[FUN_Mail] College of Arts & Sciences vs STEM College

Mon Nov 26 18:03:23 EST 2018

This was a great e-mail Ilya.

Thanks,
Alo

Alo C. Basu, Ph.D.
Neuroscience Advisor
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
College of the Holy Cross
Tel. (508) 793-3750
E-mail. abasu at holycross.edu
http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/psychology/faculty/alo-c-basu
Pronouns:she/her/hers

On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 2:19 PM Vilinsky, Ilya (vilinsia) <
vilinsia at ucmail.uc.edu> wrote:

> The question of STEM participation in Arts and Sciences colleges goes
> right to the heart of the purpose and function of overall liberal education
> at the college level. I believe these moves are driven by 1) increasing
> budget constraints, 2) decreasing enrollment in many of the traditional
> humanities majors, and 3) overall national decline in undergraduate
> enrollment. The fact is that if revenue comes from enrollment and tuition,
> STEM majors and programs more than pay their way, and have to subsidize
> arts and humanities. That may be an acceptable model to some extent, but it
> puts pressure on the system. Highly selective schools can bypass some of
> these issues (for one, they don’t face dropping enrollment and don’t worry
> about filling their incoming class), but the rest of us will have to face
> them.
>
> At the University of Cincinnati, we’ve had consistent (and increasing)
> questions about the role of A&S in general. We’ve had one department break
> off and move to another college (economics, moving to the business school),
> and there is some strain between sciences and humanities in terms of
> direction and vision. Some years ago, I heard that the University of Nevada
> Reno split their A&S-like college into sciences and humanities, with Psych
> staying in humanities (because otherwise the humanities college would have
> very little revenue base).
>
> In general it looks like STEM or science colleges do well, while
> humanities and arts shrink, unless they have programs with endowments,
> strong national reputations, or the like. Neuroscience, currently being one
> of the more popular STEM majors, should do very well in such a split.
> Interdisciplinary neuroscience programs can use this as an opportunity to
> forge stronger ties with other colleges (medicine, engineering, etc.). But
> this comes at the cost of arts and humanities, and these spits are often
> politically fraught. It sounds like at Tulane, the split has gone very well
> for sciences, and neuroscience, but I bet that arts and humanities would
> have a different take. I would be very interested to hear from others
> who’ve experienced similar reorganizations. How has the university handled
> the political implications? Who initiated the split? How did negotiations
> proceed?
>
> -Ilya
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Ilya Vilinsky, PhD
> Director, Undergraduate Neuroscience
> Associate Professor, Educator, Department of Biological Sciences
> University of Cincinnati, 614 Rieveschl Hall
> Cincinnati, OH 45221-0006
> ilya.vilinsky at uc.edu
> Phone: 513-556-9749
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 25, 2018, at 12:00 PM, fun_mail-request at lists.funfaculty.org wrote:
>
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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Re: College of Arts & Sciences vs STEM College (Wee, Beth E)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2018 20:57:25 +0000
> From: "Wee, Beth E" <bwee at tulane.edu>
> To: Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Mailing List
> <fun_mail at lists.funfaculty.org>
> Subject: Re: [FUN_Mail] College of Arts & Sciences vs STEM College
> Message-ID:
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>
> Tulane University has had a School of Science and Engineering since 2006
> when the university had to regroup after Hurricane Katrina.
> It has worked very well, as the science and engineering faculty have many
> collaborations together. Fortunately, Psychology is with the School. Our
> Neuroscience Program is interdisciplinary with the Medical School and
> Primate Center as well as with the School of Liberal Arts. (I can talk more
> specific with you Judy, separate from the listserve).
>
> We have a Neuroscience teaching position advertised now, as well:
>
> https://neurojobs.sfn.org/jobs/11661439/professor-of-practice-neuroscience-program
> Direct link to application: https://apply.interfolio.com/55153
>
> From: FUN_Mail <fun_mail-bounces at lists.funfaculty.org> On Behalf Of
> Judith Ogilvie
> Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2018 10:50 AM
> To: fun_mail at lists.funfaculty.org
> Subject: [FUN_Mail] College of Arts & Sciences vs STEM College
>
>
> We have a strong push from some members of the faculty in our College of
> Arts & Sciences to move to a College of Science & Engineering, leaving
> behind a College of Arts & Humanities (or if the College of Engineering
> doesn't want us, to form a separate College of Science, although I think
> this is unlikely). Do any of my fellow FUN colleagues have experience with
> the pros and cons? I should note that  right now, as a member of a Biology
> Dept, I am just interested in broad information as to what kinds of
> differences there might be in overall culture, recruitment, teaching loads,
> competition for resources, support for interdisciplinary programs, and
> everything that we are forgetting to think about. If this moves forward, I
> will have to address the impact on our Neuroscience Program, which is an
> interdisciplinary major run jointly with Biology and Psychology. I am sure
> that Biology would move with Sciences and most likely Neuroscience, but I
> expect that Psychology Department might be spli
> t on which way to go.  But we aren't there yet....
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for any thoughts or experience you might have.
>
> -Judy Ogilvie
>
>
>
>
>
> ****************************************************
> Judith Mosinger Ogilvie, Ph.D., FARVO
> Associate Professor of Biology
>
> Co-Director, Neuroscience Program
>
> Saint Louis University
>
>
>
> Office:  Morrissey 2513
>
> 3700 Lindell Boulevard
> St. Louis, MO  63108
> email:      judith.ogilvie at slu.edu<mailto:ogilviej at slu.edu>
> Phone:     314-977-3965<file://localhost/tel/314-977-3965>
> Fax:         314-977-1014<file://localhost/tel/314-977-3658>
>
>
>
> Lab:         Schwitalla M109
>
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> Phone:     314-977-1711<file://localhost/tel/314-977-3965>
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