The University is creating a college encompassing six of its current schools and departments, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jack Hamilton revealed earlier today.
The College of Education, the School of Social Work, the School of Library and Information Science, the School of Human Resource Education and Workforce Development, the kinesiology program and the College of Education and College of Agriculture’s joint Early Childhood PK 3 program will be combined into a new college.
This decision comes after the University’s budget committee, on which Hamilton sits, found compatibilities among the programs that could collectively strengthen them, Hamilton said. Over time, he said, the goal is for the college merger to increase faculty, raise revenues and gain more grants and contracts.
“We want to create a college that can provide human services,” Hamilton said.
The School of Social Work and School of Library and Information Science are “small units that are very vulnerable” as budget cuts loom, Hamilton said. By adding them to a larger unit, Hamilton said the programs will perch on a sounder foundation.
Hamilton also said the PK 3 program should be grouped with the College of Education, not the College of Agriculture, as it currently is organized.
“We’re going to have much stronger individual units of a strong college,” Hamilton said.
Students will not be impacted for the short-term because curricula will not change, Hamilton said.
The budget effects of this merger are unclear for now, Hamilton said, though he said some money may be saved in the short-term. By merging these programs, the University will be able to make better investments in the college once budgets are stabilized in the future, Hamilton said.
Hamilton said there are prototypes for the college, such as the University of Minnesota, which houses a similar program.
Faculty members from each program will work with Laura Lindsay, interim dean of the College of Education, to draft a plan with details for the college, including a name, by Nov. 1, Hamilton said.
 The proposal is then contingent on the Board of Supervisor’s approval. If approved, the college will start in July.
The announcement of this merger comes one week after Hamilton announced a merger for the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering under the College of Engineering and Computer Science under the College of Science.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]