Trustees Power Through Resolutions
Utah State University's College of Education will now be known as the College of Education and Human Services.
The USU Board of Trustees voted unanimously for the proposed change on Friday. The change was made due to the reorganization to the College of Family Life during the summer of 2002.
According to the Trustees' resolution, the name change will "more accurately reflect the nature of the college" and "provide new energy and focus."
Although education is at the forefront of the College of Education's mission, there are a number of departments in the college that sponsor strong academic and research programs in the arena of human services, according to the resolution.
Since the College of Family Life was dissolved, many of its programs moved to the College of Education. Other programs were moved to the College of Agriculture.
Aside from these added changes, President Kermit L. Hall intends to announce the state of the university's budget for next year [the week of] March 10. The Legislature is still making final decisions, but Hall expects USU could be dealing with a $6.7 million budget cut by July 1.
However, he hopes to see some additional help from the Legislature by restoring $2.5 million of the $6.7 million.
"We have to continue to operate the university and get things done. These are obviously difficult times.
"For the last 8 to 10 weeks, all of the college deans and various organizations within the university have made proposals to deal with the reductions," Hall said.
Despite the threat of budget cuts for next year, the university has already begun making advances toward improving the university at a national level. The trustees got their first look at a 30-year master plan about Innovation Campus. The plan utilizes university and government-owned land in a business, government and university partnership.
"The Innovation Campus keeps a keen eye on national and international technological advancements and continues to make long-range plans for site and infrastructure development of state-of-the-art facilities," the Innovation Campus pamphlet said.
Currently the Innovation Campus is located on USU property with the opportunity to expand to over 150 acres, according to the pamphlet.
During the meeting, the trustees also voted for various other changes to selected colleges. They include:
* A proposal from the department of environment and society in the College of Natural Resources to offer the master of science degree and doctor of philosophy degree in human dimensions of ecosystem science and management.
* A proposal from the same department, to offer a Natural Resources and Environmental Education (NREE) Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate Program.
* A proposal from the department of computer science in the College of Science, to establish a bioinformatics emphasis within the bachelor of science degree in Computer Science.
* A proposal from the department of languages and philosophy to change its name to the department of languages, philosophy and speech communication.
By Marie MacKay; mmackay@cc.usu.edu
Photo by John Zsiray
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