After appointing an Ad Hoc Committee last December to research potentially restructuring the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the College of Criminal Justice (CCJ), Provost Stephen Director announced yesterday he plans to reorganize the pair into a trio.
Director posted a 14-page document on the Provost’s website in which he recommended restructuring the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the College of Criminal Justice (CCJ) into three colleges: a College of Science; a College of Arts, Media and Design; and a College of Social Science and Humanities, under which CCJ would operate as the School of Criminal Justice– a move that some CCJ students and faculty have vocally opposed from the start, arguing it would lessen the program’s esteem.
Former CCJ Dean Jack Greene, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, said in an interview Tuesday that such a change shows Northeastern’s “symbolic disinvestment” in the criminal justice program, which was founded in 1968.
“It’s not a trivial matter to say that a place that has had a forty-year investment in something would decide to disinvest in it,” Greene said. “I’m sure the university will say that [restructuring the colleges] is not a disinvestment. Well, it’s certainly a symbolic disinvestment.”
In response to Greene’s comments, Director told The News yesterday that he believed the opposite: restructuring shows the university is investing in the criminal justice program’s advancement, he said. He said a turning point in the discussions came during a June 15th retreat, when representatives from throughout the university convened to discuss the possibility of merging CAS and CJ into one college, keeping them as two, or reorganizing them into three.
The group was broken into sub-committees to discuss the pros and cons of each structure, and the three-college committee had the most persuasive advantages, he said.
Future diplomas will likely include the degrees graduates earned, such as a criminal justice degree, instead of just the colleges they graduated from, such as the College of Social Science and Humanities, he said.
“We’re not eliminating any degree programs. We’re not closing the department down. We’re reorganizing things,” he said, later adding, “What’s important is the major: You graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in criminal justice.”
Director said the next step in the process is giving the Northeastern community a chance to comment on the recommendation and to present it to faculty senate this semester. In the interview and the report, he said he anticipates the changes to take effect by July 1, 2010.
The recommendation does not yet include locations for the Communication Studies Department, School of Education and General Studies Program within the three-college structure. Director said faculty in those programs are discussing where they believe they fit into the structure and task forces will be assigned to finish the process.
“This is a very big deal for this university,” Director said. “It positions us very differently than some other universities. ... There is certainly a strong feeling amongst a large number of diverse groups that this was a reasonable thing to move forward with.”
Still, the recommendation was met with disappointment by some members of CCJ yesterday. Sophomore criminal justice major Eric Jacobson told The News “there’s a lot of hostility and unpleasantness [among CCJ students] toward the administration right now,” and Darren Costa, president of the Criminal Justice Student Advisory Council, said he feels the “student body has been lied to.”
“We were told that before any decision was made, there would be more discussions and more forums, but they’ve already set a date for when these changes will go into affect,” he said. “We were told that there would be more students on the future committees, we were told that more students would be able to participate. We didn’t expect a final decision so early without any discussion.
But other CCJ members, like professor James Alan Fox, said the report was “reasonable” and “positive,” and said a restructure may be necessary to keep pace with the realities of changes the college has undergone in recent years. Fox said that while criminal justice previously had a large undergraduate program, it now has a large doctorate program and “a smaller undergrad with higher quality students.”
“I think this change makes a lot of sense with the changes in our program,” he said, adding that the report “clearly indicated an important role of criminal justice, that it will remain a vitally important part, not just of college of social sciences and humanities but of the university in general. I’m looking forward to the change.”
Amanda Sabia, Vice President of Academic Affairs in Student Government Association, said she feels that “for the most part, the division of colleges is a good move” but understands that students have concerns that need to be heard.
“I know that [the Provost’s office is] going to meet with students to keep them a part of what goes forward,” said Sabia. “It is not a closed-door operation. It is not set in stone, it is a recommendation.”
Costa said he will continue to fight for CCJ despite the recommendation.
“Even thought this recommendation has come in, CJ students aren’t going to back down,” Costa said. “We’ve been robbed of our identity; we are still going to be fighting for students and make their voices heard, even if the provost’s office isn’t listening.”
–News Staff Maggie Cassidy contributed to this report.
Provost recommends restructuring CAS, CCJ
Published: Thursday, September 10, 2009
Updated: Thursday, September 10, 2009 05:09
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