124 ORGANIZING ACADEMIC COLLEGES: A GUIDE FOR DEANS TABLE 7.2 Publicly Stated Justifications for Reorganizing Colleges and Campuses A) Stated Reasons for Splitting Colleges • Heighten visibility of specific programs at the university • Increase entrepreneurial opportunities for colleges • Save funds by increasing competition (hence efficiency) among colleges • Look more like our peer/aspirant institutions • Break from teachers college/community college legacy • Ensure not just one college is committed to liberal education • Increase the number of administrative voices representing liberal education • Provide more leadership opportunities on campus • Create a more equitable workload among campus deans • Increase interdisciplinary opportunities through clustering similar programs • Provide deans more time for leadership B) Stated Reasons for Merging Colleges • Save funds by reducing the number of administrative and staff positions • Timing is right as there were one or more open dean positions • Increase interdisciplinary opportunities through larger boundary crossings • Look more like our peer/aspirant institutions • Increase the power of the administrative voice representing liberal education • Increase budget flexibility for long-term planning by the college • Place all liberal education programs together • Create more equitable faculty workloads • Make liberal education programs more competitive with professional colleges • Create common vision for liberal education • Make one college responsible for ensuring complex learning (problem-solving) by students • Reduce faculty fighting among colleges for limited resources • Break up college territoriality C) Stated Reasons for Merging Colleges from Different Campuses • Centralize administrative functions thereby improving the quality of service and/or saving funds through reducing administrative and staff positions • Due to declining enrollments/prediction of declining enrollments • There are more campuses than necessary to serve citizens of the state; need to reduce program duplication in geographic areas • Distance between campuses is too small to justify separate administrations • Increase continuation of two-year students into four-year degree programs • Build a more comprehensive institution with increased identity • Reduce building/deferred maintenance costs by consolidating functions into fewer buildings • Increase national rankings • Increase collaboration among similar programs and faculty • Allow students access to a wider scope of programs • Improve course scheduling for students