While several small UA departments appear closer to merging as part of an effort to reorganize the university, plans to combine some of the institution's largest colleges have stalled.
In a 26-page memo sent to University of Arizona Provost Meredith Hay earlier this week and made public Wednesday, a committee tasked with reviewing roughly 80 proposals to make the UA more efficient recommends that dozens of small academic programs merge or create new units.
How the merged or newly created programs would fit into larger colleges on campus — most notably physical sciences and liberal arts programs — remains unclear because the committee sent back almost every college-level proposal for more work.
And even as some faculty members are already planning for changes, the recommendations remain only that because Hay and UA President Robert Shelton have yet to sign off on them.
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Hay and Shelton are expected to respond within the next week on whether the recommendations provided by a subcommittee of the Strategic Planning and Budgetary Advisory Committee should be followed.
Several of the recommendations provide insight into how conflicts among different proposals might be resolved, but others seem to raise even more questions.
For example, when discussing whether some of the UA's largest colleges should merge, the committee called for a survey to see whether the college administrations across campus — as well as the central administration — are overstaffed compared with the university's peers.
The group also called for a complete review of the math, English and general education programs for undergraduates.
The recommendations come a few weeks after nearly 80 proposals were submitted by faculty members, staff members and students as part of an effort to save money and reorganize the UA's academic, research and outreach programs.
The UA is expected to take another large budget cut this year after already chopping nearly $20 million over the summer, though Shelton has said the reorganization also is about increasing the UA's academic and research reputation.
The memo sent to Hay gives preliminary approval for about 20 mergers and new programs, such as the creation of the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture, which would combine the religious studies and Judaic studies programs.
The committee also sided with a proposal to merge the Eller College of Management's School of Public Administration and Policy with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences' political science department, recommending it proceed over a contrasting plan to effectively kill the public administration program.
The panel recommended that the proposal to divide up parts of the public administration program among different units and cut other parts entirely shouldn't proceed, unless the merger proves unsuccessful.
Faculty members working on the merger said they were excited by the memo's recommendation and that they would continue to plan for the new school.
"We think that this school has the potential to be something great for the university, creating a public service center in Southern Arizona that would be very visible," said Roger Hartley, interim department head of the public administration school.
Combining the two programs could relieve some of the stress on faculty members in political science, who teach one of the UA's largest undergraduate degree programs, said William Dixon, head of the political science department.
But because the two programs already teach some classes together, it might take some time before that relief could be realized, Dixon said.
The committee also recommended both programs reach out to the UA's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and UA South to see how the units could work more closely with the new school.
The hope of those working to merge the two programs is that the new school will attract more students into public service and provide new ways to teach the next generation of government and non-profit agency leaders, said Brint Milward, the public administration school's department head who is on sabbatical.
"We're really hoping for more synergy that will attract more students who have a renewed spirit of public service," he said.
Yet as smaller mergers appear set to proceed, larger proposals such as merging the UA's three major science colleges — engineering, science and optical sciences — were sent back for more work.
The committee recommended that the College of Optical Sciences remain an independent unit and that the College of Science and College of Engineering look at whether it would be better to merge or remain separate.
The committee also held off on recommending exactly what should happen to the College of Humanities and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Several proposals were initially submitted regarding the two liberal arts colleges, with the committee recommending the two colleges pursue options that could include merging into one large college.
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Recommendation Rundown
Here's a look at some of the highlights from the memo. Go to provost.arizona.edu/files/Complete_Recs_FINAL.pdf to read the full document.
Given the green light
About 20 proposals to merge programs or create new ones were given approval to proceed further. They include:
• Merging the chemistry department with the department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics
• Creating the School of Geography and Development
• Creating the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture
• Merging the School of Public Administration and Policy with the political science department
Needs more work
The committee was ambivalent about several proposals and had questions about how they might be implemented. They include:
• Creating the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology — the committee was concerned about the costs involved in moving researchers from one location to another and what would become of the vacated space.
• Centralizing information technology support on campus — perhaps the most widely criticized proposal by the campus community, the committee recommended creating a task force to look into what services could be centralized and how that might affect research and other aspects on campus.
• All proposals related to the Arizona Health Sciences Center — the committee recommended all the proposals related to the medical, nursing, pharmacy and health schools be re-examined in light of the appointment of William Crist, the new vice president for health affairs.
Too many conflicts
With proposals that overlap, and in some cases directly conflict with one another, the committee recommended the various groups get together to work out possible solutions. These often were some of the larger proposed changes, including:
• Merging the colleges of optical sciences, science and engineering into one massive college — the committee explicitly recommended that optical sciences be left alone, though encouraged engineering and science to look at other ways to merge, using the handful of ideas submitted in proposals as a starting point.
• Merging the College of Humanities with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences — the committee pointed out that there might be other ways to achieve efficiency among the two colleges, not to mention that a handful of proposals are calling for different changes. The administrations of both colleges were encouraged to work together to find a solution.
Require bigger changes
Because of the fluid situation of the science and engineering colleges, several proposals related to new physical science degree programs were encouraged to wait until the larger changes are set. They include:
• The School for Sustainability for Energy, Water and Materials
• The Institute for Mineral Resources
• The School of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
