ASU announces academic reorganization
ASU has announced its second major academic reorganization in the last six months, this one involving more than a dozen colleges and schools. The changes are driven primarily by opportunities for intellectual synergy, but they also will result in $2.7 million in cost savings for the university.
The changes will not reduce ASU’s academic offerings, eliminate any tenured or tenure-track appointments, or diminish access for students. The reorganization proposal, which is pending receipt of a recommendation by the University Senate and approval by the Arizona Board of Regents, will build on intellectual connections and enhance potential opportunities for students and faculty members.
Major aspects of the plan include:
• Establishing the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.
• Establishing the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education to focus on research and doctoral education programs.
• Consolidating all teacher preparation programs across the university into the College of Teacher Education and Leadership.
• Establishing a School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The merger of the Herberger College of the Arts and the College of Design will strengthen the intellectual partnership being built around the concept of “digital culture.” This initiative seeks to expand and enhance ASU’s curriculum and scholarly work dealing with the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital culture – our hybrid environment mediated by digital technologies.
Other intellectual activities also could grow out of this merger, such as issues of public art and public space, examining possible collaborations between theater and film, interior design, architecture and landscape architecture, and dealing with design visualization to simulate movement and temporal occupation of space, among others.
This merger also will help enhance ASU’s undergraduate curriculum through the development of important learning objectives for all students in the realm of creativity.
The merger of all teacher preparation programs under the auspices of the College of Teacher Education and Leadership reflects our commitment to strengthen opportunities for students wishing to become teachers across all campuses of ASU. The concomitant establishment of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education provides for great synergy to advance that which we learn from our research initiatives into practical matters to enable the next generation of teachers.
While not a direct result of the need to reduce expenses, these academic changes will provide savings of about $2.7 million in fiscal year 2010 through reducing four administrative positions, 18 academic and service professional positions, and 35 classified staff positions. The results will be achieved through reduced administrative overhead, the merger of programs of similar content, the fostering of natural collaborations and the consolidation of support services.
In August, ASU announced its first major academic reorganization, which included merging the School of Global Management and Leadership with the W. P. Carey School of Business; disestablishing the College of Human Services and moving its programs into the College of Public Programs and the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences; consolidating nine academic units into three schools in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and similarly merging six departments into three in the College of Technology and Innovation.
Details of the academic reorganization announced Jan. 21 are as follows:
College of Teacher Education and Leadership
• Consolidate all teacher preparation and undergraduate education programs across the university into one college. This college will administer all teacher preparation programs offered at the university.
• Disestablish the School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation. This school’s programs will become part of the College of Teacher Education and Leadership.
Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
The Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education will be established to administer graduate-level education programs except those related to teacher preparation. This requires:
• Disestablishing the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.
• Disestablishing the Division of Curriculum and Instruction.
• Disestablishing the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.
• Disestablishing the Division of Psychology in Education.
• Establishing the Division of Educational Leadership and Psychology.
• Establishing the Division of Learning and Instruction.
Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts
The establishment of the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts requires:
• Disestablishing the College of Design.
• Disestablishing the Katherine K. Herberger College of the Arts.
• Moving the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture to the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.
• Moving the School of Design Innovation to the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.
• Moving the School of Music, the School of Art, and the School of Theatre and Film to the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.
• Disestablishing the Department of Dance.
• Establishing a School of Dance.
• Establishing a School of Arts, Media and Engineering.
• Moving the ASU Art Museum to the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.
• Moving the Phoenix Urban Research Lab (PURL) to the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
• Moving the ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family to the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
• Moving the Herberger Center for Design Research to the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The plan calls for the establishment of a School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.
This school is a merger of the School of Geographical Sciences and the School of Planning. It was initiated by both faculties as a means to enhance the intellectual connections of the two disciplines. It involves:
• Disestablishment of the School of Geographical Sciences.
• Disestablishment of the School of Planning.