College of Liberal Arts & Education: What’s Changing

The Highlighter and Laureate, Winter 2002

As of July 1, 2002, the former colleges of Liberal Arts and Education & Human Services became one and the two administrative office teams combined into a single team.
Why did the University do that?

A university stays intellectually healthy when some of its energy is focussed on pushing the boundaries of its disciplines and some of its energy prepares students to use those disciplines for other professional purposes. By bringing together a richer mix of both kinds of teaching, the new College of Liberal Arts and Education should enhance UDM’s already strong tradition of the professional and the academic.

The new College will have a strong balance between programs whose majors launch graduates into professional practice (e.g., Education, Psychology, Communications Studies, Social Work, Counseling) and programs whose degree majors launch students toward graduate study (e.g., a Ph.D. program in History, Philosophy, Religious Studies or English) or as an in-depth background for their next career move (as in a Political Science or History major who goes on to law school).

For Term I Fall:

Sociology and Criminal Justice combined into the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice with offices on the first floor of the Briggs Building.
Math and Computer Science have relocated from the second floor of the Briggs building to the Engineering building.
Over the next few months, construction projects will occur in the Briggs building and in the Student Center on the McNichols Campus. When construction is complete, University Advising Services will move into the Student Center on the lower level.
In the Briggs building, Room 136 will become a commuter student lounge. Several Briggs classrooms will be converted into faculty offices, making room for the faculty from the departments of Social Work, English, Religious Studies, and Legal Administration.

For Term II Winter:

Classes in the departments of Education, Social Work , English, Religious Studies, Legal Administration and undergraduate Psychology will move to the McNichols Campus. These moves will probably take place over Christmas break.
Counseling, Addiction Studies and Theatre departments, as well as grduate courses in Psychology and the Psychology Clinic will remain on the Outer Drive Campus.

Next Stage Changes

The University will continue to move remaining undergraduate and graduate programs to the McNichols Campus over the next one to two years.

Theatre will move to new quarters in Reno Hall on the McNichols Campus.
The Psychology Department and Clinic, the Addiction Studies and Counseling faculty and lab, and the Education Department will move to new quarters on the McNichols Campus (probably next summer).

The Long-term Campus Renovation Plan:

The University has begun a major geographical move to bring all the non-professional schools (i.e. all the colleges except Dentistry and Law) together on the McNichols Campus. As a result, over the next several years you will see major investments in:

new laboratories and clinic spaces;
new student service sites;
renovations of residence halls (providing a range of room options from suites to singles);
heating/cooling systems for each building (phasing out the central steam plant which has provided so many delights to classrooms and residence halls).