Academic Restructuring Plan Proposed for Next Gall

1028 Words3 Pages

UTSA's proposed academic restructuring will benefit students by strengthening programs, increasing program development, improving academic advising, and attracting and retaining faculty.

According to Dr. Guy Bailey, provost and vice president for academic affairs, the proposed academic reorganization will implement a new college structure‹six colleges will replace UTSA's current four. The new colleges will consist of the College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, College of Engineering, College of Liberal and Fine Arts, College of Sciences, and College of Urban Professional Programs.

Additionally, division directors will be replaced with rotating department chairs. "That's a transition that will take place over several years," said Bailey. "We have eight vacant division director positions and that is where the rotating chairs will first be implemented." Bailey added that the current division directors would continue in their positions. Once their term is up, the positions will be replaced with rotating department chairs.

Bailey states that students will benefit from the new reorganization in several ways.

First, programs such as engineering and education will be strengthened. "It's very difficult to maintain a full engineering faculty," said Bailey, citing that over the last three years there has been a 50 percent turnover in engineering faculty.

Much of this turnover is due to the location of engineering within the current academic structure, he explains. "If you look around the state, you'll find that most engineering programs have their own colleges. It's hard for a division to be competitive with a college," Bailey said.

Bailey also cites that the current "outdated" academic structure is one rea...

... middle of paper ...

...ilding.

In addition to restructuring UTSA's colleges, the university is currently searching for 69 tenured and tenure-track faculty members, 30 of which will fill new positions. Though the search for new faculty members is underway, Bailey said typically those positions will not all be filled because of the difficulty of hiring in specific areas such as information systems.

"The reason we don't fill every position is because we don't have enough qualified candidates that apply," said Bailey.

Additional faculty members are being sought in all colleges, with education's 17 openings being the greatest number of vacant or new positions.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents voiced their approval for UTSA's planned academic restructuring last Tuesday during their San Antonio meeting; however, no final decision will be made until the Regents' May meeting.

Open Document