The schools of nursing and kinesiology should soon be able to call the College of Health home, starting in fall 2016.
The College of Applied Sciences and Technology will now only host three departments: Family and Consumer Sciences, Technology and Military Science.
Campus wide voting among faculty has been taking place this semester to determine what units will move to the new College of Health, other than nursing and kinesiology. The governance and elections committee facilitates the vote faculty wide on the passing of this college placement.
“Where we are right now is every entity on campus according to the constitution gets to vote whether they approve [moving colleges] or don’t approve it,” said Karen Kessler, chair of the governance and elections committee.
A senate vote was taken as well to approve moving the schools of nursing and kinesiology to the College of Health.
Colleges who don't feel the need to vote because they don't feel it affects them can opt out of the voting process.
“We have a list down of all the different entities ... who will be voting on whether they want to move or stay, and the interesting things about this is it’s a lengthy process,” Kessler said.
The final decision of the two schools moving are in the hands of the president, provost and board of trustees.
The governance and elections committee are facilitators for faculty to speak their minds and vote on programs moving. They have no part in the voting process and remain neutral to decision making.
“In a general sense everybody thinks the idea of the College of Health is great for everybody, but it’s going to directly and adversely affect some areas,” Kessler said. “People need to be able to voice concerns.”
Two years ago, provost Terry King put together an academic planning steering committee to develop an academic plan for the next 20-25 years.
Mitchell Whaley, dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Technology, said the committee talked about which programs that would or would not be needed, as well as organizational structures for the college.
“Coming out of that year, there was a consensus about co-locating health related assets at Ball State into a new college,” Whaley said.
In August 2014, the provost put together a College of Health implementation task force, and Whaley was involved in the group to form the new college.
“Part of launching the college is faculty in the various departments here, but departments in other colleges looking at the mission and vision of this new College of Health and then through a voting process requesting to realign,” said Whaley.
The task force recently identified units on campus that would likely fit the mission, the school of nursing and kinesiology being two of them. Besides those recommended, other schools will be able to voice wanting to move to the College of Health.
“That happens at universities, you start of with a slate of programs and then some programs fall off, some are added, and over time you look different than you did 20-30 years ago,” said Whaley.
By the end of the semester, Kessler said they will have the voting process completed and will know which units will be moving and which ones will stay as is.
“The College of Health will provide an organizational structure where health related programs, students and faculty will be in closer collaborations with each other,” Whaley said.
The new college is founded on the idea of effectively collaborating with various departments.
“It makes sense for people who live relatively in the same world to be governed in the same world,” Kessler said.
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