Provost's office rethinks University College

The Provost’s Office is reviewing the viability of a part of UNM that may come as a surprise to many: University College.
Wynn Goering, the vice provost for Academic Affairs, said the Provost’s Office has discussed partitioning University College into smaller components.

“University College is a pretty eclectic set of programs … to be managing under one umbrella,” he said.
Beyond being a landing zone for incoming freshmen, University
College also acts as an organizational catchall for several academic programs, including interdisciplinary programs like the Chicano and Native American Studies programs, the University Honors Program and Bachelor of University Studies — a function that Goering said is coming under fire.

Since President Schmidly came from a university where freshmen enrolled directly in degree-granting schools or colleges, Goering said Schmidly questioned the University College’s purpose.

Provost Suzanne Ortega said Schmidly’s concerns precipitated a review of University College and its efficacy as a foster home for
orphaned academic programs.

“Our overriding intention is to find ways to strengthen the interdisciplinary programs currently housed in University College,” she said.
While these questions are being considered, the office of the Dean of University College has been left vacant, and Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs Richard Holder and Goering have assumed directorship of the college during the review, Ortega said.
“In order to hire our next dean, it is important that we clarify the structure of the college we will be asking him or her to lead,” Ortega said.

For now, it does not appear as though there will be any cataclysmic shifts in the way freshmen begin their education at UNM.
As it stands, Goering said he favors the structure in place at University College.

“I think having a University College for (students) in which explicitly we say this is a year when you get your bearings is a good model,” he said. “If you look at our freshman-to-sophomore retention figures over the past 12 years or so, when we were really getting serious about building University College into this unit, they’ve improved dramatically. And I think that’s the proof that we have the right idea.”
Yet Goering said he agreed UNM needs to examine whether it’s appropriate that University College act as a home for interdisciplinary programs like the University Honors Program.

“There’s clearly an interest in making Honors more prominent in what we do at UNM, and that involves its relationship to the residence halls and to other programming which has traditionally been in other areas,” Goering said.

Whether any action is taken, though, remains a matter to be considered, Ortega said.
“In the end, it is quite possible that our current University College structure will be the best (solution)” she said.