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In the Sexton administration's first major review of NYU's academic structure, officials recommended that many Steinhardt School of Education programs with parallels in other schools remain unchanged, but that its nursing program move to the College of Dentistry, according to a report released yesterday.
The proposal, a far-reaching assessment of university programs in health, media and the arts, would move Steinhardt's division of nursing into the College of Dentistry, creating the School of Dentistry and Nursing.
NYU officials said the recommendation, which must still be approved by the board of trustees, looks to a unique future collaboration between dentistry and nursing.
'This is a very bold, innovative move,' said Michael Alfano, dean of the College of Dentistry, the nation's largest dentistry school. 'It may even be controversial, but we think in the long run having dentists, nurses and physicians working together will be a very good thing for society.'
The proposed merger is just one recommendation of the four-part report issued yesterday, which covers the health, music, visual arts and media programs at NYU, primarily located within Steinhardt.
Upon full approval of the plans, Tisch Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell would become NYU's first associate provost for the arts, starting in the spring.
Four committees appointed by Provost David McLaughlin examined how NYU could better coordinate programs in these fields, and reported their findings to university administrators earlier this year. These committees - composed of deans, faculty members and administrators - were created after a separate faculty-led committee focused on assessing Steinhardt programs told McLaughlin that its findings would have university-wide implications.
Alfano said the new combined school, which is slated to open in fall 2005, will maintain traditional programs in each discipline while looking for ways to collaborate between dentists and nurses, such as increasing nurses' activities in dentist offices, such as tests for hypertension and diabetes.
This, Alfano said, would help health care workers detect medical problems earlier, as many people averse to visiting their doctors see their dentists regularly.
'You could get a flu shot with a routine dental exam,' said Alfano, adding that the union would also further the college's involvement with projects like finding medical responses to terrorism. The administration's report, which originated from two committee reports, found a 30 percent overlap between the two schools' academic programs.
Moving NYU's nursing activities from an education school to one that is medically centered is a welcome development, nursing students said.
'It's really hard for our nursing program to be in an education-based school. A lot of our classes are not taken as seriously,' nursing junior Alecia Donahue said. 'We're hoping that the classes will be more medically oriented with the move to the College of Dentistry.'
Nursing professors said they were also enthusiastic about the likely shift, agreeing that aligning themselves with the dental school is a better fit for their program.
'The Steinhardt school has always been an interesting configuration of programs, and there have been some long standing questions about whether they all appropriately belonged under a common mission and roof,' said Dr. Judith Haber, director of the nursing master's program.
Though it is too soon to know for sure, Alfano said he does not expect any jobs to be lost under the plan.
Yesterday's report from the administration made two other significant recommendations: the creation of a provost-level director of all university arts programs and the creation of three faculty-led councils to coordinate collaborations between NYU programs in music, visual arts and media across different schools.
McLaughlin said the arts provost and the councils in music and visual arts will strengthen NYU's arts programs.
'There are many fine programs in music and the arts that certainly can use some cross coordination,' he said.
The other council, which will be compromised of faculty in various NYU media programs, will coordinate class offerings, hiring and research among programs in these areas, rather than combine them into one entity.
'What did make sense was to create some sort of body, some scholarly, academic home where people in media could work together,' said journalism professor and WSN Managing Board Chair Jay Rosen, who will help lead the council. 'It's a blank slate now, but the idea was, let's do something.'
The original Steinhardt assessment program, from which all of these recommendations grew, began shortly after the departure of Dean Anne Marcus, said Mary Brabeck, who succeeded her as Steinhardt's dean in October 2003.
'The benefit of the whole strategic assessment process is a clearer, more coherent mission for the Steinhardt school,' Brabeck said. 'I think these are exactly the right recommendations.'
-- additional reporting by Lisa Fleisher, Barbara Leonard and Liz Tsai
Steinhardt's nursing program will merge with the College of Dentistry to create the School of Dentistry and Nursing, opening in Fall 2005.
Other health programs will stay at Steinhardt.
2. Music
The existing music programs will stay at Steinhardt.
Mary Schmidt Campbell will become NYU's first associate provost for the arts in addition to her current position as dean of the Tisch School of the Arts.
A faculty-led 'Coordinating Council for Music' will be created to coordinate collaboration between NYU's various music programs.
3. Visual Arts
The existing visual arts programs will remain at Steinhardt.
Campbell, as the new associate provost for the arts, will work to further collaborate visual arts programs.
A faculty-led 'Coordinating Council for the Visual Arts' will be created to coordinate collaboration between NYU's visual arts programs.
4. Communications, Journalism and Media Studies
The existing departments primarily involved in culture and communications, journalism and media studies will remain in their current schools.
A faculty-led 'Coordinating Council for Culture and Communications, Journalism and Media Studies' will be created to coordinate research, teaching and programs in these various fields.
-- Barbara Leonard, staff writer
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