Early Bird

The new CLAS

College of Letters, Arts and Sciences interim Dean Jason Janke details a semester-plus of work on reorganization and what the future may hold for the college.

By Cory Phare

December 15, 2020

The College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is operationalizing organizational recommendations from the President’s Advisory Council on Academic Excellence and Student Success, said CLAS interim Dean Jason Janke, Ph.D., professor of environmental science.

This has involved breaking out into two divisions, one for Mathematics and Science and the other for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The latter division has formed groups or clusters, including Art/Music/Theatre, social justice-based efforts of Africana Studies/Chicana/o Studies/ Gender Institute for Teaching and Advocacy, and Communication and Media Studies (Communication Studies/Journalism), along with individual departments.

Groups meet weekly and were tasked with creating four deliverables: a strategic plan, a fundraising plan, technical implementation considerations and a necessary administrative structure.

Strategic planning for each division is being undertaken to model Metropolitan State University of Denver’s 2030 Strategic Plan, recently approved by the Board of Trustees; it is also enmeshed with the one-page prospectus that groups are beginning to develop as part of fundraising plans, Janke said.

“When budgets are tight, we have to rely upon donor support and consider what resonates with them,” he said. “That helps bolster sustainability and trickles up into the divisional strategic plans.”

Additional considerations include administrative components, such as committee structures and Retention, Tenure and Promotion processes within the divisions. Janke anticipates the planning should be finalized and moving into implementation by the end of the spring semester or early summer.

He has also been working with College of Health and Applied Sciences interim Dean Rebecca Trammel, Ph.D., to gain insight from the recent CHAS reorganization, as well as studying other institutions, specifically what helps facilitate interdisciplinary cross-collaboration.

“That might be a challenge, but we’re creative enough to have some workarounds and prevent breaking into silos,” Janke said. “It helps keep the idea of what makes the liberal arts and sciences unique, as supported by the recently passed Faculty Senate resolution.”

In light of budget worries and reorganization, he also wanted to address concerns around the elimination of departments.

“We’ve been working to make it clear that’s not what we’re talking about at all – we’re not eliminating departments; we’re trying to find ways to enhance our identities by reimagining our structure,” he said.

Operationally, this involves more cross-discipline collaboration on instruction and scholarship within and across each division. This will open up additional opportunities for co-teaching courses and integrating content-expertise specializations, Janke said.

“It definitely enhances research opportunities,” he said. “It’s already happening across different units; this sets forth a more formal structure to continue that collaboration amid and across divisions. 

“We want the flexibility to do that – to expand across, as well as vertically.”