By Angelina Persaud, Managing Editor/Asst. News Editor and Brooke Dellarocco, News Editor
Manhattan College’s administration recently approved the merging of several departments in an effort to reduce costs and allow more faculty to teach a wider variety of classes.
Possibilities regarding how to approach the ever-growing financial problems facing the college were discussed in December of 2023 between faculty and administration. A follow-up email was sent out on Nov. 2 announcing the split of MC’s six schools into three, and then another on Jan. 16 briefly confirming the rationale behind the decision.
No further comment was provided behind the decision from interim provost Rani Roy except that the consolidation was an effort to reduce administrative overhead costs.
The new department list is as follows: The Department of History, Political Science and International Studies, The Department of Behavioral Sciences, The Department of Mathematics and Physics, The Department of Religion and Philosophy, The Department of Communication and Creative Media, The Department of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Department of English, World Languages and Literatures.
Many previous School of Liberal Arts (SoLA) faculty members were outraged about the merger but due to privacy reasons have declined to comment.
Rostislav Konoplich Ph.D., department chairperson of physics, which will be merged with mathematics, declined an interview but instead provided a comment to summarize his attitude toward the matter.
“My response in this case is very short,” Konoplich wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “Mathematics and Physics departments merge is a very bad idea.”
Paul Droubie, Ph.D., director of the international studies program, spoke to The Quadrangle about how faculty are aiming to make a seamless transition for students in the process.
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“How will we make this work?” Droubie said. “And mostly, because we all really care about the students, how do we make this the best for the students? We need to adjust for the things happening to the faculty.”
Droubie also explained that the most significant change to the departments will be in terms of how administrative tasks are handled such as filling out forms and signing documents from specific chairs.
Primarily, students will experience a change in the number of available courses per semester for a particular program, yet they will still be able to complete all the required coursework for graduation in their intended major.
“The variety will probably be a little bit reduced, just because we have fewer faculty,” Droubie said. “But getting enough classes for people to actually graduate with the major, that’s not going to change. Maybe there were 10 options, usually and now there will be six options in a given semester. That’s what we care about, how are we going to get the students to have a fulfilling experience.”
He also noted that the merged departments are still in the planning phase of determining the chairs for the consolidated groups or if co-chairs are a possibility.
“I think as we are consolidating departments we are working on our own plans,” Droubie said. “So I think some of them will have co-chairs, which we haven’t really done much of before, at least not within what used to be liberal arts. Some people might have only one chair. So maybe we’ll decide to have three different people signing things depending upon the major. We’re actually still figuring that out.”
While discussion of chairs is underway, certain programs are having a difficult time trying to provide for the surplus of students that have now been placed under their responsibility.
Previously, the Department of Mathematics had over 1100 students enrolled in math courses in the fall of 2023, marking the greatest number of students enrolled in any department for that semester. Now, merging with the physics department, which had a little over 900 students last fall, will prove to be a challenge for whoever is appointed chair.
Currently, the responsibility is being placed on the previous chair of mathematics, Helene Tyler, Ph.D..
“We’re still actively working out the details of what the internal administrative structure of the merged department will be,” Tyler said. “So I don’t yet know what my personal role will be.”
Although class sizes will not be affected by the merger, there will be an increased reliance on adjunct faculty, and certain faculty taking on more classes. Tyler acknowledged that although this is a difficult shift, she praised the talented and dedicated educators who are still present at the college.
“Good news is, the faculty that we have, have quite broad expertise,” Tyler said. “This is something we are really lucky about.”
Editor’s note: These interviews were conducted before 2/26/24.