The world of higher education is rapidly changing. As news breaks and the world turns, new and different fields of study gain popularity among professors and students. And at the University, increased demand for these academic pursuits takes shape in the form of new programs, which sometimes eventually become new departments.
Recently, the University announced the creation of three new College departments: the department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures; the department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures; and the media studies department.
Calls for academic change
According to Interim College Dean Karen Ryan, the road to becoming a fully-realized department starts with students and faculty.
Ryan said the process itself is akin to a dialogue between University staff and administrators.
"I would say there is a large, ongoing conversation that the dean's office is always having with the department chairs," Ryan said.
Ryan noted that these conversations strive to determine "pressure points" and other areas of burgeoning academic interest so as to determine the possible viability of new programs and departments not currently offered by the College.
Ryan added, though, that the ambitions of those involved are vital to the growth of a new department. Although noting that most new departments are outgrowths of former interdisciplinary programs in high demand, she said professors and students must also desire or feel the need for a new department.
"We have a really wonderful linguistics program," Ryan noted. "But ... they don't aspire to be their own department."
On the other hand, Ryan said, there was a clear demand and need for the three new College departments. Two of the departments -- East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures -- once jointly composed the now defunct department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, whereas the media studies department evolved from its former program-level status.
Politics Prof. Leonard Schoppa, former chair of the College's committee on educational policy and curriculum, said for the East Asian and Middle Eastern departments, the primary impetus for approval was the realization that the study of the languages and cultures within those departments has become increasingly important during the past decade.
Schoppa also noted that the old department, which had been home to a plethora of languages and cultures, had become "unwieldy."
Anne Kinney, chair for the department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures, said in a previous Cavalier Daily article that the reasons for the split in the department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures were practicality and the desire for a more focused mission.
"Essentially, the Middle East and East Asia do not share a geographical area or a cultural sphere," Kinney said. "For both departments, the benefit is that each program can continue to grow in ways that really support that individual program [with] a more coherent mission and a more cohesive faculty."
Considering the benefits
Ryan said close collaboration with both the administration and the provost's office is necessary to determine whether a new department should be created.
"There are practical reasons, and then there are more ideational or abstract reasons why we do it," Ryan said. "From the College's point of view, we think about whether or not a discipline has its own intellectual integrity."
"Intellectual integrity," according to Ryan, describes whether a program being considered for departmental status is able to create or access new knowledge through different means not readily found in current programs.
"In the case of media studies, it was easy," Ryan said. "It creates knowledge through a means that is different ... They don't use the same methodologies."
Andrea Press, chair of the media studies department and professor of sociology, said the dean's office was strongly committed to expanding her program.
Ryan said her office also considers the practical reasons for forming a new department. These reasons, she said, largely deal with hiring, promotion and tenure.
"For someone to earn tenure, they have to be in a department," Ryan said. "When we hired or tenured people in media studies, they had to have tenure in another department."
Ryan said this was both confusing and impractical, noting that one could easily have a hypothetical situation in which a media studies professor doing research only in the field of media studies could nevertheless be tenured as a professor in sociology.
Press said these practical developments are the most important ones for the new media studies department.
"We are hoping to hire several new professors," Press said, adding that an increase in the number of media studies professors might also lead to more changes in the department, such as the creation of graduate-level degree and certificate programs.
"We are hoping we can build critical mass," Press said.
Schoppa also said the initial process behind department creation lies in the communication between the dean's office and the chairs of programs up for consideration.
"A lot of it happens before we even see it -- they drew up a proposal for the new department, and that was submitted to the committee for us to review," Schoppa said.
Schoppa added that in many instances, the CEPC reviews internal College changes. This committee review, Schoppa said, is "to keep the curriculum rational."
The final say
According to Ryan, the next step for a program seeking to gain department status after being approved by the College dean's office is the provost's office.
Clo Phillips, associate provost for institutional advancement, said the provost's office is contacted if the University wants to make a departmental change or create a new degree program.
Citing her knowledge of the media studies program's transformation to a department, Phillips said the provost's office "asked [the media studies program] to provide a rationale about -- and a clear statement of -- what they are doing, and why they want to do it."
Phillips also said programs campaigning for departmental status must provide an "impact statement," focusing on how faculty members, students and the University's budget might be affected if the department becomes a reality.
Once a program is submitted for consideration, Phillips said the provost and his senior staff meet to discuss the matter, with each person bringing his or her unique perspectives to the table.
In the end, according to Phillips, "it's officially [the provost's] call, but he has sought input from many, and the deans have also spoken with him."
If a new department is approved by the provost, Phillips said her office then contacts officials working with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
SCHEV spokeswoman Kathleen Kincheloe said the University must gain SCHEV approval in cases such as the establishment of a completely new degree program.
"We require that they fill out forms with descriptions of how that unit will operate," Kincheloe said.
Phillips said SCHEV distinguishes between "simple" and "complex" changes, noting that the recently created departments were considered simple changes, while the recent creation of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy was a complex change.
Phillips added that in cases involving a change in a degree's name, approval by both the Faculty Senate and the University's Board of Visitors is needed.
Looking ahead to the future of the College, Ryan said she does not foresee any more new programs or departments being approved in the coming year.
"It doesn't happen in a year," Ryan said. "It's a process that takes a conversation of several years"
Read More
Winsome Earle-Sears talks higher education in first U.Va. event of the campaign
By Ford McCracken | 13 hours agoA Jamaican immigrant and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Earle-Sears is the first female lieutenant governor of Virginia,
U.Va.'s Earth Day Eco-Fair 2025 spotlights sustainability advocacy
By Leigh Bailey | 14 hours agoStudents from Contracted Independent Organizations and University Office of Sustainability leadership programs each shared their unique perspectives about sustainability advocacy on Grounds.
Student Council votes to relocate Hereford orchard and basketball hoop
By Lauren Seeliger | YesterdayStudent Council passed a resolution Tuesday to relocate the orchard and basketball hoop of Hereford Residential College due to construction in the surrounding area.
