Wright State looks to merge colleges to reduce costs

University may also create College of Health and Human Services.

Wright State University is considering combining colleges and

departments as the school continues to examine more ways to reduce costs following its recent budget cuts.

The university could combine four colleges into two, among other mergers of schools and departments, according to an academic affffffffffffairs and enrollment report given to the board of trustees during a public meeting on Friday.

The College of Education could be merged with the College of Liberal arts to create a College of Liberal Arts and Education, according to the report. Wright State‘s College of Science and Math may be combined with its College of Engineering and Computer Science to create a STEM college.

The school of psychology could also merge with the Boonshoft School of Medicine, according to the report.

While theuniversitymaymerge some of its colleges and schools, it could also create an entirely new one. Wright State may consolidate several of its health-related programs into a College of Health and Human Services, according to the report.

“This re- grouping of academic units allows students to have a core first year health care exploration that supports a variety of majors,” the report states.

The plan to merge departments and colleges comes as Wright State looks to save more money following recent budget cuts. In June, the university slashed $30.8 million fromits fiscal year 2018 budget in an attempt to begin correcting years of overspending.

President Cheryl Schrader has said over the next several months that the university would undergo a prioritization process in order to decide what operations and programs are necessary and which ones could either be scaled down or eliminated.

She has said the university canno longer be “everything to everyone” and called on the university identify what things it does best so that it can bolster those programs and operations.

Colleges and departments will be merged at Wright State to better align academics with career pathways, develop multi disciplinary research while also reducing administrative costs, according to the report provided to the board.

“We were all reminded during our 50th anniversary thatwewere created to address the research needs for the region...Of coursewe have an obligation to the people of this region and to the taxpayers of Ohio to be financially responsible,” Schrader said.

A merger proposal with more specific details is expected in February, according to the report. The last time a similar academic review was conducted was in 1986 and it resulted in the creation of the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, according to the report.

It’s too soon to knowhow muchmoney could be saved by the mergers, provostTom Sudkamp said.

“At this point we really won’t know until we determine which are the right units to put together,” Sudkamp said understanding both the student needs and the academic needs will come and then after the determinations are made, we will understandthefinancial impact.”