The University of Hawaii at Hilo might split up its College of Arts and Sciences next year, a move hoped to improve student retention and help combat lagging enrollment campuswide.
The College of Arts and Sciences contains at least 63 degrees and programs that range widely in subject matter. Administrators are considering dividing it into two separate colleges: the College of Natural and Health Sciences and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Doing so would eliminate “administrative layers between deans and the departments,” the reorganization proposal posted Sept. 6 on Chancellor Don Straney’s blog reads, as well as managing resources more effectively.
The split would take effect in August 2017.
Enrollment at UH-Hilo — along with nearly every other campus in the UH system — has declined in recent years. This year, the Hilo campus is predicting a more than 4 percent drop from the previous year — the largest decrease in at least four years. Student retention was about 63 percent last year, Straney said this week. Retention has been as high as 70 percent in recent years.
“Given that the majority of our funding new comes from tuition, stabilizing and rebuilding enrollment is essential,” the proposal says. “… Reorganization must be viewed as a tactic for rebuilding enrollments and preserving programs and services … (new colleges) will be expected to manage retention and graduation of their students in a more effective manner than at present.”
Last school year, UH-Hilo was looking at a larger-scale plan to reorganize departments within at least three of its six colleges. The proposal presented Sept. 6, however, calls to restructure just one college. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Matthew Platz said scaling back the idea is hoped to cause “less disruption, less change than the other proposals, and it would be easier to implement.”
The plan eliminates several dean and division chairperson positions but “no one is going to lose their job,” Platz said, because faculty currently occupying those positions will retain “their traditional faculty jobs.”
The proposal also creates two new dean positions and two budget specialist positions, and “incumbents will certainly be able to apply for new positions advertised,” Platz added.
Faculty within the College of Arts and Sciences had mixed thoughts about the latest proposal.
James Beets, chairman of the college’s Natural Sciences Division, said he views the split as “an opportunity to focus more on attracting students that will succeed within our individual programs.”
Humanities Division Chairwoman Seri Luangphinith said some in her department had concerns, however, about being merged with Social Sciences — a division that includes programs such as psychology and sociology and has “very different missions.” She said some faculty also had questions about resource distribution once the split happened, which “wasn’t quite clear.”
The plan is being reviewed by unions representing faculty and staff. A final proposal would need to be approved by the UH Board of Regents, which Platz said he hopes to see happen “in late fall or early winter.”
Searches to fill new positions would begin shortly after, he said.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@
hawaiitribune-herald.com.
