The University of Toledo is proceeding with plans for another main-campus merger, a move that would combine a college offering music, art, and communications programs with one that includes foreign languages, English, and history.
UT officials have been discussing a broad reorganization of the university’s 16 colleges since President Sharon Gaber arrived in July. When the dust settles, the number of colleges could shrink to 13.
Recently, Ms. Gaber and interim Provost John Barrett informed faculty of the college of communication and the arts and the college of languages, literature, and social sciences that the two should combine.
A Feb. 25 email from the two administrators, obtained by The Blade through a public-records request, cites finances as the reason.
“As time has progressed and our budget realities have emerged, it has become clear that we need to move forward with this merger,” they wrote.
Earlier in February, Ms. Gaber announced across-the-board cuts of 1.5 percent, or about $600,000, from the university’s operating budget this year and a 3 percent cut, or roughly $8.7 million, from the entire budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Lower-than-expected fall 2015 enrollment contributed to an estimated $11.5 million budget shortfall this year, and Ms. Gaber has said the reductions will help UT stabilize finances.
The savings from merging the college of language, literature, and social sciences and the college of communication and the arts would come largely from streamlining administration, namely going from two deans at two colleges to one dean. No decision has been made on who would lead the new college, Ms. Gaber said Monday.
The LLSS is the larger of the two colleges, with 1,186 students and 261 faculty and staff. The communication and arts college has 714 students and 117 faculty and staff.
The merger, if approved by the trustees, would not be the first such consolidation under Ms. Gaber.
Trustees approved the merger of the 1,581-student college of health sciences and the 1,098-student college of social justice and human service. They will unite July 1 as the college of health and human services, dropping the number of UT colleges to 15.
UT also is well on its way to joining the 1,793-student YouCollege, which offers support services, with the college of adult and lifelong learning, which enrolls 724 nontraditional students. The new entity would include distance learning. The plan is set to go before the board’s academic and student affairs committee March 21, a UT spokesman said.
Ms. Gaber acknowledged that there’s been concern about the proposed LLSS and communication and arts merger. Such restructuring has been a thorny issue.
“The faculty aren’t necessarily enthusiastic, but they also recognize that they were all together in arts and sciences previously,” she said.
In 2010, under then-President Lloyd Jacobs, trustees approved a huge and controversial restructuring. Among other changes, the college of arts and sciences split into three colleges: the college of languages, literature, and social sciences; college of natural sciences and mathematics, and a college of visual and performing arts. In 2013, the communications department was added to the visual and performing arts college, and it was renamed the college of communication and the arts.
Deans from the two colleges are working on a merger plan, and faculty will have a chance to review it, they said.
Both had aired reservations about the restructuring in emails sent last year, but on Monday they said the issues can be overcome.
“I think that everybody needs to understand that the faculty and staff … want to work with this new president,” said Debra Davis, dean of the college of communication and the arts.
LLSS Dean Jamie Barlowe said a reorganization would not affect students or faculty.
“I really have no idea what kind of cost savings will be involved, because it’s how we do that proposal that will determine cost savings and disruption,” she said. “It’s up to all of us to make sure that the disruption is as little as possible.”
Ms. Davis has a salary $152,637; Ms. Barlowe is paid $190,652 a year. Should one be named dean of the new college, the other would return to a faculty position at lower pay.
Ms. Gaber has made it a point to try to find efficiencies in her first months on the job and has shown a willingness to change up top administrators. The university is nearing the end of a search for a new provost.
“A new provost will come in at some point, and [with] a relatively new president working with a smaller number of deans, we are able to do more because it’s less direct reporting,” she said. “I think we can strengthen what we are doing.”
Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.
First Published March 8, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
