Kean University adopts major academic reorganization plan

The Kean University board of trustees approved a sweeping reorganization plan Sept. 19 that takes effect immediately.

The plan establishes the new College of Health Professionals and Human Service for Kean’s health care-related programs, replacing the Nathan Weiss Graduate College. Additionally, the STEM honors program has moved to the Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics and Technology and will be offered at the newly created School of Integrative Science and Technology.

As part of the move, all Kean colleges will offer both undergraduate and graduate programs, according to their discipline.

“The reorganization will help move Kean along its trajectory as a research university,” said Kean President Lamont Repollet. “Our new College of Health Professionals and Human Services will highlight and bring together our successful programs in growing health care fields, such as occupational therapy, genetic counseling and exercise science. The changes to the STEM honors program allow for more collaborative research and significantly improve our ability to deliver a robust education in the sciences to more students.”

The reorganization comes as Kean has raised both its research and transformational teaching profiles.

Kean Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs David Birdsell says that the reorganization will bring the university in line with current higher education best practices and will not affect course planning for current students.

He noted that the over the next few years Kean expects to double the number of students studying science on an honors basis while utilizing state-of-the-art labs.

“The reorganization puts all of the degree and certificate programs with similar substantive interests, pedagogies and career outcomes together for the first time,” he said.

The University will also boost the number of honors-affiliated faculty.

“Over the last 14 months, Kean has hired a larger fraction of its tenure-track faculty than any other university in the country,” said Birdsell. “Our new academic structure gives all of them equal access to the laboratories and facilities they need to sustain the high-quality research and teaching they have come here to accomplish. The whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.”

“As New Jersey’s urban research university, Kean is committed to providing the best science programs in the state,” said George Chang, dean of CSMT. “Folding Kean’s STEM honors program into the School of Integrative Science and Technology at Hennings College Allows us to build and expand on that commitment for all of our students.”

“At Kean, our motto is to always climb higher, and this gives us tools to do that,” Repollet added.