ALISA OPPENHEIMER
Special to The Leader
As we all get into our new routine for this school year, various changes have also been made behind the scenes.
The division of academic affairs have applied multiple organizational changes to their system and programs.
These include College of Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts; School of Business, Office of International Education and Provost’s Office.
As for the College of Education, multiple departments have been merged, such as the Language, Learning and Leadership departments.
Similarly, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have also merged various departments to become one.
While the department of Physics and Psychology continue to be paired, after Sept. 1, the department of History and the department of World Languages and Cultures will be paired, as well as the department of Philosophy and Politics and International Affairs for 2019.
The College of Visual and Performing Arts will experience some differences considering the retirement of the department’s dean, Dr. Ralph Blasting.
With this, the School of Music, Rockefeller Arts Center and the Marion Gallery will be required to report to the Provost through 2019-2020.
The department of Visual Arts and New Media and the department of Theater and Dance are required to report to Dr. Givner, temporarily.
Interestingly, the School of Business for 2019 has become a prototype for the new organizational model for upcoming years.
In the coming weeks, a new director, associate director and faculty coordinators will all be selected for the School of Business.
Academic programs led by faculty coordinators will replace the departments of Business and Administration, Economics and Applied Professional Studies.
In regard to the Office of International Education, in the fall, Fredonia is launching it’s very own international ESL Pathway Program, due to the former ESL provider being purchased by another company.
As far as the provost’s office, Vice President Lisa Hunter is now working for Ad Astra Information Systems. Fredonia is in search of an interim associate provost.
With all of these changes, students may be wondering how this will affect them.
“The structure of what is required now is different than it used to be,” said Alyssa Pienewski.
A junior education major here at Fredonia, Pienewski has been here for almost three years, studying to be a teacher.
“They told me this year that I had to take another math class even though I had a credit from my high school for precalc,” said Pienewski. “There is also a new grad program available for freshmen that I wasn’t personally able to get into because I was a sophomore at the time, which stinks because I could have had my grad school done in one year instead of two, but that’s only for freshmen now.”
While these changes may seem to not have a huge affect on students personally, they still surely have an impact.