Arts & Sciences severs alliances

This is my first article for The Comment, the first issue comes out tomorrow.  Make sure to pick one up if you're on campus, peeps, it's free.

As Bridgewater State is experiencing its exciting first year as a university after expanding its size, adding a new dorm in the past year and a soon-to-be-completed new math and science building, it is concurrently concentrating its focus on what was once its largest school of study. Effective July 1^st, 2010, the School of Arts and Sciences was divided into two new schools: the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Science and Mathematics.  To commandeer these new schools, BSU appointed Dr. Arthur Goldstein as founding Dean of the School of Science and Mathematics on August 1^st, and Dr. Brenda Molife was chosen to serve as Acting Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.  Dr. Marian Extejt was also appointed on August 1^st as the new Dean of the School of Business.

            With the new math and science building bringing more physical space for the study of those disciplines, the split allows for more of a focus on the departments within each new school.  The smaller number of schools groups together departments that are more similar, such as the Art Department and English Department both within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Biological Sciences Department and Mathematics and Computer Science Department within the School of Science and Mathematics. 

            A greater cohesion among similar departments was the major advantage seen among faculty in 2007 when BSU first began exploring the idea of forming new schools.  According to the Report of Findings of the Committee on New Schools Preliminary Study, released by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, President Dana Mohler-Faria “charged the Committee on New Schools to conduct a campus-wide discussion about possible structures for academic schools” at BSU.  The popular opinion among respondents to the study was that “the internal functioning of new schools would be better than the [former] model.”  Advantages that were seen included a “discipline-specific focus” and “easier communication among departments with some similar interests.” 

            These advantages are along the lines of what Dr. Arthur Goldstein foresees for the future of the newly-formed schools.  Asked whether students taking courses within the School of Sciences and Mathematics will experience a change, he responded that students will not “notice anything different” because “there are not things in science and math that are problematical,” but that the formation of these new schools “allows each dean to focus on smaller departments.”             Splitting the School of Arts and Sciences was not done to fix something that was wrong in the past but to improve the future, such as more schools meaning more research.  As a new dean, Dr. Goldstein plans to “expand support for student research stipends” and to “approach local bio-tech companies for support,” as well as other actions which focus on his particular school that “couldn’t have been done with a dean of arts and sciences.”  As part of what is now Bridgewater State University, Dr. Goldstein says that he and the other new deans are “full of ideas” and “full of initiatives to push forward” in the years to come.