College of Education takes on new name
The College of Education is going through the process of changing its name to the College of Education and Human Services.
The change will be made in an effort to include other departments that are in the College of Education but do not specifically study education.
Mike Freeman, one of two associate deans in the college, said he got looking at the name last year and decided it might be time for a change.
“It will make us much broader and show depth,” Freeman said. “But, it still puts education first, because that’s primarily what we do.”
Freeman said other departments included in the college right now are psychology, communicative disorders, family and human development, and consumer and family science. All these, he said, don’t directly tie into education.
Francine Johnson, the other associate dean in the college, said she felt the same way.
“We felt that the name was not representative of all that the college is involved with,” Johnson said. She cited the instructional technology, health education, some HPER programs and instructional design as other programs not purely educational.
Since the College of Family Life was cut last year, some of those programs have been put into the College of Education, Johnson said, which has added to the diversity of the college.
“There was discussion prior to that [about a name change],” she said. “But, it felt even more right after those programs were added in.”
Maren Sanders, a freshman majoring in psychology, is one of those whose program is in the College of Education, but who is not actually studying education.
“It would incorporate a lot more,” she said of the change in name. “It will give people who aren’t necessarily in education, but in the college, a place to belong.”
Sanders mentioned that the College of HASS includes a lot of programs that aren’t all the same, so it might be OK for Education to do the same.
Mindee Brown, a junior in elementary education, felt the same.
“If FHD is going to be included in the college,” she said, “then it needs to be labeled as such.”
Brown said she was hesitant about adding the name Human Services to the end, thinking there might be a better phrase to substitute, but in the end agreed that it worked OK.
Sophomore KeithAyn Evans, who is getting a dual major in severe and early childhood special education, agrees with the name change.
“It will better represent everything we do through the College of Education,” she said.
Evans, who is minoring in FHD, said a lot of people who are majoring in any field of education take FHD classes too, so it would make sense.
Sydney Peterson, assistant provost, said the change in name proposal was on the agenda for the Board of Trustees when it met Friday and will go to the Board of Regents at a later time, maybe March or April.
Freeman said the actual proposal came through the college Marketing Committee sometime last fall, but students suggested for the change of name to be waited on until the College of Family Life situation had settled. So, they waited.
Once the FHD department had been situated into the College of Education, the name changing process began, Freeman said.
Johnson said going through the Board of Trustees and the Board of Regents is basically a matter of formality. She assumed the Board of Regents would pass the proposal in March.
Johnson said there is no opposition to the name change.
“The college was unified about this,” she said.
–emilieholmes@cc.usu.edu