Interim President Tim Miller and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jay Morgan sent a campus-wide email addressing student concerns with the dissolve of the College of Health Sciences and Human Services.
The email states:
“For the past few months MSU has been working through balancing a budget deficit that occurred as a result of an increase in unanticipated expenses and through reductions in higher education support for the State of Kentucky.”
That budget deficit consists of $2.5 million.
The Academic Council met Thursday afternoon and came to a unanimous decision to collapse the College of Health Sciences and Human Services by moving the existing departments to other appropriate colleges. The move to dissolve the college will still have to be approved by the Board of Regents at its March meeting, along with the other list of budget recommendations.
The email emphasized the following points:
- No academic programs or majors will be eliminated.
- No faculty or advisers will be eliminated.
- No student workers will be eliminated.
- All academic programs and classes or labs will remain in the same building location.
- The programs students are enrolled in will still have the same name.
- Student advisers will not change.
- Students will still receive the same degree with the same title on their diplomas.
The Academic Council voted to restructure and rename two existing colleges in order to absorb the College of Health Sciences and Human Services. One of those will be the College of Education and Human Services that will contain education and human services programs.
The other renamed college will be the School of Nursing and Health Professions that will contain nursing and other professional health programs currently in the College of Health Sciences and Human Services.
The department of Occupational Safety and Health will join the Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology.
“In undergoing this restructuring to lower our administrative expenses we have kept our commitment to not eliminating any academic programs,” the email states. “MSU’s loyalty will continue to be to our students, as well as to our faculty and the academic enterprise – the real reason we are here.
“Thank you for your understanding of these changes – they should not affect you, your academic program effectiveness, or your success in any way.”
