COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M has a series of changes coming in the new year. With most of them happening to leadership roles and academic colleges. But the new plans are causing confusion on campus about which departments will stay and which ones will go.
They’re calling it the path forward, looking ahead to the new year some notable changes coming to Texas A&M University.
One of those changes will bring the college of Liberal Arts and Geoscience under one roof.
”Look we have to provide value, added value when we make changes such as this, I do believe this will become a stronger unit we will see advantages,” said M. Katherine Banks, Texas A&M President.
Many changes are to come in the new year, but much discussion ahead leading up to those final implementations.
”There’s a lot of work to do still a lot of input from these workgroups following up with folks talking to the stakeholders who are affected by this," said Greg Hartman, interim Texas A&M Senior Vice President. "So all that stuff still has to be worked out. We sort of have a vision now, and commitment, to what we want to do now we have to make sure we get it implemented so it’s successful and impacts people in the most positive way possible."
Now several students shared the new changes aren't the right direction for A&M, But they did not want to come on camera due to fear of retaliation.
“There’s really been an encouragement of that kind of input, lots of meeting with people," added Hartman. "Some of those will continue to happen as well so there’s no reason for anyone to be fearful of comments matter of fact, we’re encouraging it because we’ll get a better product ultimately."
The same was true for faculty and staff still unsure of what happens to their jobs after the new changes.
Interim Vice President Greg Hartman shares the goal of this project is certainly not to eliminate jobs but to make the university better.
“This project was not about trying to save money or anything like that if we do find duplication's and duplicate services, we need to sort through that out,” explained Hartman.
Students, who have chosen to remain anonymous, expressed concerns about merging the college of Geoscience with liberal arts to the president's office, but they feel as though their concerns were not taken into consideration.
Now they have a chance to be a part of these next steps.
Hartman and the president's office is encouraging students to nominate others or themselves to be a chosen member of these workgroups. These workgroups will be coordinated early in the new year to discuss the implementation process of these changes.