The Daily Bulletin Archive

Last spring, I appointed a task force charged with creating the foundational structure for a new School of Arts and Sciences, which will be established ahead of the 2021–2022 academic year and meld the best of the current schools of Arts and Humanities (A&H) and Natural and Social Sciences (NSS).

Over the summer, the task force, led by Carol DeNysschen, professor and chair of the Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics Department, and Mark Warford, associate professor and chair of the Modern and Classical Languages Department, drafted the mission, vision, and values statements, bylaws, and tenure and promotional procedures for the new school. They also created a job description for the founding dean, which is now posted. I recently established a search committee to review the applications and conduct interviews beginning in mid-November.

I invite you to visit the new School of Arts and Sciences Task Force web page within Academic Affairs to learn more about the reasoning behind creating the new school and our vision for how it will best meet the needs of our students. The page also contains a timeline of the entire process and a draft report of all that the task force has accomplished to date.   

However, the process is not finished. All faculty and staff members within A&S and NSS will have the opportunity to comment and provide anonymous feedback on the report via an e-mailed survey. A number of smaller focus groups, selected by the department chairs from each school, will discuss bylaws and the report in further detail. A final document will be presented to President Katherine Conway-Turner on Friday, November 6.