Plans not concrete for new College of Health

The new College of Health will include:

Academic Programs

  • Athletic Training
  • Exercise Science
  • Gerontology & Wellness
  • Health Education
  • Health/Physical Education Teacher Preparation
  • Nursing
  • Nutrition & Dietetics
  • Radiography
  • Respiratory Therapy
  • Social Work
  • Speech Pathology & Audiology

Collaborating Programs

  • Health Service Providers in Psychology & Clinical Mental Health & Certified Rehabilitation Counseling
  • Counseling Psychology
  • Special Education
  • Communication Studies
  • Economics
  • Information & Communication Sciences
  • Telecommunications

Labs and Clinics

  • Communication Studies
  • Economics
  • Information & Communication Sciences
  • Telecommunications
  • Gastrointestinal Neurophysiology—Neuroimmunology Research Lab
  • Micro Imaging Lab
  • Neuropsychology Lab
  • Renal and Metabolic Research Lab
  • Psychoeducational Diagnostic Intervention Clinic

SOURCE: Terry King, Provost and Vice President for Student Affairs

By the end of the semester, Ball State should have a preliminary plan for its new College of Health Sciences and Professions.

On Friday, the Ball State Board of Trustees voted to endorse the efforts of Terry King, provost and vice president for student affairs, in creating a new college of health. This consolidation of departments across campus is still up in the air and could take different routes. A preliminary report is due by the end of the semester.

A myriad of task forces and committees are working to bring together the various aspects required to make the new college happen, Marilyn Buck, associate provost and dean of university college, said. There are subcommittees discussing what the mission statement should be or what other universities do.

“I happen to be on the [committee] that looks at the various approval processes that have to take place on campus,” Buck said. “If someone is part of a department and is a program within a department and not a whole department, how do those things work?”

However, nothing is set in stone.

“No decisions have been made at this stage. We don’t know if the final decision will be to have the college,” she said. “It is strongly likely we will and what will be a part of it. It’s very much still in the conversation stages.”

At this stage though, the university has a third of its plan roughly compiled. There are a few key areas that it is looking at when adding a new college.

Consolidation

The proposed college will, at this moment, aim to consolidate 11 academic programs, seven collaborating programs and nine clinics. The cornerstone department will be the school of nursing, Buck said.

The purpose comes from the natural progression of a university’s specialization, Buck said. At one point, the College of Communications and Media was a part of the College of Humanities, and splits are normal, she said.

“It’s not unusual for people with specializations to split off, but in this instance it’s a matter of combining people from potentially several colleges, so we put all these like assets together to collaborate and further faculty research and potential get more grant funds,” she said.

By combining these health-related services and academic areas, the university aims to increase efficiency and to further benefit students and the community by having these programs work closely together, she said.

“Having them all in one place and working together is to the benefit of the clients and the people in Muncie and Delaware County, and the surrounding eastern Indiana will all benefit for these folks working together instead of having to go different places for this,” Buck said.

Governance

Adding an eighth academic college will require the governing bodies of the university to make changes in documents and representation.

For instance, with the potential of combining or adding departments, the number of representatives at faculty council could change, and so could the representation at University Senate.

Also, the addition of an eighth college will influence the distribution of finances.

Construction and Renovation

Ball State is pursuing funds through the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and the state legislature to construct a new building for the college.

“At this point, what the committee needs to think about is where this might go, because there are colleges spread across campus that don’t have their own building,” Buck said.

The university is expecting a decision on funding as early as Spring 2015, because that is when the state will make decisions on budgets for the year.

However, the college will be formed before the building is constructed, Buck said.

The consolidated departments and clinics will remain in their places until then, she said.

“That then gets the processes moving,” she said. “That’s the first process on the list of several that have to take place before the construction begins.”

However, not every clinic or lab may have to move, such as the Human Performance Lab.

There are labs on campus that occupy such a large and highly developed space that moving them and their equipment might not be the most cost efficient solution, Buck said.

“We have speech pathology and audiology clinics, and counseling and psychology has clinics,” she said. “There are several others with clinics of all sorts that could be in the same place.”

When, and if, the new college building is built, the departure of the school of nursing and the department of physiology will leave a vacuum of space in Cooper Science that will require addressing, Buck said.

The university is conducting studies on what would happen and to help determine what should be done with the empty space.

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