The latest step in Emporia State University’s reinvestment efforts will include a complete reorganization of a university department.
The university announced a restructuring of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Monday as an effort to “drive efficiency and focus for academic programs.” The restructuring will be led by Amy Sage Webb-Baza and James Ehlers who have been promoted to the role of assistant deans of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Webb-Baza has been with the university since 1996 and is a Roe R. Cross Distinguished Professor of English and the director of the Creative Writing Program. Ehlers meanwhile, has been with ESU since 2007 and currently serves as the Don and Mary Glaser Distinguished Professor of Engraving Arts and chair of the Department of Art.
In a news release from the university, Ehlers says “Restructuring will include changes that will affect my colleagues and myself in the long term and we want to set ourselves up for it to be successful. There are a lot of great creative problem solvers on campus, and I believe we can work to make it something we feel confident about.”
Webb-Baza says of her new role, “some of the accomplishments I’m most proud of have come from those times when we asked big questions, drafted new policies, envisioned and built things together. Tackling large-scale challenges, working through controversies, and making progress with others is the type of work that is almost always extra, and to do it well comes at a cost, but it’s transformative and worthy of doing when we can.”
The reorganization of the department, according to the aforementioned release, is part of the university’s reinvestment initiative that launched last year following the Kansas Board of Regents approval of ESU’s Framework for Workforce Management in September. Ehlers says the effort is aimed at increasing fluidity within departments and streamlining current work to practices that “make tasks easier to accomplish.”
He adds, “We hope to create more opportunities for training in administrative roles, so transitions are less challenging, things get done faster, and there will be more potential for collaborative dialogues between disciplines.”
Full details on the reorganization have not been announced, however, ESU Provost Dr. Brent Thomas says “it is important to solicit feedback on this vision from the talented faculty, staff and department chairs from across our college.”
