Colleges to reunite under new merger
February 10, 2016
Filed under News, Top Stories
Two colleges will become one if the University of Toledo board approves the merger of the College of Health Sciences and the College of Social Justice and Human Service at a Feb. 15 meeting.
If the proposed merger is passed, this will be the first time in 17 years these colleges will have merged at the request of employees within the college, rather than a mandate by upper administrators.
Though missing the rubber stamp of approval by trustees, the union has been approved by President Sharon Gaber, the provost, a trustee committee and both colleges.
Christopher Ingersoll, dean of the College of Health Sciences and interim dean of the College of Social Justice and Human Service, said it makes sense for the two colleges to merge because “we want to be good stewards of the resources we have.”
“We still need to deliver the same programs that we have,” Ingersoll said. “We don’t want to erode the quality of these programs for the students, but, for example, we won’t have two deans anymore.”
Not having two deans is already where the colleges are headed, as Ingersoll is currently the dean and interim dean of each. If the merger is approved, he will remain as dean of the new college.
Pooling assets is something Paralegal Studies Program Director John Schlageter III said he wants.
“I think there will be greater resources,” he said. “Maybe collectively we can do more as a larger college than we could as a smaller one.”
Although many in leadership are excited about the merger, Health and Recreation Professions Chair Joseph Dake knows there will be short-term challenges.
“I think that faculty and staff have mixed feelings,” Dake wrote in an email interview. “There has been so much change in recent years at UT that many are change-weary.”
However, Dake ultimately thinks the change will create opportunities for students.
“While I am not sure yet what will actually change, I am hopeful that we see more interdisciplinary collaboration, greater opportunities for students to work with faculty from a variety of disciplines, and research and grant opportunities that previously may have been overlooked,” Dake wrote.
Ingersoll said while all programs from the original two colleges will remain, they will be grouped together differently within the new college. The 18 programs – 16 undergraduate and 2 graduate – will be restructured into four separate schools within the college which are not yet named.
Other than that, everything will stay mostly the same. Ingersoll will remain as dean, and according to Schlageter, the programs should be able to continue to function as they do currently.
Ingersoll said he doesn’t expect students will have difficulty navigating the college after the merger, and updates will help update the new college to reflect present-day standards.
“We feel like team-based care and working together is the future of healthcare and human services, so this will be an opportunity to expand that,” Ingersoll said.These two colleges in particular have quite a bit of history together, and Schlageter is excited about potentially “renewing some of the collaborative effort between programs.”
“I think there would be more angst and trepidation if we were going to other programs that we just didn’t have any history with,” Schlageter joked.
The two colleges were originally part of one large, umbrella college along with the Judith Herb College of Education. Former President Vik Kapoor divided the larger college up into two colleges in 1999, creating the College of Health Science and Human Services as one and the Judith Herb College of Education as the other.
The two colleges were later merged back together into one large college in 2010 by former President Lloyd Jacobs, a widely unpopular decision which many faculty members opposed. The merger happened at the time when Jacobs also proposed splitting the College of Arts and Sciences.
The colleges remained together until 2013, when former Provost Scott Scarborough split them back into three as part of his five-year plan.
