6 ORGANIZING ACADEMIC COLLEGES: A GUIDE FOR DEANS Before proceeding, definitions are in order for units under the purview of deans as used in this book. • A department is the unit housing faculty from a single academic discipline. In smaller institutions, departments may be comprised of several distinct disci- plines (e.g., Natural Sciences). There is no attempt at interdisciplinarity here; departments are a matter of convenience and tradition. • A school is often a department so large and/or multidisciplinary that it has been given its own administrative unit (e.g., Mass Communications, International Studies, the Arts, and Government & Public Administration). A school often reflects a programmatic strength of the university, and thus needs its own infrastructure (in advising, development, etc.). One typical rationale of school organization is to encourage teaching and research interdisciplinarity in related fields. This type of school is usually organizationally under a college (e.g., Arts and Sciences), with the administrative head called a director rather than a dean. FIGURE 1.3 A&S Organization by Institutional Type SOURCE: CCAS Newsletter 30 (June & July 2014): 3. Online. 121 56 161 109 Arts & Sciences in 2+ units Doc/Res Masters Combined Arts & Sciences Bacc 40% 20% 60% 80% 100% 0% 38 21 NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS When viewed by institutional type (Figure 1.3), doctoral/research universities are the most likely to have single A&S colleges (68%), followed by baccalaureate and master’s institutions (both at 60%).