Martin Abraham, the interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Youngstown State University, confirmed that the university is looking into a possible “reorganization” of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Beeghly College of Education.
Abraham said there has been a request to form a committee to oversee this examination.
“It is a conversation that is just beginning,” he said.“There is not yet been a committee formed; there has been a request to form a committee. The deans of the two colleges that have been impacted have been asked to get me some names. That is really where we are at at this point. It is incredibly preliminary.”
Abraham said he would not refer to this restructuring as a merger. He did not say whether or not this could include the amalgamation of the two college’s responsibilities in any form.
“We are looking at the College of Education and looking at CLASS, but I wouldn’t specifically refer to this as a merger. The question that is being posed to the committee is whether or not reorganization makes sense. What are the benefits? What are the concerns? And are there any show stoppers?” Abraham said. “The objective is to figure out if we can be more effective in our organizational structure. Universities have a structure more often because of history than because they have specifically planned to have any given structure; our university is the same way.”
Abraham emphasized that though the committee will ask whether or not any proposed changes are cost-effective, the priority is whether these changes are better for the university overall.
“Is there a better way that we could do it; better way for the students and a better way for the faculty? And I am not going to deny it, if we did something, would we be able to save money with it?” he said. “First we ask, is it better pedagogically, academically, for faculty and for students?”
Joseph Mosca, the dean of the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, confirmed that he is set to be the chair of this committee.
