Restructure

Draft:  Basic Procedure for Restructuring

 

 

1. The current “schools” will be renamed as “colleges”.  Thus, we will have a College of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Construction, a College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Computing and Software Engineering and a College of Engineering, Technology, and Management. [Note the insertion of commas in ETM].
2. The four newly designated Colleges will continue to be led by Deans.  There will continue to be a Dean of the Extended University.
3. Departments cannot change which College they are in for at least five years, or until one year after full engineering degree granting authority is obtained by SPSU, whichever comes sooner.
4. The term “school” henceforth will be reserved for a multidisciplinary grouping of programs.  As is commonly understood, schools must offer a greater complexity and depth of courses and programs than would be commonly found in a single department.
5. Departments and/or programs (individually or in groups) will have the option of applying to become schools at any time.  The application will consist of a detailed Strategic Plan, addressing the criteria given in Point 6.  The Strategic Plan will be reviewed by the four College Deans and the VPAA.  A majority vote, including that of the VPAA will be needed to approve any such Strategic Plan.
6. The Strategic Plan must address the following criteria:
   1. How the aspiring school currently offers significantly different multiple degree programs at the undergraduate level, or plans to do so within the next three years.  [For example, offering a B.A. and a B.S. in Physics would not be considered significantly different.  Offering a B.S. in Biology and a B.S. in Chemistry is significantly different.]  The plan must include the names of proposed degrees, a timeline for developing them, a budget indicating realistic costs and revenues for the proposed degrees, and a rationale as to why adding the proposed degrees is in the University’s best interests.
   2. How the aspiring school plans on growing to a size appropriate to using the term “school”.  The growth plan should result in a minimum of 400 FTE students being within the school.
   3. How the faculty will be differentiated among the programs within the school.  The differentiation should take into consideration the faculty member’s degrees and experience, as well as the subjects they have customarily taught.  Faculty should be given reasonable opportunities to select the program of which they will become a member.
7. Aspiring schools will maintain their current levels of administrative support and funding.  Administrative support will only be increased following the attainment of specific benchmarks, to be established in the near future.  Departments will not be “split” until such benchmarks have been achieved, except as part of a more general restructure as mentioned in Point 1.  The new school will continue to be headed by a chair until specific benchmarks have been achieved.
8. The reporting and evaluation systems will remain unchanged, other than changes in the unit name.  Thus, faculty within departments and schools will continue to report to their department or school chair, and then to their dean. 
9. New schools will be evaluated every semester as to how well they are meeting the goals set forth within their Strategic Plans.  The first semester a school does not make adequate progress toward meeting these goals (as determined by the Deans and VPAA), a warning will be issued.  If the school continues not to make adequate progress, they will revert to being a department.  Reapplication to become a school will not be considered for a period of three years thereafter.
10. Once a new school has largely (as determined by the Deans and VPAA) reached the goals set forth in its Strategic Plan, it will be made “permanent” and no longer need to undergo the semester review process described in Point 9.
11. The restructure described within this document will be submitted to the Board of Regents (if necessary) once it has been approved by a majority of the Deans and the VPAA, and by the President.