(Canyon)—The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Friday, Dec. 2, approved West Texas A&M University's request to reorganize its academic structure.
The board's approval gives WTAMU authorization to take the reorganization plan to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which will have the final say.
Enrollment increases, new degree programs and academic programs that have been updated to meet changing societal needs and regional demands are what prompted West Texas A&M University administrators to request a reorganization of the university's academic structure.
"The current structure may have made sense in the 1980s," Russell C. Long, WTAMU president, said. "But a lot has changed since then, and we need to realign programs into groups that have common directions and missions.
“The reorganization will be more efficient, encourage greater cooperation among similar programs and will result in a better learning and teaching environment for our students and faculty."
The university currently has four colleges (plus a Graduate School) and 14 divisions/ departments. The new plan calls for five colleges (plus a Graduate School) and 18 departments.
Creation of a College of Nursing and Health Sciences will be one of the first, and probably the most extensive phase, of the five-year reorganization plan. The new college, scheduled for implementation in time for the fall 2006 semester, will include the Department of Nursing, a newly formed Department of Communication Disorders and the Department of Sports and Exercise Sciences.
The Division of Nursing currently resides in the College of Agriculture, Nursing, Science and Engineering. Communication Disorders is a program in the Department of Art, Communication and Theatre. And the Department of Sports and Exercise Sciences is currently part of the College of Education and Social Sciences.
With the departure of nursing to its own college, the renamed College of Agriculture, Science and Engineering will include the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics and a new Department of Engineering and Computer Science.
The College of Business will remain basically intact, with the exception of computer science, and includes the Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Department of Computer Information Systems and Department of Management, Marketing and General Business.
The College of Education and Social Sciences will experience some changes. The Department of Behavioral Sciences will become the Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work, history and geography will be moved to the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities, leaving the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, and the Division of Education will be renamed the Department of Education.
The Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities will be reorganized to include the Department of Art, Theatre and Dance, Department of Music, Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages, a new Department of Communication and the Department of History and Geography. The college will also oversee a newly created Office of General and Applied Studies.
The five-year plan would be conducted in phases and will cost the University, administrators estimate, approximately $850,000 during that five-year period.
"This is the kind of change that's fun to announce," Long said. "The reorganization reflects the University's growth in quantity and quality.
"This is a reorganization that addresses contemporary needs and will result in more jobs, not fewer."
The reorganization will not affect the University's degree offerings, either.
"We're not cutting anything," Long said. "Some things will just be in a different, more logical place."
West Texas A&M University offers 61 baccalaureate degree programs, 43 master's programs and 1 doctoral program.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will review the plan at its April meeting.