Northwest expands shift to ‘school’ system

By Phil Cobb | February 9, 2016 |

Timothy Mottet

For decades, Northwest Missouri State University has been organized around three basic academic units charged with administering undergraduate degree programs: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Human Services, and the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth College of Business and Professional Studies.

But beginning in fall 2016, those traditional divisions will disappear or become significantly altered with the introduction of a school-based organization designed to better align academic offerings with specific professions and career paths.

Northwest Provost Timothy Mottet says the new system, to be officially launched July 1, will consist of several professional schools led by directors who will report directly to him.

Northwest’s deans, who have traditionally led the academic colleges plus student recruiting and admissions functions, will receive revised job descriptions and become associate provosts.

“This restructuring flattens the organization and empowers academic units to develop new and innovative academic programming and to be more connected to the organizations who hire our graduates,” Mottet said. “It’s allowing us to be more nimble and interdisciplinary, which both students and faculty are requesting.”

Mottet said the move toward reorganization began when a candidate selected to fill the vacant deanship of the Booth College decided not to take the job. As a result, Northwest appointed Michael L. Faust as visiting dean and initiated a pilot program in which the college’s three academic departments were reconfigured as professional schools.

The experiment was expanded last year when Northwest’s Department of Health and Human Services, formerly a part of the College of Education and Human Services, was reorganized as the free-standing School of Health Science and Wellness.

As it concludes the pilot program in preparation for the fall 2016 semester, Mottet said Northwest will permanently divide Booth College into the Booth School of Business, the School of Communication and Mass Media, and the School of Agricultural Sciences.

In addition, according to a university release, Northwest plans to dissolve the College of Education and Human Services and reorganize the Department of Professional Education as the School of Education.

Another change will reclassify the computer science unit, currently housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, along with a department embracing mathematics programs, as the School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

Northwest plans to retain its College of Arts and Sciences, which will house the departments of English and Modern Languages, Fine and Performing Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, and Natural Sciences.

In addition to the reorganization, Mottet has announced the names of faculty and administrators who will lead the new schools and serve as associate provosts. He said that Northwest is not adding positions but merely shifting personnel and resources.

School director appointments include:

• Associate Professor Carol Spradling, director of the School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

• Associate Professor Timothy Wall, dean of the School of Education. Northwest officials said the title of dean is being retained in this instance because it “aligns with constituency and external groups in the education sector.”

• Assistant Professor Steve Ludwig, director of the Booth School of Business

• Assistant Professor Matt Walker, director of the School of Communication and Mass Media.

• Instructor Rod Barr, director of the School of Agricultural Sciences.

According to the release, Northwest is currently conducting an external search for a new director of the School of Health Science and Wellness. The current director, Associate Professor Matt Symonds, will return to full-time teaching in July.

As for the new administrative tier consisting of associate provosts, Mottet said the idea is to organize the offices in a way that emphasizes function rather than academic content.

Associate provosts will include:

• Current Arts and Sciences Dean Michael Steiner, who will become associate provost of undergraduate studies and oversee departments within the College of Arts and Sciences as well as Northwest’s Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Computing. Steiner also will supervise the revised general education program now referred to as the Northwest Core.

• Current Dean of Enrollment Management Bev Schenkel, who will become associate provost of enrollment management and student success.

Schenkel will continue to oversee admissions as well as the Registrar’s Office, the Office of Financial Assistance, Career Services, Orientation and Transfer Affairs, Advisement Assistance, and student retention and academic assistance efforts.

According to Northwest officials, a national search is to be conducted in order to recruit an associate provost of graduate studies and special programs, an opening created by the dissolution of the College of Education and Human Services and the pending retirement of Joyce Piveral, the education dean.

Finally, Greg Haddock has been tapped to serve as vice provost. Although the vice provost position is not new to Northwest’s organizational structure, Haddock, who has worn a number of administrative hats over the years — often simultaneously — has never served in that capacity full-time.

In conjunction with the reorganization, Terry Barmann has been named director of Northwest-Kansas City, an academic center scheduled to opens next fall at the Northland Innovation Center in Gladstone.

The center is tasked with facilitating dual credit programs with area high schools, providing completion programs for area community college students, and offering graduate programs for working adults.