Task Force proposals receive mixed response from senate

An academic senate meeting was held Nov. 9 regarding the proposals created by the College Consolidation Task Force for consolidating the six college system into four by merging departments.

Jointly appointed by the provost and the faculty organization, the Task Force currently has four different models of possible program and college mergers. 

The Task Force is co-chaired by Dean Pat Kelley from the library, and Dr. Raphael Guillory, the faculty Organization President for the College of Education and Human Development
 

“This merger is going to happen,” Guillory said. “There has been a lot of faculty opinion voiced on this, and we as a task force are working hard to get the issue resolved effectively.”

According to the EWU Web site, the Task Force consists of “three deans, four faculty, one classified staff, one administrative exempt staff and one student. The faculty and staff include representation from all colleges.”

The Web site also lists reasons for a possible consolidation of colleges including, “increased faculty collaboration, synergy among programs and program functionality.”

Some professors, however, feel that this is little more than an attempt at trimming the budget.

“The whole reorganizing and restructuring of our colleges without that clear cut idea of what we’re going to save doesn’t seem like a sound plan,” Dean Keifer of management said. “I think we need some better numbers on the costs compared to what we could be saving before we do something drastic.”
 

Director of College Advancement, Priscilla Rabinovitch, said, “It’s one thing to save money now, but that just means it’s going to impact departments further on down the road.”

Other problems, such as a loss of set departmental communications and the possibility of losing educators in a money saving effort are a major concern. The Task Force, however, is looking more at the administrative end of making cuts.

“Our senate made it very clear last year that administration should be reduced and not faculty,” Guillory said.

The Task Force hopes to gain a positive balance of more than $500,000 from this reorganization of the colleges with the changes being made at a macro level.  The Task Force has been trying to keep similar programs together and will “not try to break up any of the programs at all,” according to Guillory.

Even department administrators, such as deans, would lose their positions, be demoted to faculty and receive the same pay.  This has left many of the faculty wondering if a reorganization of the colleges is the most effective solution to the current budget problem.

“How much long-term damage are we willing to do to fix this short-term problem?” Dean Kiefer said. “This economy and budget isn’t going to last forever, but these changes are going to last a while.”

An emergency meeting will be held by the senate Monday, Nov. 30 to vote on whether or not to recommend the proposed models to the provost and present administration.