Post Pandemic: Will SOPA and SOC cease to exist in Fall 2020?

At the latest BOR meeting on April 16, 2020, towards the end of the meeting a short discussion brewed about possible “re-alignment of schools.”  There was also a campus-wide email from President Kenny regarding the re-alignment.  Quote : “Additionally, I will re-align colleges and departments to implement new process improvement strategies.”  What could this mysterious statement mean? 

Well for starters, for years now there have been rumors that some schools in particular are vulnerable to become merged and consolidated with other schools including breaking up departments.  There are valid and legitimate reasons for doing this most notably, the cost savings associated with one less Dean and less Chairs which would save TSU a ton of money.  And there would be other benefits most likely.  Some departments have so much rancor and office politics that they’ve had a new Chair almost every 2-3 years and that can drain and destroy the morale of the entire school affecting staff, students, alumni and faculty.  It also harms us for recruiting new faculty and staff, leads to a higher employee turnover rate and in general is destructive to office productivity. 

We anticipate the 2 schools most vulnerable to merging and consolidation would be the School of Communication and the School of Public Affairs.  SOC has only 6 full-time professors and seems overly bloated when that entire school could be transferred into a Department of Communication possibly with the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences or possibly the School of Business (good business skills require good communication skills right?). 

The school that is most vulnerable to a merger and realignment however is the School of Public Affairs.  SOPA has 3 departments- Urban Planning, Political Science and the Administration of Justice.  Urban Planning and Political Science have had 2 Chairs in 11 years.  But the Administration of Justice department has had 7 chairs in 12 years and with so much turnover is likely unsustainable long-term.  The amount of acrimonious rancor and petty politics at work to go through that many chairs in such a short amount of time clearly points to a problem that 3 different Presidents and 4 Provosts in 12 years have been unwilling or unable to solve.  Additionally, SOPA has had 5 Deans since 2009 and they seem to have been unwilling or unable to resolve these petty politics.  Let’s also recall that the latest SOPA Dean is being paid over $195,000, much higher than his predecessor’s salary.  But yet, Dean Kieh seems unable or unwilling to clean up the rancor and petty politics that is rumored to be ongoing and in some cases even escalating. 

And SOPA would be the easiest school to break up.  The Political Science Department, along with their successful EMPA program could fit easily into the School of Business alongside their EMBA program.  Urban Planning could be folded neatly into COLABS to be placed in the Department of Geography, History and General Studies and Administration of Justice could slide right into the Department of Sociology. 

Moreover, right across the street our big brother, the University of Houston just inaugurated their new Hobby School of Public Affairs with much fanfare and excitement.  Why would the State of Texas in all its wisdom and far-sightedness have 2 Schools of Public Affairs right across from each other? 

Will we see these re-alignment changes in Fall 2020?  Maybe.