Inside Iowa State

October 18, 2004

Planning committee on possible college combination releases report

by Linda Charles

The committee looking into how the colleges of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences might be combined offers a number of suggestions in a recently released report. The committee asks members of the two colleges to provide input on the report, which is available online at http://www.provost.iastate.edu/educfcs.

In the report, the committee suggests that:

• One dean and three associate deans lead the combined college. That's a reduction of one dean and two associate deans in the leadership structure of the current two colleges. The committee recommends that two of the associate dean positions be three-quarter time so faculty in those positions could maintain their scholarly work. The third associate dean, funded largely by University Extension, would remain a full-time position.
• The student services functions of the current colleges be combined in a team of about six full-time professional and scientific staff. This would result in a reduction of 2.5 positions.
• The college maintain two development officers and one alumni officer.

The planning committee refrained from recommending a new name for the college. Under consideration are Education, Family and Consumer Sciences or Human Sciences. The committee believes either name is viable, but wants response on the plan to be separate from response to a proposed name.

The planning committee will seek input on the report from the colleges' members through the end of October.

Under the procedure in the university's academic organization policy, approved by the Faculty Senate in January, faculty in the affected colleges must vote on whether they favor the combination. Faculty in the two colleges will vote between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1, via the online AccessPlus voting system.

The committee will incorporate the responses it receives to the report, in and forward the plan and the results of the faculty vote, to the provost in early November. From there, it goes to the Faculty Senate for initial discussion in November and a vote in December. If approved by the senate, the proposal moves on to President Gregory Geoffroy. Final approval rests with the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

Last winter, Geoffroy asked the two colleges to consider the combination, with an eye toward implementing the change July 1, 2005. The combination was one of several ideas to help the university cope with the result of seven budget reductions over a four-year period.

The 19-member planning committee appointed 12 workgroups -- involving more than 130 faculty, staff, students and alumni -- to examine various aspects of the possible combination. In addition, it held public forums, discussions, a Web preference poll and special meetings for constituencies.

• One dean and two associates deans lead the combined college.
• The student services functions be combined into a team of about six full-time P&S staff.
• The college maintain two development officers and one alumni officer.