From: News Alert E-Memo (memofrom@Colorado.EDU)
Date: Wed Aug 25 2010 - 14:12:06 MDT
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:12:06 -0600 (MDT) From: News Alert E-Memo <memofrom@Colorado.EDU> Subject: Program Discontinuance Review and Exploratory Committee
TO: Boulder Campus Teaching & Research Faculty, Staff,
Deans, Directors, Dept Chairs, System Administration, All Students
FROM: Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic
Affairs
SENDER: Interim Provost Russell Moore
DATE: August 25, 2010
SUBJECT: Program Discontinuance Review and Exploratory Committee
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:
CU-Boulder Interim Provost Russell Moore has authorized release of the
following press statement announcing the formation of an exploratory
committee to consider the structure and organization of a new
interdisciplinary academic program of information and communication
technology and the initiation of a program discontinuance review of the
School of Journalism and Mass Communication by the Academic Review and
Planning Advisory Committee.
CU-BOULDER COMMITTEE TO STUDY FUTURE OF
JOURNALISM COURSE AND DEGREE OFFERINGS
The University of Colorado at Boulder today announced the formation of an
exploratory committee to consider the structure and organization of a new
interdisciplinary academic program of information and communication
technology.
"We want to strategically realign resources and strengths currently existing
on the CU-Boulder campus to ensure that course and degree offerings meet the
needs of students, the labor market, our campus mission and the
communications needs of a rapidly changing global society," said Chancellor
Philip P. DiStefano.
"News and communications transmission as well as the role of the press and
journalism in a democratic society are changing at a tremendous pace. We
must change with it."
The creation of an exploratory committee will help to maximize the
opportunity to form a new academic unit that will draw on existing strengths
to prepare students for an ever-changing communications and media
marketplace. The committee will forward recommendations to the provost by
the end of the fall semester.
At the same time, the Academic Review and Planning Advisory Committee, or
ARPAC, will initiate the process of program discontinuance of the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication for strategic and budgetary realignment.
"In order to create a new program, we need to go through the formal process
of evaluating how the School of Journalism and Mass Communication will
change," said Interim Provost Russell Moore. "Changes to any academic
program with tenured faculty must follow the Regent Policy on Program
Discontinuance."
Earlier today, DiStefano met with journalism Dean Paul Voakes and Interim
Provost Russell Moore met with faculty from the School of Journalism and
Mass Communication to explain the vision for a new program of information
and communication technology.
The vision has been discussed on the CU-Boulder campus for several years and
has been adopted in varying forms at peer universities.
"Many of our peer universities have already responded to the challenges of
the networked Information Age in different ways," Moore said. "More than 30
schools and colleges have been created across the nation to respond to the
changing media and communications digital landscape including UC-Berkeley,
Washington, Rutgers, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan and Wisconsin."
In 2009, the College of Information Task Force was charged with examining a
new educational model and presented their report to Interim Provost Stein
Sture on April 15 of this year. The task force report made several
recommendations but did not address the future of the School of Journalism
and Mass Communication.
After the program discontinuance process is initiated on Sept. 1, a report
from ARPAC's program discontinuance committee will be due to the provost
within 60 days. The provost will review the report and make his
recommendations to the chancellor 30 days later. Both the exploratory
committee's recommendation and the ARPAC report will be considered by the
chancellor for a decision and recommendation to the Board of Regents
sometime in early 2011.
In September, ARPAC will host open forums for faculty and students who have
questions about the program discontinuance process. Open forums for faculty
will be Tuesday, Sept. 7, and Wednesday, Sept. 8, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in
University Memorial Center room 235. Open forums for School of Journalism
and Mass Communication students will be held Tuesday, Sept. 14, from 3 to 5
p.m. and Wednesday, Sept. 15, from noon to 2 p.m. in UMC room 235.
Regardless of the outcome of the two committees, all undergraduate and
graduate students who have been admitted to the school will be able to
complete their degrees.
"The schools and colleges attracting excellent students, and preparing them
for the new media and networked Information Age environment, are schools
that while acknowledging the critical role the press and journalism have
played in our democracy, approach information and communication technology
broadly and comprehensively,- DiStefano said. "This visionary work is
consistent with who we are as Colorado's flagship university. This action
lives up to the promise of our Flagship 2030 Strategic Plan to give students
the tools for success in their careers."
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