When Provost Stephen Director announced his ‘recommendation’ to restructure the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and College of Criminal Justice (CCJ) into three new colleges Sept. 9, The News wrote in a Sept. 14 editorial that the ‘recommendation’ appeared to be more of a decision, particularly because it included a date on which the restructuring will take effect. What’s more, as The News has said, this is essentially the administration making a suggestion to itself. Why would it reject its own proposal? It doesn’t seem likely since the faculty has remained mostly silent, excepting a few outspoken individuals.
Those who oppose removing CCJ as an independent college and making it the School of Criminal Justice say there has not been enough input from the community for such a change to be made, and The News agrees.
Professor of criminal justice and former CCJ dean Jack Greene summed up the faulty process in a Sept. 17 letter to the editor. He wrote, ‘The list of intentional or unintentional missteps in this process is indeed overwhelming.’ He cited a lack of communication between administrators, faculty, students and alumni, which often lead to the latter three groups missing meetings. He also remembers ‘committee members randomly strewn through the public meeting process’ and ‘constituents like co-op employers marginalized,’ and added that statistics have been selectively presented to favor restructuring. The list goes on.
Students have expressed the same concerns and outrage. Darren Costa, president of the Criminal Justice Student Advisory Council, told The News, ‘We were told that before any decision was made, there would be more discussions and more forums, but they’ve already set a date for when these changes will go into affect. We were told that there would be more students on the future committees, we were told that more students would be able to participate. We didn’t expect a final decision so early without any discussion.’
The most recent example of this ongoing problem came in the form of the list of those who attended the retreat, which was released with the recommendation. It included only one student.
With all the concern for CCJ’s future, it’s been easy to forget that the restructuring will affect CAS as well. While plans to break up the behemoth college have been met with welcome, it still deserves an open discussion. But there haven’t been any discussions since CAS restructuring publicly came into play with the announcement of Director’s recommendation. The decision will affect an enormous number of students and should not be forgotten.
Director said in a Sept. 9 interview that because this process has been in the works since December 2008, he felt there had been enough time for Northeastern community input. Still, he said that now that the report was released, there would be more opportunities for ‘open discussion.’
Now, it seems it has come down to two discussions, and they will be among faculty. The College of Arts and Sciences faculty will meet Thursday to discuss the recommendation, and Faculty Senate members will vote on it at their next meeting, Oct. 7 from 11:45 to 1:25 p.m. in 450 Dodge Hall.
Have students been invited? No. Have these meetings been publicized by the university? No.
But is this the last chance for you to show you care? It seems likely. Director refused to say what impact, if any, a negative vote from Faculty Senate members would have on the recommendation, saying he expects to have their support and it would be too speculative to comment on other possibilities. That might just be his way of saying that it doesn’t matter which way the vote goes ‘- he already set a date, remember?
That doesn’t mean you have to take things sitting down. If you don’t support the changes, Faculty Senate’s doors are open.