OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A new academic structure has been approved by faculty at UW-Oshkosh, an effort which is expected to save about $1.5 million per year – as the school continues to cope with a budget deficit.
UWO currently has four colleges, but those will be consolidated into three:
- College of Business, Media & Communication
- College of Culture, Society & Education
- College of Nursing, Health Professionals & STEM
The model selected was known as Model A in the review process.
“This new interdisciplinary three-college, six-school structure was guided by our first Academic Planning Principle, challenging us to “Build an academy around student-centered career pathways and nationally recognized career clusters aligning UWO with career planning processes used in K-12 systems.” The model was also designed to preserve disciplinary integrity within an interdisciplinary framework. And the model contributes significantly to eliminating our structural deficit by significantly reducing administrative and instructional costs,” wrote Provost Edwin Martini in an email.
“My pledge to you is, has been, and will be, that we will do this together. We have gotten to this point together, and we will continue to build our future together. In the weeks ahead, the transition team will share our draft plans for the implementation process. As we have throughout this process, we will solicit your input and feedback to improve those plans and ask for your continued engagement,” he wrote.
Faculty had two rounds of voting. In the first round, Model A had 123 votes, Model B had 62, Neither had 66. That eliminated Model B. In the second round, Model A had 164 votes, while Neither had 87.
As the Universities of Wisconsin has coped with dropping enrollment, several changes have been made at campuses across the state. That has included layoffs and furloughs at UW-Oshkosh, and the end of in-person instruction at its Fond du Lac campus.
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