Don’t try going to the dean of religion in the near future because the College of Religion and Social Science is no more.

Another change at BYU-Idaho is in the formation of a new college.

The College of Education has merged with the College of Religion and Social Science to form the College of Education and Human Development.

The previous deans, James Keller, of the College of Religion and Social Science, and Rhonda Seamons, of the College of Education, were released from their responsibilities and Larry Thurgood, former chair of the Religion Department, is the new dean.
“I’m pleased with [the change],” Keller said. “I’ll be separated from people I’m well acquainted with, but overall I’m happy.”

The changes began when the Physical Education Department moved from the College of Education to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

After the first change, the board began discussing moving other departments around.

The History/Geography/Political Science Department was moved to the College of Language and Letters and are now subdivisions of the History Department.

This then allowed the College of Religion and Social Science and the College of Education to merge.

All the colleges are now about equal size and have about an equal number of faculty.

The changes were intended to simplify the organization, said Scott Bergstrom, director of Institutional Research.

“I think it was a great move. It improves our efficiency and simplifies communication,” Bergstrom said.

Thurgood is educated in most of the departments he is now over.

He said the only department he really doesn’t know a lot about is teacher education, but there are many teachers who are willing to train him.

“I’m sure it’s a great opportunity because I get to find out what deans do, but I don’t appreciate it yet because I don’t know what deans do,” Thurgood said.

Thurgood said he was impressed with how much all the faculty in the new college does.

“We would hope that all those in this new college can get behind Brother Thurgood and help move forward in a way that will bless the lives of students and one another as they fulfill their stewardship,” said Max Checketts, academic vice president in an e-mail to the faculty of the new college.