This past summer, Neumann University dissolved its School of Arts and Sciences and moved the A&S majors into new departments.
“I was hired to come to Neumann and restructure academics to position Neumann for the future,” said Interim Provost Katie Barnes, who worked in coordination with the academic deans to develop this change.
The removal of Arts and Sciences is not as drastic as it sounds, according to administrators, as students who had majors in the school are keeping their majors, and faculty who taught in the school still teach the same courses as before.
Sciences moved to the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Social sciences and humanities moved to the School of Education and Human Services (now the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education). Communication and Digital Media, Mathematics, fine arts, and languages all moved to the School of Business.
“The new collaborative environments are allowing faculty to create new innovative curriculum for students,” Barnes stated.
Students getting to interact with faculties from different departments has the potential to help those with likeminded interests work together more frequently.
New innovative curricular ideas have already been in development, as mathematics moving to the School of Business has paved away for a fun and exciting “math escape room” coming soon.
“Part of the change has been an intentional effort to collaborate across programs, which I hope has benefitted both faculty and students,” said Amy Hoyle, the dean of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education. “We stood alone as schools, and faculty were siloed to some degree, which wasn’t the intention ever, but that’s how it had grown.”
