----- Original Message -----
From: Janice Johnson
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 11:42 AM
Subject: Merging Departments
Dear Campus Community: The Office of the Associate Dean of Academic Departments has received a few questions about the future of the Television, Photography, and Digital Media Department (TFP) and its students. Because there is some confusion about the recent mergers of departments, permit me to explain why mergers happen. In our restructuring to make Gallaudet University a more efficient and productive institution and to provide the best possible education for its students, we have integrated some departments. Many institutions merge departments when a small department could be strengthened if combined with another department. Mergers enable us to provide students with structured programs with depth and breadth. Mergers permit us to eliminate duplication of courses and areas of emphasis. Further, they assure class sizes warrant the commitment of faculty positions and assist us with maintaining oversight of salaries and benefits that permit non-personnel budgets to remain stable and ideally grow. At Gallaudet University, the TFP Department has been merged with the Art Department. Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) will also merge with another department this year. Dr. William Moses, Chair of the Art Department, is in the process of meeting with the TFP majors to guarantee that they will have courses that satisfy their requirements for their major. All students who are currently TFP majors will continue to be TFP majors. Their new chair will be Dr. William Moses. In TFP, there are three tracks: television and cinema, photography, and digital media. Photography and digital media have a number of majors and will continue, but television and cinema do not have enough students to justify continuation of that major after those students are graduated in May 2002. We plan to address the needs and desires of our students by exploring other areas of professional development within the TFP specialization now under the Art Department that will provide students with career opportunities. Aligning allied areas enables faculty and students to benefit from interactions. The merged departments become stronger and serve students better. Regardless of the mergers, Gallaudet University is committed to all students in a declared major to provide the required courses necessary for them to complete their degrees on time.
Thank you,
Karen Kimmel
Interim Associate Dean
Academic Departments
CLAST