Hearing panel to analyze options on reorganizing arts and sciences

The panel consists of a professional staff member, a dean and three faculty members from areas outside of the arts and sciences. It will hear evidence, both written and oral, on the options and has been given a target date of June 20 by Headrick to present its report outlining "the preferred course for the university to follow in connection with the proposed reorganization."

That report will be forwarded to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Faculty Senate's Academic Planning Committee for their comment. President William R. Greiner is expected to make a final decision by July.

Once that decision is made, Headrick said he will appoint one or more committees of faculty and staff from the affected areas to assist in the process of review and analysis of issues that need to be resolved during the transition. The target date for the formation of the new structure is Summer 1998.

In his academic planning report, Headrick has proposed two options for reorganizing the arts and sciences: merging the faculties of Arts and Letters, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences and Mathematics into a College of Arts and Sciences or combining Arts and Letters and Social Sciences into a College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and merging Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences into a College of Science and Engineering.

In a memorandum to the university community, Headrick said the hearing panel will hear evidence, both written and oral, on these two options. It also will consider "local options," or proposals from single departments or significant cohesive groups within a department to be placed within some academic unit other than an Arts and Sciences College. The full text of Headrick's memorandum is available at http://wings.buffalo.edu/provost/HearingPanel/

Members of the hearing panel are Arlene Albert, associate professor of biochemistry; George Bobinski, dean of the School of Information and Library Science; Elizabeth Mensch, professor of law; Michael Stokes, director of the Office of Student Multicultural Affairs, who will serve as panel convenor, and John Thomas, associate dean for international programs in the School of Management.

The panel membership was selected from outside the affected faculties, Headrick said, in order to evaluate evidence from a "disinterested point of view."

Headrick stressed that the "present tripartite separation of the traditional arts and sciences faculties and programs no longer serves the needs of this university, and thus some change is necessary."

These changes that are needed are not momentous, he noted. "Basically, they are attempts to locate decisions and administrative support in slightly different places within the university for our arts and sciences departments," he said. "In the short run, the changes will have little real effect on the university; over time, they may and should change the university, I think beneficially, by creating interactions among faculty and students and developing programs and initiatives that might not otherwise occur."

Major role for arts & sciences

Headrick outlined numerous reasons for adopting either of the two options proposed in his planning document.

He noted that although arts and sciences faculty members continue to claim that his aim is to relegate arts and sciences to second-class status within the university, "nothing could be further from the truth."

A College of Arts and Sciences would, by its size and importance in the university, be the major academic unit, he said, noting that the three faculties now teach 61 percent of the undergraduate-student FTEs and grant 40 percent of the undergraduate degrees.

"A single Arts and Sciences dean would be better able to achieve and deliver more cohesive approaches to undergraduate and graduate programs than is possible under the current divided arrangement," he said.

Moving the leadership and direct resources for undergraduate education from the Provost's Office to the Dean's Office (in a College of Arts and Sciences) would encourage the units to treat university requirements and general education as educational responsibilities of the unit, rather than as impositions to be funded by the provost, he said.

While it is conceivable to split Natural Sciences from the other Arts and Sciences, since aspects of science education and research do differ in some ways from education and research in the arts, humanities and the social sciences, it should not be isolated as a separate faculty, Headrick said.

Extensive science education and research occurs, and is supported, in other parts of the university, he said.

Commonality of academic culture

A merger of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Engineering makes sense, Headrick said, since the two faculties share a substantial number of students who depend on integrated courses and teaching.

Faculty in both units depend heavily upon external research support, creating some "commonality of academic culture," he added.

And, with 239 faculty and 4,400 student FTEs, a College of Science and Engineering would create a "significant confluence of resources and access to external support," Headrick said.

If a decision is made to merge Natural Sciences with Engineering, Joseph Tufariello, dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has indicated a willingness to step down by Summer 1998 and Mark Karwan, dean of the school of engineering, would become dean of the new college, Headrick said.

Karwan would appoint, after an internal or external search, a deputy dean drawn from one of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics disciplines.

A search would be held to identify a dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences to oversee the merger of Social Sciences and Arts and Letters.

If all three faculties are merged into a College of Arts and Sciences, a search committee would be formed to find candidates for the position of dean of arts and sciences, Headrick said.

The issue of the arts and sciences must be resolved before UB can move on to other aspects of his planning document, he said.

"The issue tends to dominate discussions with the faculty in the arts and sciences, and crowd out considered examination of other proposals, and the implementation of other recommendations will depend significantly on the organization of the arts and sciences on this campus," he said.

The issue is not new to campus, he said, noting that the Triggle Commission spent nearly the entire 1993-94 academic year studying the restructuring of the arts and sciences. The majority of the commission favored the formation of a College of Arts and Sciences, while a minority opposed such a structure.

"Thus, the issue presented now is not new and does not need extensive and extended consideration to arrive at a sensible decision," Headrick said.