SGA Senate Defers Resolution Supporting School Consolidations, Establishes Committee on Reorganization
Photo courtesy of Patrick D. Lewis
By Patrick D. Lewis
The Catholic University Student Government Association (SGA) Senate overwhelmingly voted to send a resolution supporting recently-announced consolidations of academic schools back to the committee at its January 27, 2025 session, and another committee will be established to study the impending university reorganization.
Resolution 009, “Resolution to Support the Proposed Reorganization of Academic Programs,” was sponsored by sophomore business major senator Jack Hermes (Class of ‘27) and co-sponsored by freshman architecture major Luc Vanraes.
If adopted, it would have formally placed the support of SGA and the students it represents behind the closure of the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art and the merging of the National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS) with the Conway School of Nursing. This decision was announced to the university community in a January 17 email from Executive Vice President and University Provost Dr. Aaron Dominguez. The resolution did not include the transfer of the Department of Physics from the School of Arts and Sciences to the School of Engineering, as that and other major changes to the organization of the academic schools and university offices were not announced until January 30.
The Senate voted to send the proposed resolution back to the committee with 22 in favor, 3 opposed, and 1 abstaining.
In an email, Vanraes said the vote was “fully supported and suggested by me and my colleague, Senator Hermes,” citing the need to change some parts of the resolution.
Hermes echoed his comment and said that “a modified version of it will be brought back to the floor.”
“We ended up deciding in the committee to start a new committee specifically on the issue of the reorganization,” said Vanraes. “We did this in the pursuit that students’ needs would be better met by those in charge of the reorganization process, and so that there would be an area solely committed to the reorganization.”
The committee will be made up of a Rome School and an NCSSS senator, as well as a senator from outside those two schools.
Vanraes said the committee’s purpose will be a “mixture of being a statement and having a specific group to suggest improvements for the reorganization process.”
It will also “stress the importance of student involvement in the matter of the reorganization,” said Vanraes.
“It seems like this is going to happen either way,” said Hermes. “And so, why don’t we form a committee of students that can help advise the administration on student concerns.”
Hermes added that he plans to introduce a resolution to do the same thing in reference to the planned merger of the Office of the Provost and the Office of Student Affairs. He also expects the reorganization committee to raise concerns regarding the merging of the School of Engineering and Department of Physics, among the other changes, and how the changes might impact degree programs.
Overall, though, Hermes says that the merger of the Provost’s Office and Student Affairs will benefit the university by removing what he sees as excess administrative positions.
“It will be good to cut many of the bureaucratic offices,” he said. “There have been something like the same number of professors here in the last twenty or thirty years, but the number of administrators and people within these offices that are not professors have increased.”
It is expected that these issues will be discussed at the next SGA Senate meeting on February 17.
