ASU Model continued

Since one of the erstwhile leaders of the blog published my previous post in mid-sentence allow me to continue my ASU comments. My friend at ASU was very positive for the most part in his evaluation of the reorganization. He did, however, point out several items that I believe matter to us here at UT. First, they are a school with a real name, "The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism." It carries more cache than say the Dave Tucker School of Insulting Administrators. Also, they have a dean who reports directly to the provost. As I understand the school structure envisioned here, there will be directors who report to the dean who reports to the provost. The school at ASU still requires leadership at what used to be the departmental levels. Someone has to get together faculty who teach in generally the same areas and do the scheduling.

One other interesting point was made in his e-mail to me. Faculty from all over the university may apply to teach in the Cronkite School. This includes directing theses and dissertations. He said his old "territoriality" began to creep in. He is not sure how this will work but does not automatically think it is bad. He has viewed the changes at ASU in an extremely positive light.

Now for a few of my comments. They have a highly involved dean in a fairly narrow area. I don't see that as part of the organizational plan here. They have money. The dean plans multiple events for faculty and students in the school on a weekly basis. They are rightly proud of their school and its accomplishments. This is not the same vision I am getting from our Provost or the document described below.