Columbia College trustees approve formation of schools

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Columbia College, which has seen a growth in online enrollment in Columbia and 36 satellite campuses across the country, is changing its structure to streamline its administration.

The college's board of trustees voted Friday to split the college into smaller schools and hire three new deans to manage different areas of study.

The three schools will be business administration; natural sciences and mathematics; and humanities, arts and social sciences, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported. They are expected to be in place by the 2016-17 academic year.

The move was initiated by Columbia College President Scott Dalrymple, who's held the position for about a year. He declined to comment on how much the private college had budgeted for the new positions.

"The college right now is structured essentially the same way it was in 1851 when we were founded, with all the faculty reporting up to one dean," Dalrymple said. "And that's problematic because you just don't have enough academic infrastructure. There's not enough people whose job it is to do administrative work."

A 22-person task force of trustees, faculty and administrators began mulling over the proposal to split the college up into separate schools last fall. The shift was endorsed by the group last month.

Columbia College political science professor David Roebuck, who served on the task force, said he thinks the schools will allow the college to better handle all of its courses and ensure those offered online and at satellite campuses are up to par with the Columbia campus

"Previously, that line of decision-making was unclear," Roebuck said. "In other words, you have one dean trying to be responsible for all 25,000-plus students in all academic areas, and the consequence was that a lot of the decision-making was made elsewhere because it was impossible for that one dean."

David Starrett is set to take over the college's new position of provost in the fall, replacing the position of dean of academic affairs, and will oversee the new deans.