Interim President Alan L. Smith announces proposal for college merger

As part of Utah State University’s mandated strategic reinvestment effort, Interim President Alan L. Smith announced a proposal of two major college mergers in an email to all university students, employees and staff on April 10 as part of a strategic reinvestment plan required by House Bill 265. The restructuring aims to cut $12.5 million from current activities and reinvest in strategic academic areas while also navigating a separate $4.8 million budget reduction.

The university must cut $12.5 million from current activities and reinvest in new strategic initiatives under the requirements of HB265. This process runs alongside a separate $4.8 million budget reduction already underway through a voluntary separation incentive program and campus-wide efficiency efforts.

The first structural change will merge the Caine College of the Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Science into a new college aligned with national models for arts and sciences. Current CHaSS Dean Joe Ward will lead the new college.

The second merger will combine the S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources with the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences. A leader for this college has not yet been named.

The email states “these mergers will strategically enhance academic programming, foster interdisciplinary scholarship, and significantly improve our ability to meet the evolving needs of our students and the state of Utah.”

According to USUSA Student Advocate-elect Colin Hastings, Student Body President Matt Richey held a Q&A with current and incoming officers to address concerns following the announcement, including the fate of newly-elected senators for the colleges being merged.

“As of now, those senators were elected to represent their students. They’re going to continue representing their students,” Hastings said. 

All USUSA scholarships, including the newly elected Academic Senate’s, will go unchanged for the next academic year.

Abbigail Lane, senator for QCNR, said although senators will maintain their positions, their job descriptions will likely change. 

“There are going to be three senators for one college now,” Lane said. “We’re being encouraged to work together and potentially restructure Academic Senate to better serve the new USU.”

Lane expressed concern over the merger’s potential impact on the colleges and majors involved.

“My initial reaction to reading this was just disbelief,” Lane said. “I feel very sad and disappointed to know that my college that I love so much will no longer exist as we know it come the new school year.”

CHaSS senator Landry Hunter shared a similar sentiment.

“I do fully understand that Utah State is doing what they can to put students first in this situation and there’s a greater problem at hand, but I can’t help but worry about the staff that have been so kind and wonderful to me,” Hunter said. “CHaSS has been a large part of my family. I can’t help but be very disappointed in seeing such negative things happen to a college that I’ve developed a real love for.”

Both Lane and Hunter fear the budget cuts and mergers will lead to the university dissolving majors with smaller numbers of graduates.

“There has been talk of some pretty important majors to students being dissolved, and that’s just not something that anybody wants to see,” Hunter said. “I want every student that is able to come to Utah State University to feel like they have a whole scope of opportunities here. Any restriction of opportunities in this way is going to be detrimental to students no matter how you shake it out.”

Lauren Tougas, CCA senator, said the merger will be a big adjustment.

“I think it’s going to be a reallocation of teachers — of staff — and just figuring out if students’ majors stay intact or if we have to reassess a little bit what our career goals are going to end up looking like based off of the changes,” Tougas said.

Hunter said the timing of the announcement was unfortunate.

“CHaSS has been planning and putting together ways to advocate for the humanities the last couple of weeks while rumors of this have been swirling around,” Hunter said. “Next week, we were planning on doing a sort of get together with students on campus to rally together.”

Lane emphasized the close-knit culture of QNCR, which she fears could be lost in the larger, merged structure.

“We have a very unique culture of community and connection because we’re so small. It allows our students to have great relationships with professors and a lot of really fantastic and tailored opportunities,” Lane said. “I’m worried about those cultures not meshing and those opportunities disappearing.”

Hunter sees the merger and the threat of losing certain majors as a reflection of the broader attitude towards the humanities in higher education.

“I feel like it’s really easy to discount the humanities in and of itself, but in all reality, those are your therapists and your lawyers and your journalists that are important people to society, and discounting the majors that get people there is extremely dangerous,” Hunter said.

While acknowledging the difficult position Smith is in, Lane called for more transparency and communication from university leadership.

“I hope that he has opportunities for transparency and gives opportunities to address this huge thing specifically before the end of the school year,” she said. “I think students would really appreciate that, and I think that administration owes that to students at least.”

Amidst uncertainty, Tougas believes these changes have the potential to improve collaboration university-wide.

“The hope is that it fosters better interdisciplinary communication between all of the colleges and that we become a more united campus,” Tougas said. “I hope that it will just speed that process along and that we can band together to still create good.”

Lane shared the desire for good to come of the changes in some way.

“I just hope that my college, the students within it and the university as a whole can work together to rebound and adjust quickly so that way, students are put first and cared for like they deserve to be,” Lane said.

Strategic planning will continue through the upcoming academic year as the new colleges define their leadership structures, academic priorities and internal governance.