Ewu Plan Would Shuffle Class Structure Reorganization Designed To Make Academics More Manageable, Shift Administrative Duties

Eastern Washington University, which four years ago beefed up its liberal arts core to attract more students, is floating a plan to spin off one-third of its social science college to other departments.

The reorganization plan has triggered a debate about whether economics, government, psychology and other liberal arts studies should be placed under control of business, education and other colleges emphasizing professional degrees.

“We have to change something,” said Harry White, chairman of the criminal justice department, which would shift from Eastern’s huge College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) to join a renamed College of Business and Public Policy.

“CLASS is too big,” White said. “It’s unmanageable and everybody knows it.”

Provost Niel Zimmerman said students likely wouldn’t notice any changes, and most departments would remain in their current buildings.

“We seldom move everything at once,” Zimmerman said, noting that final approval of reorganization is months away. “We’ll see how far this goes.”

The reorganization follows a state mandate to Eastern to write a new mission statement and operating plan. Under the leadership of President Stephen Jordan, who joined the university in July, a committee of administrators and teachers proposed a structure that may be more efficient and student-friendly.

According to a proposal distributed among faculty last week, changes to the administration would include eliminating the vice president of advancement when Jane Johnson retires in December and creating a new vice president of student affairs to oversee everything from admissions and intramurals to housing and the Spokane Center building.

In addition, the dean of graduate studies would become a full-time job. The writing center, mathematics lab and tutoring center would leave their academic departments to come under a vice provost for undergraduate affairs and institutional research.

Zimmerman said the changes should not cost more, but the proposal warns that “reorganization is not designed as a cost-saving matter.”

The most contentious issue among faculty is who will control academic programs. Those decisions raise philosophical questions about what role liberal arts should play in a four-year university, as well as practical questions about whether a dean of a professional school would be inclined to support funding of a humanities course.

Eastern currently has four colleges - Business and Public Administration; Education and Human Development; Science, Mathematics and Technology and CLASS.

The reorganization would reduce the size of CLASS by shifting 10 of its 27 programs to other colleges and a newly created School of Social Work and Human Diversity.

Alcohol drug studies and four diversity programs - AfricanAmerican education, Indian education, Chicano education and women’s studies - would be absorbed by Social Work.

Criminal justice, government, international affairs and economics would shift to the business and public policy college. Psychology would combine with applied psychology at the education college.

Economics professor Tom Bonsor said it’s unusual for so many social science programs to be dispersed into three or four different schools.

“I have concerns about that kind of fragmentation,” he said. “There may be tempestuous seas ahead.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: CHANGES The proposed reorganization would reduce the size of Eastern’s College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences by shifting 10 of its 27 programs to other colleges and a newly created School of Social Work and Human Diversity.