OU to rename Health & Human Services, create health center

Ohio University Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit announced the first set of major changes that will restructure parts of the university, beginning fall 2010, renaming the College of Health and Human Services and creating a new Academic Health Center.

The College of Health and Human Services will be called the College of Health Sciences and Professions, and some of its consumer sciences programs will be scattered across the university into other areas where the EVPP said they will increase efficiencies.

The moves will not cost anybody their jobs, and it is not yet known how much money these shifts will save, said Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.

"It (the College of Health Sciences and Professions) will become a major academic driver in the Academic Health Center and is expected to become a leader in the state for high demand health programs and innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to teaching, student success, and research in the health sciences and professions," Benoit wrote in an email to faculty and staff Thursday. "My expectation is that this refocused college also will become a major recipient of grant and contract funding."

The Early Childhood Education Program and the Child Development Center will move to the College of Education, which will change its name to better reflect its widened mission, according to Benoit. Physical Education, Recreation Studies and Coaching Education will also move to the College of Education, creating the Department of Recreation and Sports Pedagogy.

The Restaurant, Hotel and Tourism, Retail Merchandising and Family and Consumer Sciences Education will also join the College of Education, a move that College of Education Dean Renee Middleton said is not uncommon for other colleges of education.

"If you look at other models out there, this is not inconsistent," Middleton said. "We are happy to receive those programs and their faculty."

While nobody has decided on a new name for the College of Education yet, Middleton said some possibilities are the College of Education and Human Development and the College of Human Sciences.

"Faculty are beginning to think about (the name change)," Middleton said. "We are trying to get as much feedback as possible from faculty...We must change the name so we can capture what will be a changed mission."

On top of the programs moving to the College of Education, two other former College of Health and Human Services will transition to other colleges next fall. The Interior Architecture Program will move to the School of Art in the College of Fine Arts, and Sports Administration and the Center for Sports Administration will move to the College of Business, under the new name of the Department of Sports Administration.

Students will see very little change in their programs, though, insisted College of Health and Human Services Interim Dean Randy Leite.

"It is important to acknowledge that these moves are about pursuing new long-term opportunities," Leite said. "In the short-term, students will not experience any major differences."

All programs will include the same requirements, and the same faculty will teach in the same locations, Leite said.

"The only short-term difference will be that students in the programs that will move to different colleges who graduate after this summer will have their degrees conferred by those new colleges," Leite said.

Faculty and staff will feel more immediate impacts of the moves, Leite said. None of them will immediately move from Grover Center, but they will be part of new academic units.

"In talking to the deans of the colleges that are proposed to receive programs currently housed in the College of Health and Human Services, I have been struck by how committed they are to making sure faculty in the relocating programs are fully and positively integrated into their new homes," Leite said.

THE NEW ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTER will join together parts of the College of Health Sciences and Professions and the College of Osteopathic Medicine, to provide a better chance for collaboration and learning across the university's health-related programs, according to Benoit.

The Academic Health Center, though still a concept, will help the university "facilitate greater integration of academic, research and clinical endeavors in ways that enhance the prepation of health professionals, and, ultimately, the care and service that those professionals provide," said Leite.

The formation of the Academic Health Center will also help the university pursue new grant and research opportunities and help the university be better positioned to develop new programs to respond to current areas of need in health fields, Leite said.

"The work of the Academic Health Center Steering Committee and my own knowledge of the advantages that these centers carry for educational opportunities, quality health care provision, and research convinced me that this was a necessary and appropriate entity to establish," Benoit wrote in Thursday's email. Benoit's former university and one of OU's Peer Institutions, the University of Missouri "“ Columbia, had an academic health center.

Nationwide, there are more than 100 academic health centers, according to the Association of Academic Health Centers. Academic health centers "are essential to the nation's higher education system as they educate tomorrow's health care providers and pioneers," and consist of "an allopathic or osteopathic medical school, one or more other health profession schools or programs (such as allied health, dentistry, graduate studies, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine), and one or more owned or affiliated teaching hospitals, health systems, or other organized health care services."

Although the restructuring initially was suggested by the administration, both the formation of the Academic Health Center and the moving of programs from the College of Health and Human Services happened with the input of faculty, Fidler and Leite both said.

Several dozen faculty and staff in affected areas submitted feedback to Benoit before she made her final decisions on the restructuring, Leite said.

"I can personally attest to how much time and effort faculty and staff in the College of Health and Human Services put into developing input to the Provost," Leite said. "This has been a process that was extensively drawn out because of the desire to have those involved in the proposed changes explore the various dimensions of the move."

Now that the changes have been announced, Benoit laid out a timeline on her website for how the process will move forward. Deans are to meet and submit a list of matters to be resolved and who will resolve them by Jan. 7, and deans are to form transition teams and submit the details of those teams to the EVPP by Jan. 15.

Because the university will be switching to PeopleSoft in the coming year, the university must decide on much of the final details of the restructuring process by March 10, so that the Board of Trustees and the University Curriculum Council can approve the changes to dovetail with the PeopleSoft switch.

Planning for the Academic Health Center is not expected to be submitted for EVPP approval until Dec. 1, 2010. Academic health centers "are essential to the nation's higher education system as they educate tomorrow's health care providers and pioneers," and consist of "an allopathic or osteopathic medical school, one or more other health profession schools or programs (such as allied health, dentistry, graduate studies, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine), and one or more owned or affiliated teaching hospitals, health systems, or other organized health care services," according to the AAH's Web site.

Although the restructuring initially was suggested by the administration, both the formation of the Academic Health Center and the moving of programs from the College of Health and Human Services happened with the input of faculty, Fidler and Leite both said.

Several dozen faculty and staff in affected areas submitted feedback to Benoit before she made her final decisions on the restructuring, Leite said.

"I can personally attest to how much time and effort faculty and staff in the College of Health and Human Services put into developing input to the Provost," Leite said. "This has been a process that was extensively drawn out because of the desire to have those involved in the proposed changes explore the various dimensions of the move."

Now that the changes have been announced, Benoit laid out a timeline on her website for how the process will move forward. Deans are to meet and submit a list of matters to be resolved and who will resolve them by Jan. 7, and deans are to form transition teams and submit the details of those teams to the EVPP by Jan. 15.

Because the university will be switching to PeopleSoft in the coming year, the university must decide on much of the final details of the restructuring process by March 10, so that the Board of Trustees and the University Curriculum Council can approve the changes to dovetail with the PeopleSoft switch.

Planning for the Academic Health Center is not expected to be submitted for EVPP approval until Dec. 1, 2010.