The Dean of Arts and Sciences position has been cut to trim the budget among other reorganization efforts at Fort Lewis College.
The former Dean of Arts and Sciences, Jesse Peters, was promoted to interim provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Peters said. Former Provost Barbara Morris is now the president of State University of New York in Oneonta.
Former President Dene Thomas approved the Budget Advisory Committee’s suggestion to cut the Dean of Arts and Sciences position, Peters said.
The provost oversees the Deans of Education and School of Business Administration, the Office of Institutional Research, the Office of Advising, and the Office of Admissions, Peters aid.
“I am charged with overseeing all of FLC’s academic programs, policies, and procedures,” Peters said. “As Provost, I also represent the college for President Stritikus in his absence.”
The new interim provost discussed the disbursement of the Dean of Arts and Sciences responsibilities. The chairs of the department in Arts and Sciences and the associate vice presidents, Anne McCarthy and Pete McCormick, have stepped in to absorb the duties of the dean.
Ryan Haaland, professor and chair of physics and engineering, is one of the faculty members taking on responsibilities of the dean. He will add faculty chair liason to the provost to his title.
“A big part of me thinks despite it being added challenges to my work week and my work day, I’m really behind our new president and hoping that we can create an environment that allows him, and with him, all of us to succeed,” professor Haaland said. “It’s challenging, but I think it’s going to be worth it for seeing where our campus can go from here.”
Laurie Williams, a professor of mechanical engineering, will help Haaland with recruiting, curriculum evaluations and writing reviews for the department, she said.
“We support him and I think he was the right person to be this liaison,” Williams said, “Us taking some things off his plate to make that happen is completely fine, and we’ll figure it out. That’s what we do.”
Some professors are concerned about the absence of a dean.
“I hope it does not stay for the long term, and this year it made a lot of sense,” Roberts-Cady said. “I do think that not having a dean for Arts and Sciences might reduce our voice and administration decisions.”
Williams also expressed concerns about the potential underrepresentation of the arts and sciences.
“We have a Dean of Business, we have a Dean of Teacher Education, and Natural and Behavioral Sciences is the largest academic unit,” Williams said. “So I just think we need to have a voice at that table at that level.”
This concern is addressed with the position as Faculty Chair Liason to the Provost, Haaland said.
“We’ve created this position now where there’s a conduit, a path for the chairs of Arts and Sciences to be at the table so to speak with the other Deans,” Haaland said.
“If they can effectively represent the interests of the different departments and convey that information to Jesse, then this system might work well enough,” said Dr. Dugald Owen, professor of Philosophy. “But if it doesn’t, we might have to go back to that earlier model.”
The outcome of this transition has yet to be determined among the faculty of Arts and Sciences as it is still a recent change, Peters said. In the future, FLC can consider whether or not to reinstate that office, Peters said.