Click here for a complete list of proposed list of academic organizational units

The UA Faculty Senate endorsed the UA reorganization process of academic programs at their meeting on Monday.

According to Gail Burd, vice provost of academic affairs, the process in order to decide which programs would change began with the Office of Academic Affairs. They went through and identified all the low degree-producing programs and gave that information to the individual college deans. The deans were then invited to close, merge or come up with other interesting arrangements with the academic programs within their college.

The faculty, Faculty Student Budget and Planning Committee, and the Faculty Senate all reviewed the recommendations from the deans. The changes and recommendations were all for mergers, closures, re-naming and other issues related to academic programs.

“”A lot of change, very exciting change. All of these are designed to bring together faculty to improve research, to improve teaching and hopefully be more efficient. None of the reorganizations have requested funding,”” Burd said.

The programs that were not discussed were colleges similar to the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, because that is an administrative re-structuring, not an academic re-structuring.

“”We have come together even closer as a family with the University of Arizona and how we strategically reposition ourselves to be stronger than ever is an outcome of this process and the work of the students and the staff,”” Meredith Hay, executive vice president and provost, said.

Through the course of the meeting, debate was sparked regarding several of the programs. The Faculty Senate eventually endorsed all of the program changes although an amendment had to be passed.

The amendment was needed in order to clarify that students of a program that would be closed were given protection. As long as those students are making satisfactory progress, they will be allowed to complete their degree.