After months of uncertainty and speculation, Acting Provost Sarah Feldner provided an update on Marquette University’s college restructuring initiative at a Jan. 26 University Academic Senate meeting. She didn’t make a PowerPoint presentation for the meeting, but mentioned that more details would become available in Marquette Today on Jan. 27.

The monthly provost’s report — which included the restructuring update — was met with silence from senators after they expressed opposition to the plan in previous meetings. The restructuring proposal was presented as part of the wider Securing Our Future initiative as the university attempts to proactively cut spending to be prepared for future financial challenges. However, the university has not provided a target savings for the restructuring initiative.

While the initial proposal outlined three models for large-scale restructuring, Feldner’s updated plan took a more granular approach. It includes six intermediary measures to enact the restructuring for various academic areas on campus. The three models proposed last semester were not mentioned during Feldner’s remarks.

The proposed plan has been endorsed by both President Kimo Ah Yun and incoming Provost Debbie Tahmassebi, Feldner said.

Here’s what Feldner said about the measures at the Jan. 26 UAS meeting:

Restructuring within colleges, academic departments

Feldner announced a plan to examine possible restructuring at a localized level in certain colleges and departments. Some of the ideas proposed included an alignment between the Department of Computer Science and the Departments of Computer and Electrical Engineering.

Feldner also mentioned the possibility of a partnership between the Department of Biological Sciences and the Opus College of Engineering, along with the establishment of a School of Mental Health.

“We’re going to move some specific questions to departments to speak with one another, and the departments and deans of those colleges will be most squarely involved in those conversations,” Feldner said.

Committee to identify, merge duplicate courses

In a previous interview with the Marquette Wire, Feldner said identifying and eliminating courses that teach similar topics could save the university money. At the Jan. 26 meeting, she announced plans to form a committee to identify duplicate courses and evaluate ways to combine them.

“We have a lot of things where we are sort of doing the same course, but we don’t have a mechanism to identify them,” Feldner said.

Singular university-wide hiring plan

Feldner expressed intent to create a singular hiring plan across the university, which would happen under the direction of the Provost’s Office and Dean’s Council.

“The goal is to get a plan so everybody understands how [hiring] is coming and how it works across the university,” Feldner said.

The other three of the six measures are as follows:

• Create a pre-med advising work group tasked with developing a process improvement plan

• Develop a plan to recalibrate the use and reporting of college and department financials

• Develop a plan to merge Office of Research and Innovation with the Graduate School

Feldner said all recommendations and proposals that come out of this new phase of the restructuring initiative will go to incoming Provost Tahmassebi for final approval later this spring. While she did not provide any additional details about any of these next steps, she did indicate that a statement coming in Marquette Today would have more information for faculty, staff and students.

This story was written by Sahil Gupta. He can be reached at [email protected].