Pacific Index

Pacific is planning to restructure: What does that mean? 

   Since the beginning of the calendar year, administrators have proposed a fundamental restructure for the university. But what does that mean? And why are we doing it? 

    “The idea of the restructure is to move to two basic divisions,” explains Associate Dean and Director of the School of Social Science, Jaye Cee Whitehead. “The reason why we want to do this is so that we can reorient basically everything we do around the kind of students that we’re serving.” 

   Some students may hear the word “restructuring” and feel a sense of confusion and concern, but Whitehead reassures that it’s all good things coming our way. She explains that the restructuring will create a definitive division between undergrad and graduate studies. On the undergrad side, all colleges will be combined into a singular college, whereas the graduate side will be home to the College of Optometry, the College of Health Professions, as well as another unit for the grad programs associated with the colleges of education, business, and arts and science. 

   “I expect for next year that students will probably not even really notice,” Whitehead says, explaining how it may be several years still until students begin noticing the changes. “Your programs are going to be the same, you know, things are going to be operating the way they did before.” The plans to restructure are at this point, solely a change for faculty and administration. Students will continue going about their lives as if all five colleges still exist. 

   If students aren’t directly going to notice changes for some time, then why restructure? Whitehead hinted that there are a multitude of good reasons to do so, starting with a decrease in enrollment in recent years. “Now that we’re facing some declines in enrollment,” she begins, sharing the thought process behind this project. “Let’s have a fewer number of units so that we’re not trying to manage administration of all of those programs in five different buckets.” 

The hope is that the combination of colleges will make administration processes more fluid. “It does provide some opportunity for innovations,” Whitehead adds excitedly. “Especially on the undergraduate side, there’s a lot of excitement around the kinds of units that we’ll be able to create since all of the professors and undergrad are going to be together.” With a more collective setting for faculty and students, administration hopes that students will receive integrated programs and guidance in areas of interest. “One of the ideas is looking at how the curriculum that we structure, in the schools and the departments, could be more focused on different kinds of pursuit interests,” she continues. “Like what do students want to do after Pacific? How can we build in platforms that would get them ready for that?”

   “I’m optimistic about the restructure, because, well first of all, I’m comfortable with change,” she shares with an easy-going smile. “Throughout your life you get involved in these structures, and you just have to deal with what you’ve inherited…But when do you actually have the opportunity to say, ‘hey if I could remake this thing, how would I make it in a way that actually suits the folks that we have now?’” Whitehead is certain that although this process will be a lengthy one, it’ll bring Pacific to a new era. 

   From the viewpoint of professors, feelings on the restructuring plans are varied across the board. History Professor Richard Jobs shares a few of his feelings on the plans. “It’s a university-wide restructuring, so it varies by college in terms of how faculty are responding,” he begins. “It was a big surprise…And the timeline is very short.” Faculty were notified of the restructuring plans at the end of January after rumors had been floating around for some time. “Generally, there’s a feeling that restructuring is necessary,” Job admits, mentioning that something like this is perhaps even a bit overdue. 

   Jobs commends President Jenny Coyle for taking such a bold action to ensure Pacific meets the needs of students, but he voices a few uncertainties as well. He says that he’s unsure if the sharp division of graduate and undergraduate studies is the right solution. “But mostly just because we haven’t been shown why this is the solution,” Jobs explains honestly. “We’re sort of waiting for the what’s next and we haven’t gotten a lot of details about why this in particular and how we’re going to make this move.” Jobs confesses that he’s mostly excited about the restructuring, but these few areas of miscommunication are his one source of hesitancy. 

   Professor Amanda Stead in the College of Education resonates with Jobs’ concerns. “Faculty have a lot of unanswered questions about both process and product,” Stead comments. “I think the biggest fears faculty have are about not being able to participate enough in the conversation and restructuring to give their input.” Stead teaches in a program that reaches all sides of Pacific, working with undergrads, post-baccalaureates, and graduates. Due to her involvement with such a diverse program, she’s wondering if the new structure could pose some complications. “There is a wide range of reactions to the restructuring announcement, which makes sense since we all do so many varied things,” she admits. 

   Stead also holds the position of Faculty Senate chair, so she strives to ensure that faculty concerns are voiced throughout this transition. “It is also important to me that I can facilitate the ‘will of the faculty’ to the administration and that all voices are heard,” she contests. Despite some faculty responding with concerns, there’s also a generous amount of excitement mixed in. “This restructure opens up a lot of opportunities to reimagine some of the things we do, how we do them, and build new and interesting things to serve students and our community,” Stead shares. She confesses that the opportunity to restructure is very special and there are already a multitude of great ideas being tossed into the think-pit.

   “It is natural to be protective of what you know and fearful to lose things you like,” Stead voices, sharing her understanding of why some faculty are hesitant. “However, I am hearing growing excitement and creativity about what is possible.” It’s no easy task to reimagine the whole operation of how a university operates, but faculty and administration alike are plenty capable of taking on the challenge and creating a newer, better Pacific.