University of Texas Permian Basin is undergoing an academic transformation to promote more collaboration and cooperation between academic areas.
Raj Dakshinamurthy, Provost/Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, said the plan has been approved by the faculty and President Sandra Woodley.
This will include adding programs into existing colleges, such as the College of Health Sciences and Human Performance.
The College of Engineering will have sciences added and there will be a new College of Arts and Humanities.
These are in addition to the College of Education and College of Business.
Dakshinamurthy said colleges are also being resized to make sure they are able to provide enough oversight and resources administratively.
He said he thinks it is time for the College of Arts and Humanities to be its own college with its own dean.
“Creating a separate college for College of Arts and Sciences, Arts and Humanities (will) really help us to streamline structurally, administratively resources. And then resizing will help us to manage it better and also increase and encourage collaboration. In order for us to see this through, we are now in the process of hiring appropriate leaders in the college level and the department level. That’s the piece we need. We can bring all the pieces of the puzzle (together), but we need a puzzle solver who can help us to put the puzzle together,” Dakshinamurthy said.
The new dean will add value to the College of Arts and Humanities, be able to communicate better with the community and promote it more.
“We are aligning our academic program in such a way that the students and the parents can see through the degree path how their career is going to be, what their career is going to be in the long run, what are the benefits for them?
“Instead of seeing an undergraduate or graduate degree, we are basically telling them here’s a pathway for you to become a doctor, become an engineer, become a scientist, become an accountant, become a price designer … We are basically taking advantage of this reorganization to administratively adjust several things, too,” Dakshinamurthy said.
