Department restructuring finalized

The reorganization should benefit students in the long run, dean says.

By Wally Perez

gperez239@student.alamo.edu

The final document regarding the reduction in chairs and reassignment of some departments was released March 10.

The whole restructure is based on aligning departments within the AlamoInstitutes, while making sure they make sense to each institute.

The institutes include business and entrepreneurship, creative and communication arts, advanced manufacturing and logistics, health and biosciences, public service and science and technology. Only five institutes are represented at this college.

The restructure has been an ongoing task since December, and has undergone two proposals before the final draft was agreed upon by Vernell Walker, dean of professional and technical education, Conrad Krueger, dean of arts and sciences, Jothany Blackwood, vice president of academic success, and current chairs.

For example, journalism and radio-television broadcasting no longer report to the same chair under the reorganization, although their similarities prompted their being put together previously.

“We took a long look at each department and did our best to make sure everything made sense,” Krueger said.

RTB is now with computer information systems because RTB involves some technical work with computers, he said.

Krueger said this was done to correspond to the institutes, and one of the major goals was so students would have advisers who specialized in the major they were interested in.

“We hope having this specialized advising will help students and keep them on pace to graduate or transfer in a timely manner,” Krueger said. “We believe this new structure and advising will increase transfer rates in less time.”

Students may come into college without proper advising and end up taking extra courses that aren’t necessary, he said.

“I’m not against students taking extra classes if they’d like to, but we want students to not have to waste money or time here if we can help it,” Krueger said.

Applicants interested in one of the 12 chair positions, had 10 days to submit an application by March 21.

The positions were open to all faculty and 19 current chairs, with current chairs having first-pick on program coordinator positions if interested.

Future chairs also will receive full release, with the ability to teach, but only after business hours or online.

“We want to make sure chairs are accessible during business hours in case students need to see them; that’s why we’re limiting the time they can teach,” Krueger said.

With all this in mind, there will not be any negative effect to fall class schedules and department coordinators and chairs are currently working on them, he said.

There shouldn’t be any negative effects for students, as this was intended to improve the quality and help they receive, he said.