UC Announces University-Wide Reorganization
Date: May 24, 2002
Contact: Greg Hand
Phone: (513) 556-1822
Photo by Dottie Stover
Archive: General News
As part of an ongoing effort to serve students better, the
University of Cincinnati has proposed the broadest, most comprehensive
reorganization of its colleges and academic programs in a hundred years.
The proposal, according to Anthony J. Perzigian, UC senior vice president
and provost, will improve service to students, help more students graduate
successfully, strengthen the liberal arts, encourage innovative academic
offerings, and recognize that universities today must operate
around-the-clock and provide life-long learning. While most of the proposed
changes will take place in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, the
College of Evening & Continuing Education, and University College, the
effects will be felt throughout most of UC's undergraduate colleges and
academic programs.
"Not quite a hundred years ago, the University of Cincinnati invented
cooperative education, which enabled us to build strong professional schools
that continue to excel," Perzigian said. "Today, we turn our focus to
students at either end of the preparedness spectrum -- the well-prepared
student, and the student who needs extra preparation to succeed in a
challenging academic setting."
UC President Joseph A. Steger said the proposal, called Collegiate
Structures, recognizes that higher education must evolve to serve students
in the new century.
"We have been building a campus at the University of Cincinnati that
recognizes what our students have told us," Steger said. "Our students no
longer think of college as something to do from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our
students no longer think in terms of traditional academic departments. Our
students want to be challenged, because they know they will face many
challenges after graduation. And, they want us to be prepared to meet their
educational needs for the rest of their lives."
Over the next year, the university will prepare a detailed action plan, but
the initiative's goals are in place. They include:
strengthen the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences with a strong
focus on liberal arts;
expand opportunities for well-prepared students and honors students;
expand opportunities for adult learners in all colleges;
improve the university's access mission by providing more assistance
and guidance to under-prepared students and undecided students;
build flexibility in academic programs to help students succeed;
encourage entrepreneurial activity and innovative academic programs;
streamline academic programs and bureaucracy to remove duplication;
and
ensure that each of UC's colleges has a clear and focused mission.
Perzigian noted, for example, that while there was once a need for a
separate night college serving a different student population, today's
students see education as an activity that goes on around the clock.
"English literature shouldn't be any different at 8 p.m. than it is at 8
a.m.," Perzigian said, "because the students have the same capabilities and
goals."
The University of Cincinnati recently joined 375 universities in a campaign
by the Association of American Colleges and Universities to strengthen
liberal education. President Steger said that UC's proposal requires a
strong liberal arts college.
"Business leaders continually call for college graduates who have the
analytical and creative capabilities provided by a liberal education," he
said. "By concentrating the liberal arts in one college that delivers
instruction day and night, from entry?level to completion, we will
strengthen the place of the liberal arts at UC and bring heightened
attention to the core liberal arts values and experience that UC wants to
promote."
Perzigian said that work on an action plan to put the proposals in
place would begin immediately.
More background on the Collegiate Structures proposal.
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