USF announces major academic reorg

Two weeks after they unveiled their plans to trim the University of South Florida's annual budget by $36-million, administrators just announced a major academic reorganization that they say will strengthen USF in the long run.

 

The College of Arts and Sciences faces the most dramatic changes, including an administrative overhaul and the trading of several programs with other colleges and institutes at USF.

For example, the college will take on the economics department, the Institute on Black Life and the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean. But the schools of Aging Studies and Social Work and the department of criminology will move from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute.

 

USF officials insist the "careful realignment" was done with much discussion and faculty participation, and that it is well suited to the university's research and student achievement goals.

 

They said the changes will save money by reducing administrative overhead and equipment costs. Quality of programs will be strengthened, they said, because faculty from various disciplines will be pooling their knowledge and expertise more than ever before.

But they don't sit well with everyone. USF's liberal arts dean resigned this week, saying he is not the "right fit" to lead the college while administrators move ahead with its "potential dismantling."

 

Read about the changes on the USF provost Web site here.