‘ After officials from the Office of the Provost announced in December plans for a campus-wide dialogue on the structure of the colleges of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and Criminal Justice (CJ), many of the Northeastern community’s questions about the process remain unanswered.
The colleges of Arts and Sciences and CJ will undergo an evaluation that could lead to major restructuring of the colleges in their current form, as reported in a Jan. 8 article in The News.
As a proposed solution, university officials created a College Structure Initiative website last week. The website aims to inform the community directly about the restructuring committee’s process, but does not serve its purpose. The website is linked from the provost’s website, but the link feels misplaced, almost hidden. If the university truly wants to get the word out about the process, why not put a link on the main page or the myNEU portal?
However, the location of the link isn’t the only problem. The College Structure Initiative website itself, online at www.northeastern.edu/collegestructure/, is lacking. It provides a summary of the announcement given by the Office of the Provost, and includes letters from Provost Stephen Director and CJ Interim Dean Chester Britt about the college structure initiative; the responsibilities of the ad-hoc committee, which is charged with developing a report for the Office of the Provost that assesses the advantages and disadvantages of three possible configurations for the CAS; names of the committee members; and an article from the Northeastern Voice about the formation of the committee and its charge to examine the pros and cons to the restructure. But the Voice aims to advance the university, and to profile and celebrate the people and programs of Northeastern, according to the newspaper’s website.
All of the information currently on the College Structure Initiative website was already available in an article in the Voice and in the provost’s message; so far, there is nothing new on the site. It has valuable pieces of information for anyone looking for the basic information about the committee and the idea of restructuring the colleges, but it does not include specific answers to other questions. So far, university officials have remained relatively mum on the topic.
On Jan. 30, after the first committee meeting, a News reporter sent an e-mail to Mary Loeffelholz, the chair of the committee, which included specific questions for a story that was to run in the Feb. 2 issue of The News. Loeffelholz never responded to the reporter, who was referred by Mike Armini, vice president for marketing and communications, to the website.
The website does not seem to answer the kinds of specific questions the reporter, and other members of the community, might be looking for answers to. Just because there is a website does not mean university officials should refuse to answer individual’s questions.
Despite officials’ promised additions to the website, students, alumni, parents and faculty want answers now. The ad-hoc committee met for the first time two weeks ago, so there should be specific details on the website — something they should recognize as a top priority. Furthermore, university officials still have not made public about when they will have open forums for students to discuss the restructuring process.
Armini said university officials have made moves to keep information and dialogue about the committee open, including through the Voice article and the letter from the CJ dean, as reported in a Feb. 2 article in The News.
But at this point, we don’t have faith that all of the Northeastern community’s questions about this pivotal restructuring process will be answered.
Armini told The News yesterday that the additions to the website are going to be an ongoing process.
‘While there’s not a whole lot of content there now, it will continue to grow and expand,’ he said.
The committee should see that answering specific questions will remove any suspicions and concerns about the process. This concern has been voiced not only by The News staff, but by students and professors as well.
Director will have the opportunity to communicate with the community at an event tomorrow in the Curry Student Center Ballroom from 6-8 p.m. called ‘Eye to Eye with Provost Stephen Director.’ We hope students and faculty attend this event and that Director is forthcoming in his responses related to the restructuring process.