Of Schools and Departments
 

School and Departmental structures were not handed down at Sinai nor are they fixed in the firmaments above.  They are simply organizational and bureaucratic arrangements needed to manage a university.  The structure and paradigms of knowledge are constantly changing and the University must examine and modify organizational structures to ensure that those structures allow the University to advance its mission.  More precisely, structures should support disciplines rather than disciplines being forced to "fit in" to existing structures.  At Penn, cognitive science and materials science are two examples of disciplines that do not fit within our departmental and school structures.  There are other examples where historical and regulatory forces led the University to create separate structures that may no longer be appropriate.  As we plan for the future of the University it is essential that we examine the appropriateness of existing structures. At the same time that we insist on examination and review of these structures we must also insist that ultimate decisions be made in full consultation with the faculty involved.  These faculty are the ones most familiar with their disciplines and they are the individuals whose careers are most affected by such changes.  A decade ago following the decision to close the School of Public and Urban Policy, an ad hoc Senate committee wrote: Unless the (faculty) are engaged broadly in strategic planning, they will -necessarily-repeatedly oppose new initatives on grounds which the administration will consider uninformed and parochial.  Even worse they will accept them with hostility and kill them with indifference.  In 1991, then Provost Aiken wrote to the Academic Deans as follows: Although the organization of a school into departments is an administrative decision, the Dean should make his or her recommendation only after a careful study, a dialogue with involved faculty, and a thorough discussion in a meeting of the standing faculty of the school.  A similar statement should apply to proposed changes in the organizational structure of the University. There are currently no procedures listed in the faculty handbook for changing administrative structures  (e.g., schools and departments).  I believe that it would be useful to have such guidelines and have asked the Senate Committee on the Faculty to consider drafting such procedures and policies,  Alan Auerbach (auerbach@mcneil.sas.upenn.edu) is the chair of this committee and he and his committee will welcome your comments on this important topic.