The University of Iowa will propose restructuring multiple departments within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2025 at the upcoming Iowa Board of Regents meeting on Sept. 18.
The university is looking to restructure the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences.
Specifically, the world languages division would be restructured into programs and the science departments would be restructured into a new school — the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability.
The restructuring proposal comes as an effort to be in line with the university’s strategic plan, to ensure CLAS is meeting the needs of current and future generations of students and that the college is building capacity for all programs to thrive, CLAS Dean Sara Sanders said in an interview with The Daily Iowan.
Creating a School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability within CLAS helps the college align with the sustainability portion of the university’s 2022-27 strategic plan.
“The goal of that [proposal] has been to really put a spotlight, a focal point for the college in the areas of environment and sustainability, with the opportunity for students to have a front door to walk into if they’re interested in environmental work that will direct them to either the social science side or the natural science side,” Sanders said.
If approved, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences will both close, and the faculty, staff, and programs will be realigned within the new school. Sanders added that faculty within the two departments already interact often.
“They are doing such interdisciplinary, inter-collaborative type of work that bringing them together is going to allow the University of Iowa to have a bigger footprint within the space of environmental work,” she said.
The school will also allow for more students to be potentially reached by the sciences curriculum, as both departments currently house required sustainability general education courses like Natural Disasters and The Global Environment. Cornelia Lang, CLAS associate dean for undergraduate education, said the classes are open to students of all majors.
“We may have some sections designated for students in the school but still offer other sections for students in general, and we actually are hoping that students might find these majors really exciting after taking those gen ed courses and see a pathway for themselves in the school,” Lang said.
Upon approval, multiple majors and programs will be moved or added from the departments into the school come 2025, including:
- Bachelor of Arts in environmental policy and planning
- Master of Arts and PhD degrees in geography
- Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in environmental sciences
- Master of Science and PhD degrees in geoscience
The college is also requesting approval to add a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in geographical and sustainability sciences to the school along with a new Earth and environmental sciences major. The new major will be the result of the environmental sciences program moving to the school and merging with the currently offered geology degree.
Additionally, the university is looking to restructure the current Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures into two departments: the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures.
The movement to restructure the division came after the CLAS Executive Committee voted to no longer have the divisional structure during the 2023-24 academic year. Separating the division into two programs will make teaching and learning simpler for students, faculty, and staff, Sanders said.
The proposed reconfiguration includes closing the current division, the Department of French and Italian, the Department of German, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures. Those departments would transition into program status and move into the new Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures.
This realignment does not minimize the UI’s commitment to those languages or reduce the value placed on world languages as an important part of a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences education, Sanders said.
“It is not changing the value that we have around global literacy and the importance of a global framework for all students, but it’s being reorganized…to build that capacity and to ensure that we have these areas for years to come,” she said.
Lang added that the changes should not majorly impact students’ curriculum.
“If you want to get a minor in Arabic studies and a major in Russian, you can still do that. It’s just that you wouldn’t be getting something from the Department of French and Italian, which offers Arabic, and the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures. So you would be getting two different credentials from this triple LC department,” Lang said.
The university is also requesting approval to terminate multiple degrees as a result of both restructurings, including:
- Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in geoscience
- Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in geography
- Bachelor of Science in sustainability science
- Bachelor of Science in environmental policy and planning
- Bachelor of Arts in Portuguese
The university first announced its broad 2025 CLAS vision in February 2022, with its goals being to keep the liberal arts college a world-class, comprehensive college, build on the college’s strengths, and deliver transformative education that is enhanced by the university’s research, scholarship, and creativity.
If approved by the regents, the restructuring will go into effect for the fall 2025 semester.