CAS Transition
College of Arts and Sciences Transitions
January, 2008
The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) was the most ambitious piece of the Final Plan for a Sustainable SOU (March 2007). Forming one College from three Schools was the result of creative faculty wishing to strengthen SOU's focus and increase the visibility of the University's many diverse offerings. Additionally, 27 separate departments and programs have merged into 15 units.
Please make sure to visit the Satellite Teams and Process of Change pages for further information.
Here are a few of the things we’ve accomplished to date:
- The CAS Chairs' Council, composed of 15 Department Chairs and the deans, has become a thoughtful governing body for the College. We are learning about each department and making strides in how we make decisions together. Some of our current tasks:
- Designing an effective “snapshot” that adequately communicates the goals, programs, scope, resources, costs, and contributions of each department.
- Designing a Summer Session program that is student focused and works within our current budget constraints.
- Building a budget for next year in collaboration with Finance and Administration.
- We have a lively and functioning CAS Dean's Office. Our office of six is responsible for overseeing the financial, personnel, and curricular issues of the College, 15 departments, and several other programs.
- Barbara Cantrell – As Executive Manager, Barbara provides wise council and guidance, overseeing the many details of the fiscal and personnel business of the CAS Office.
- Debi Holcombe - Although Debi is Office Coordinator, she wears numerous hats including Computer Science Coordinator, Graduate Program Office Coordinator, and files guru. She has made a speedy adjustment to SOU and is a strong member of our team.
- Claire Cross – Our CAS Summer Session Director finished last year’s accounting and revised the entire process for building next summer’s offerings to be more student focused. She continues to work closely with department chairs, the Provost and the deans. Claire also has several new programs she’s working on including an Ethnography Field Camp and classes at Deer Creek Center for Field Research and Education.
- Nick Ellis – Our events coordinator has worked on the President’s Investiture, Homecoming, Alumni dinner, and the annual COPLAC conference to be held at SOU in June. As the CAS web manager, Nick continues to update the web site, has assessed and revised many departmental web pages.
- Vicki Purslow – As the Associate Dean, Vicki has worked closely with several programs including Digital Media Foundations, Communication, Art, and Music. She helped select the campus scheduling software and is an active member of the Provost’s Search Committee. She continues to collaborate with the Dean, the Budget Office, and department Chairs and Office Coordinators to sort out this year’s budget, changes in departments, and fiscal accounting. When students have concerns, Vicki is responsive and pragmatic in helping.
- Josie Wilson – As Acting Dean, Josie has spent much of the fall sorting through budget and personnel issues to be sure that the reorganization happens as it should. She is also part of the AP:SOU Collective Bargaining team. Currently, she is involved in some creative dean work including: helping to design the theatre expansion project, working with departments on marketing, redesigning the School Area Graduate Program into an Interdisciplinary Masters Program, revamping the catalog for CAS and each department, and overseeing faculty sabbatical applications, evaluations, and the promotion and tenure process.
Additional CAS Transition Issues:
We formed a new Core Team in August to oversee the process of change because of shift in personnel as Dean Joe Graf and Dean Dan Morris left their roles. We decided that in addition to including the new Assoc. Dean, it was important to ensure representation from each of the former schools. Thus, the new Core Team includes: Josie Wilson, Vicki Purslow, Greg Pleva, Terry DeHay, Linda Wilcox-Young, Nick Ellis, and Barbara Cantrell.
We met several times in late summer and early fall to review the progress of the Transition Teams. We will reassemble this winter to assess the transition process, make a progress report to the Executive Council and the University Planning Council, and then pass on oversight to the CAS Chairs’ Council and CAS Dean’s Office.
Of the 15 Transition Teams, seven have completed their work, made recommendations, and been disbanded. Three continue to make considerable progress on their charges and five disbanded because their charge either was not sufficiently clear or was taken up in other parts of the organization. For more information on each team, see Satellite Teams.
Please check in again in the spring as we celebrate our first successful academic year and look back on a tumultuous and creative year.
