After beginning the process ten years ago, EMU is on the final leg of implementing a revision to the current academic structure. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, three board members presented a panel to the students introducing the proposed changes.
Provost Fred Kniss, professor Vi Dutcher and Associate Dean Rachel Roth Sawatzky represented the group that has been working to initiate changes. To open, the three members reviewed the proposed changes. Following this, they opened the floor up for discussion, questions, and comments.
Due to an increasingly unsustainable academic environment, EMU is hoping to implement a new outline. This will work to fulfill four goals: enhancing student involvement across departments, setting up financially stable programs, providing a wide array of academic options and reducing divisions between undergraduate and graduate faculty.
In the proposal, the university will feature three main schools: Science and Technology, Social Sciences and Theology, and Arts and Humanities. Between these “schools” would be a matrix structure to help connect the schools for collaboration across departments.
A head will be appointed to each school, with the official title still in debate. The division of schools will create greater budget control at the undergraduate level. Other perks will be a better distribution of work among faculty and fewer chains of command.The faculty members stressed that the new structure would not be in place to cut costs. If done right, the layout would maintain current costs but simultaneously increase revenue. It will provide a “better service for the same cost,” Kniss said. The group working on the revisions has been meeting intentionally for the past year. Recently they received a “green light” from the EMU board. Now the group will make the final revisions with continued discussion before arriving at a finalized product. If finalized on schedule, the revisions will begin implementation in about two years.
A survey for student feedback on the structure will be sent out upon request. Students are encouraged to keep in the conversation through EMU faculty like Dutcher or Kniss.
