The School of Arts and Sciences, which will be established ahead of the 2021–2022 academic year, will comprise the departments and programs currently housed under the School of Arts and Humanities (A&H) and the School of Natural and Social Sciences (NSS).
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs James Mayrose has created a task force representing all parts of the campus and charged them with creating the foundational structure for this new academic school.
The task force was charged with crafting a job description for the founding dean, mapping out a tenure and promotion procedure, and determining bylaws for the new school.
The arts and sciences lie at the core of human attempts to understand and describe the world around us, yet they are often considered polar opposites. Traditionally, they are viewed as separate entities where students have to choose a degree within one discipline or the other.
Increasingly, though, this way of doing things is not enough to prepare students for the continually changing workplace of the twenty-first century.
Combining the arts and sciences in the curriculum will improve students’ employment prospects and foster new skills in the space between these specialty areas. From the sciences, students learn about sound methods for testing hypotheses and about interpreting and drawing valid conclusions from data. From the arts, they learn about developing arguments and about understanding, moving, and changing the minds of diverse audiences. The development of dual majors and interdisciplinary programs will broaden and enrich students’ intellectual and cultural backgrounds and make them well-rounded citizens and valuable employees.
A search for the founding dean of Buffalo State College's School of Arts and Sciences is on.
The search committee will review candidates and conduct interviews beginning in November 2020.
The new dean is scheduled to be in place by January 2021.
The School of Arts and Sciences Task Force's draft report includes the mission, vision, values, bylaws, and tenure and promotion procedures for the new school.
All A&H and NSS faculty and staff had the opportunity to comment and provide anonymous feedback on the report via a survey.
A number of smaller focus groups, selected by the department chairs from each school, discussed bylaws and the report in further detail.
A final document was presented to President Conway-Turner on November 6.
Representatives from the current A&H and NSS schools, as well as one representative each from the School of Education and the School of the Professions and three staff members make up the task force.
Co-Chairs
Faculty and Staff
Members
