future in select areas of the university. I.e., the proposals signal the chancellor’s continued interest in investing in some areas of the university (and not in others). It is unclear whether the costs of new programs were ever factored into the supposed cost savings from the plan, but presumably they are out now.

Two quick observations. First, readers will note that most of the language in each individual file is identical to that in all other files. That is, there is no specific analysis or evidence in these files to show that these particular programs belong together; what we have are general statements, often repeated from the chancellor’s earlier speeches, about the virtues of synergy and collaboration. Second, because Article 9 requires citation of models for mergers, these plans include a section on models. But those sections of individual plans provides no model for a university adopting the college and school model in general, nor do they provide models for the individual schools in question or suggest parallels for the term “division.” That term is normally used, I believe, for units that include multiple disciplinary departments, not for disciplinary units of sub-departmental status. We are entering terra incognita.

Here are the various proposals for new schools, arranged under the new college structure. Major differences in the new location of departments & programs include the following:

• The School of Homeland Security is now in the renamed College of Social Sciences, Humanities, Media, and Arts rather than in the College of Engineering, Physical Science, and Applied Technology.
• Zoology has been moved from Sustainability to Biological Sciences (from Sustainability).
• Political Science has been moved from Social Science to Homeland Security.
• Agribusiness Economics has been (for the most part) moved to the School of Agricultural Sciences from the School of Accountancy and Finance.
• The programs in Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience will not be “housed” but “affiliated” with the School of Biological Sciences (whatever precisely that means), with current faculty retaining their tenure homes in the School of Medicine. Future hires in those areas may be in the new school rather than the School of Medicine.
• The Paralegal Studies Program and “programs in pre-law” are being moved from Social Sciences to Homeland Security. I do not believe we have any free-standing pre-law major, so it is not clear to me what this means, unless it means that all pre-law specializations in majors outside the boundaries of divisions in  Homeland Security would be abolished. That would include specializations in Agriculture and Philosophy; Political Science and Paralegal Studies (both inside of the new HS unit) also currently offer pre-law specializations.
• The Electronic Systems Technology program, which seems to have been left out of the previous plan, now appears in Homeland Security.
• While most of the new programs the chancellor had announced in the previous iteration are still mentioned vaguely as possible future proposals, separate from the current Article 9 files, the Police Academy has gone missing. Perhaps (this is speculation) the state of Illinois–or Western Illinois University, which has a highly regarded program in this area—objected.
• The programs in Recreation have been moved from Management & Marketing to the School of Health Sciences.
• A proposed new program in Gerontology & Rural Health in the School of Human Services is no longer mentioned (most previously proposed programs remain as “suggestions” or the like separate from these proposals).
• Africana Studies will now be retained in the renamed School of Social Science and Multicultural Studies.
• Linguistics, formerly placed with the humanities, will instead resided with Social Science and Multicultural Studies.
• The following minor and/or certificate programs will be housed in the school of Social Science and Multicultural Studies:

• Latino and Latin American Studies

  Native American Studies

  Peace Studies

  Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Program Change Proposal – School of Biological Sciences

Program Change Proposal – School of Agricultural Sciences

Program Change Proposal – School of Sustainability and Earth Science

College of Business & Analytics

Program Change Proposal – School Accountancy and Finance

Program Change Proposal – School of Management and Marketing

School of Education (freestanding)

Program Change Proposal – School of Education

College of Engineering, Physical Science and Applied Technology

Program Change Proposal – School of Computer and Physical Sciences 1.3

(The School of Engineering proposal has now been revised twice. On 11/11, Mining Engineering, originally left off, was restored; on 11/15 I was given a file that correctly named the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.) 

Program Change Proposal – School of Transportation and Applied Technolog…

Program Change Proposal – School of Computer and Physical Sciences

College of Health and Human Services

Program Change Proposal – School of Health Services

Program Change Proposal – School of Human Services

College of Social Sciences, Humanities, Media, and Arts

Program Change Proposal – School of Social Science and Multicultural Stu…

Program Change Proposal – School of Humanities

Program Change Proposal – School of Homeland Security

Program Change Proposal – School of Architecture Art and Design (revised)

(This Architecture, Art and Design file corrects a error in the first version, which had “Homeland Security” in place of “Architecture, Art and Design” at one spot.)  

Program Change Proposal – School of Media and Performing Arts