110 ORGANIZING ACADEMIC COLLEGES: A GUIDE FOR DEANS resigned themselves to the merger and decided to endeavor to make it happen. Prior to the dean meeting with the president, the dean of liberal arts had been happily leading her college. She had taken the time to build a successful research program prior to becoming dean and she invested in keeping it going. In fact, maintaining an active research program was one of the conditions she negotiated before accepting the deanship. Due to the challenge of being a dean of a combined college of Arts and Sciences, let alone the challenges associated with a getting through a merger not vetted by the faculty, she needed to decide quickly. Would she maintain her research program and step back into her faculty role, or should she give up research and stay on as dean [Human Resource]? She chose the latter option. This scenario is a reminder that deans “serve at the pleasure” of the administration, so job responsibilities can take unex- pected turns rapidly. Personal preferences may need to get left behind for decanal duties (and hopefully the greater good of the institution). The provost appointed an implementation committee comprised of respected faculty from the departments of the two existing colleges [Political]. Several positive outcomes occurred through the work of this committee. Although their actions were focused on the Structural frame, having a faculty committee driving these outcomes also can be viewed through the Political frame of shared governance. First, as the colleges had once been merged several decades previously, the committee took the time to study and understand the problems of being organized as a larger college, and they constructed a plan to overcome those problems. Second, the committee consulted with peers at other merged colleges to find out what worked well and what worked poorly for them. While developing a transition plan, the committee also formulated a strategic plan for the new college that would take advantage of the merger. Post-merger, the faculty and dean are now discussing how to best organize programs within the College as a collection of schools and departments. This is one of the best approaches we have heard concerning a reorganization. If only every campus were seeded with such proactive faculty! There was enormous initial frustration from the faculty due to the lack of a clear rationale for the merger. Yet the faculty and dean approached this so constructively and with such positive outcomes resulting that now when asked, the faculty is glad the reorganization occurred. Through this process, they had met the president’s only stated goal of appearing more like the peer and aspirant intuitions he respected. Coincidentally, the single college organization did save some administrative money through the removal of one dean’s office (appreciated by the faculty), but one hidden cost was the research This scenario is a reminder that deans “serve at the pleasure” of the administration, so job responsibilities can take unexpected turns rapidly.