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In response to continued growth and change
at Brigham Young University–Idaho, changes to the academic
colleges have been announced and will take effect January 1,
2006.
Changes include the relocation of the Physical Education
Department and the History, Political Science and Geography
Departments, and the reorganization of the College of Education
and the College of Religion and Social Science into a new
academic college, to be called the College of Education & Human
Development.
The Physical Education Department, formerly part of the College
of Education, will be moved to the College of Agricultural and
Life Sciences. The History/Political Science/Geography
Department will be moved from Religion and Social Science to the
College of Language and Letters.
The Home and Family Education and Teacher Education departments,
formerly housed under the College of Education, will be moved to
the new College of Education and Human development. The
departments of Psychology, Religion, and Sociology/Social Work,
currently part of the College of Religion and Social Science,
will also join the new college.
“There’s no absolute method to organizing academic colleges, but
we’ve tried to move departments in with their neighboring group
of discipline,” said Max Checketts, Academic Vice President.
When considering the realignment, “we had the deans in the
respective colleges consider some possibilities, and we decided
that we could do it with six colleges,” said Checketts.
“With the changes that were brought to P.E. when intercollegiate
athletics was discontinued, we’ve been asking ourselves a lot of
questions about our identity. Working collectively with faculty,
we’ve felt that this is a direction that made sense,” he said.
“Exercise sciences become a fairly viable option for a lot of
pre-professional programs; physical therapy, occupational
therapy, even pre-medicine. It makes sense to put faculty that
are working in those areas close to the faculty that support
those areas, such as biology.”
Rhonda Seamons, current Dean of the College of Education, will
assume the position as Dean of the new College of Education &
Human Development.
“We extend a heartfelt thanks to Jim Keller for the
contributions he has made to the university through his years of
service as Dean of the College of Religion and Social Science,”
Checketts said. |