Not sure if this is in the right place, I'm guessing it could go in news, but I heard today that Chancellor Carney is getting rid of the Deans on our campus. So essentially next year we will not have any Deans to go to and they will be out of jobs.

Did anyone else hear this?

Old news, he announced that pretty much right after he started. I don't think they will be fired, but their current position will no longer exist, just phased out.

Thanks. I had no idea.

I am pretty sure no one is getting "fired" per se, but it sounded like they would be demoted or some such thing....

Here's the deal (from when I wrote my article some time back). One dean is already retiring, one is moving to the head of the Energy Lab (or something to that effect), and two are going to different positions. The interim deans are just no longer deans. In essence, no one was really disrupted from their current plans.

You seem to be in the know, so I'm just curious if you have any idea what will happen to the administrative assistants, secretaries, etc. that worked for the deans.

To be honest, I'm not sure. I only spoke to the Provost about the deans themselves. The way it was presented was that those connected to the positions would not be fired, just reassigned and their positions not filled again once they either leave or retire. That's the impression I got.

Regarding the deans: One left (Mitchell), one's retiring (DeKock), and the other two are moving back to teaching/research. Associate Deans are losing their positions and must go back to teaching/research. The Provost will now have the power needed to effect changes needed - just like getting rid of middle management.

Regarding secretaries, admin assist, etc: Many of them have already moved to positions within UMR/MST. Although some of them have moved "down" in title, they retain their current salaries. Many are awaiting exact responsibilities - it's just a little uncertainty which always accompanies change.

Most of their jobs aren't gonna go away - they're just being centralized. It makes sense to have many of the responsibilities centralized (Graduate student oversight, grants, payroll, recruitment, etc), instead of having each school duplicate effort (and spending) to go after the same student. Most of the job loses will be through attrition and retirements.

Most of these changes should take place without students even noticing. Actually, I'm surprised that deans are still around this year - they were supposed to be gone by now.

--sea

See, this is about the only issue I know of, that I actually agree with Carney and company. It does make some sense...until they make up for the money they save by giving the provost a raise and twice as many "asistants"....

Always looking at the negatives.... More than likely, the responsibilities will be distributed amongst the already created departments (recruitment goes to Enrollment Management, grants to Research, grad student supervision to Vice-Provost for Graduate Studies, etc). Since these departments are *already* under the Provost, I don't see him needing more assistants.

I do however see the corresponding departments getting some job openings (which will be filled by those already doing them).

--sea