In an email to the faculties of Arts and Sciences and Thayer School of Engineering and to Student Affairs staff, Provost David Kotz ’86 and Niehaus Family Professor in International Studies Nina Pavcnik provided an update on the Future of Arts and Sciences project, which is exploring potential new organizational and budget models for the Arts and Sciences.
Kotz and Pavcnik are co-chairs of the project’s steering committee, which is continuing to refine the proposal in response to feedback, with plans to release a revised version at the beginning of fall term, the email said.
The A&S faculty was originally scheduled to hold an advisory vote on the proposal in May, but was delayed when there was not sufficient time to take up the matter at the spring faculty meeting. The plan now is for the faculty to hold the advisory vote on the proposal in October.
The project began in 2022 to study what organization and budget structures might best support the teaching, scholarship, and undergraduate student experience in the arts and sciences. Last year, President Sian Leah Beilock appointed Kotz and Pavcnik, who is special adviser to the president for major institutional priorities, to co-chair the steering committee guiding the project through its current phase.
“We are grateful for the extensive consultation throughout the year, at all levels, which allowed us to repeatedly test and refine key elements of the plan,” Kotz and Pavcnik wrote, noting that the committee has held more than 160 meetings and gatherings to describe the project and solicit input.
“We have heard general support among faculty for the organizational and budgetary structures under consideration. Several faculty governance bodies have added their input, and the Council on Institutional Priorities has endorsed the proposal,” they said.
The new schedule “gives us additional time in the early fall to present and explain the proposal to interested stakeholders,” the co-chairs said.
After the advisory vote by faculty in October, the proposal will go to President Beilock for her consideration and further action.