UAA reorganizes health sciences into a new college

by Kathleen McCoy  |   

TO: UAA Community
FROM: Fran Ulmer, Chancellor and Mike Driscoll, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
DATE: Sept. 21, 2010
RE: Building Alaska's Health University

To build on UAA's record of success in health education and research, to further strengthen and develop this dimension of our mission, and to prepare for the opening of the new Health Sciences Building, we are undertaking a reorganization that will result in the formation of a new college.

The new college will be configured from existing programs and units in the College of Health and Social Welfare, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Community and Technical College. This action will integrate the bulk of UAA's health and health-related programs under one college and will be achieved with the input, consultation and recommendations of administrators, faculty and staff from within the relevant units and from stakeholders in our communities.

In keeping with UAA 2017 and the draft UA Academic Master Plan, the overall objectives of this action are to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness, to provide the framework for improved collaboration across health and health-related disciplines, to build the foundation for the continued expansion and development of UAA's health education and research in service to Alaska, and to provide the appropriate organization to support and work in concert with health programs at other universities and campuses in the UA system. It is our intention to create and develop strategic opportunities, not to compromise success or to eliminate programs.

The new college will provide comprehensive career pathway advising for the full suite of programs from certificates to graduate degrees, and it will create a supporting environment for building the multi-disciplinary education so important to contemporary health practice. It will also bring together a critical mass of researchers and support staff to do the research necessary to address Alaska's urban and rural health challenges.

Provost Driscoll will soon meet with administrators, faculty, staff, and students from within the relevant units to discuss this important strategic initiative. Provost Driscoll will then appoint a special task force made up of representatives from those units to address the many details relating to the reorganization, including transition, student advising, curricular planning, faculty appointments, cost estimates, and a name for the new college.

We anticipate that the advisory group will complete its recommendations by Dec. 10, 2010. Final implementation will be contingent upon review and approval by the UA President and the Board of Regents.

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