Restructuring Recommendation: November 7, 2003

DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT -- DRAFT

This is another very rough draft for discussion purposes.   Some of its ideas are already obsolete.  Our purpose is not to reorganize the entire university, but to make recommendations concerning the academic and academic support areas of the university.

DRAFT for November 7, 2003

There are four topics:

1. the coordination or oversight of general education
   (which seems to have replaced the proposal to merge liberal arts and sciences colleges)
2. an academic home for academic support services,
3. reorganization of the provost's office.
4. professional studies and the possibility of a new college
   

The provost's office could be reorganized to include nine deans and seven associate vice presidents, as follows:   (The Associate Vice President for Community Outreach could be moved to University Advancement.)

Associate Vice Presidents

1. Budget and Finance (1)
2. Curriculum and Assessment (2)
3. Diversity (3)
4. Enrollment Management
5. Human Resources, Buildings, and Grounds (1)
6. International Studies
7. Sponsored Programs and Research

[Some other suggestions:  8.  University Communications; 9.  Institutional Research, Planning & Administration; 10.  Undergraduate Studies and Curriculum]

Deans

1. College of Business
2. College of Education
3. College of Fine Arts and Humanities
4. College of Science and Engineering
5. College of Social Sciences
6. Continuing Studies
7. Graduate School
8. Learning Resources and Technology  Services
9. Professional Studies or Health Sciences (4)

THIS PLAN DOES NOT INCREASE THE NUMBER OF ADMINISTRATORS

(1)     Five of the proposed AVPs are already in Academic Affairs.  The other two come from Administrative Affairs, so there is no increase in administrators.  This plan would put directly under the provost the two divisions of Administrative Affairs – (A) Budget and (B) Human Resources, Buildings, and Grounds – which was probably the intention of the provost model, to have them reporting to the provost rather than directly to the president.

(2)     A Council of Undergraduate Studies, reporting to an associate vice president for curriculum, would be responsible for General Education, Honors, General Studies, Academic Support Services, First Year Experiences, tutoring programs, and Advising in the climate of strong major and minor programs.

(3)     Programs, such as the Women's Center, the American Indian Center, Multicultural Student Services, GLBT Services, and Student Disability Services, could report to the associate vice president for diversity.

(4)     (a)     A college of health science would comprise departments of Nursing Science, Communication Disorders, Sport Science, applied psychology, and perhaps medical technologies, and perhaps others. 

(b)     A college of professional studies could include these as well as Aviation, engineering fields, and even Mass Communications, Social Work, and Criminal Justice Studies.

(5)     Each academic support unit and each student life unit should decide for itself where it wants to be organized.

(6)     The Academic Council would comprise the provost and the associate vice presidents, the deans, the associate deans, the vice president for student life and development, and the athletic director. 

NOTE:  No decisions have been made.  This draft is being distributed to the university community to stimulate discussion and to keep the community aware of the Task Force discussions. 

You are invited to contact the committee or any member of the committee, using the TFR website [ < http://www.stcloudstate.edu/tfr > ], the Discuss listserv, or the Campus Restructuring listserv.

“Distributed intelligence … uses many decentralized decision makers of comparable power, interpreting events under shared rules, interacting with and learning from each other, and controlling their collective behavior through the interaction of their diverse local decisions….”