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Senate approves formal merger of arts and sciences

Posted on | June 2, 2010 | 1,589 views |

Gee calls it ‘one of the most significant colleges of the arts and sciences ever created.’

To be sure, members of University Senate still have some unanswered questions about merging the five arts and sciences colleges into a single College of Arts and Sciences.

But they have enough faith that those questions will be satisfactorily answered that the full body gave unanimous consent May 27 to the merger. It moves on to the Board of Trustees and would be effective with that body’s approval. Trustees next meet June 17 and 18 at the Ohio Union.

“This decision in a very significant way will help propel this university toward eminence,” President Gordon Gee told senators after the vote. “This will be one of the most significant colleges of the arts and sciences that’s ever been created.”

The decision, despite its unanimity and lack of discussion at the senate meeting proper, wasn’t made without some significant debate — especially among faculty.

“There were some tense moments as the Faculty Council discussed the issues,” Faculty Council Chair Tim Gerber said. “That reaction, I think, was a healthy discussion among colleagues because we’re talking about some major changes, some very different approaches to things that we’ve been doing well for a long time.

“But at the same time, the current structure just isn’t set up to accommodate the cross-fertilization of interdisciplinary work that we need to do.”

The arts and sciences were organized in a single, centralized structure until 1968, when they were divided into five colleges — Arts, Biological Sciences, Humanities, Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

In 2003, the five were aligned into a federation under an executive dean with the intention of creating synergies and collaboration, but a 2008 report concluded the federated structure was not working.

Planning began then to organize into a single college under a stronger executive dean who would be responsible for strategic planning, promotion and tenure recommendations and budgeting.

Joan Leitzel came on board as interim executive dean and laid much of the groundwork for the merger, then Joe Steinmetz was appointed executive dean a year ago to finish the job. Steinmetz was pleased to see the votes on the merger go through the Council on Academic Affairs and its ad hoc committees, as well as the full senate, without a dissenting vote.

“Even though some may have seen this as a foregone conclusion because of the administrative structuring that had already taken place, I think it was important that it received unanimous votes all the way through,” Steinmetz said. “In order for this to work, to accomplish all the goals that are the reasons behind the change, it’s important to have the faculty and the students fully behind the change and those votes are a good indication that they are.”

Of course, the questions that still need resolutions are significant ones, according to both Gerber and Steinmetz.

“There are a lot of details, hundreds of them, really, about how we’ll finally administer the college,” Steinmetz said. “There are ways people have done business as separate units for the last 40 years, so we’re looking for some common ground for many different aspects of college life.

“But we also have a few major issues that need to be resolved, and we’re making strong progress on those: How will the tenure and promotion process be run? How will the advisory councils operate? What is the most effective budget model that works for the entire college? These have proven extremely challenging, merging five different models into one. But we’re trying to avoid making radical changes to the everyday life of the people in these colleges.”

Another issue to be resolved will be with representation in the senate.

The rules of the faculty limit the number of senators from a single college to seven.

But currently, the five separate colleges that will merge into the College of the Arts and Sciences elect 25 senators — four from Arts, three from Biological Sciences, seven from Humanities, five from Mathematical and Physical Sciences and six from Social and Behavioral Sciences.

In other action from the May 27 meeting, the senate:

• Extended the allowable term that may be served by the faculty athletics representative from two four-year terms to three four-year terms.

“We have always had very strong faculty governance of our own athletics program that has proven very wise and helpful to those students involved,” said Sharon West, chair of the Athletic Council. “We have not had a stronger governance on a wider level with the Big Ten and with the NCAA because of a lack of longevity of our representatives. Several of our member colleagues have no term limits for their service and that longevity serves them well. This is a good compromise.”

• Approved a proposal to redefine general education. The revision replaces the term “basic education,” broadens the definition and removes specific hourly requirements that apply to the quarter calendar.

• Approved a new course numbering system that will go into effect with the semester calendar. The new system replaces the three-digit numeration of courses with a four-digit method.

• Redefined the university year, effective with the semester calendar, to include an autumn and spring semester, each of approximately 16 weeks, a May session of approximately four weeks and summer session of approximately eight weeks. Semesters and sessions are inclusive of instructional days, scheduled reading and exam days, and intra-semester breaks. The university year will begin with the autumn semester.

• Amended the Term of Duty section of the faculty rules to conform to a semester calendar.

Gerber reflects on significant year

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