Facing a significant budget deficit, Columbia will keep its eight-school structure while shifting oversight to five deans, replacing the current system of program directors.

The change will also reorganize programs across schools, grouping majors under broader academic areas.

“We’re thinking about and working toward an administrative structure that is appropriately sized to the number of students we serve, and to the complexity of our organization,” Senior Associate Provost Nathan Bakkum told the Faculty Senate on Friday, May 1. 

Enrollment this spring dropped to 3,958 students, falling below 4,000 for the first time in over two decades, although there are hopeful signs that the enrollment may be stabilizing. This spring’s Admitted Students Days brought record registrations and early deposits to the college, the Chronicle previously reported.

Under the new structure, the schools of Theatre and Dance and Audio and Music will be grouped under one dean, and the schools of Fashion, Visual Arts and Design will be grouped under one dean. The schools of Film and Television, Communication and Culture and Business and Entrepreneurship will remain standalone units with a single dean each.

“What is changing is we’re going from the 10 directors to five deans,” Interim Senior Vice President and Provost Suzanne McBride told the Faculty Senate. “No programs or majors and minors are being eliminated.”

In Summer 2024, at the recommendation of former President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim, the college eliminated 16 departments and replaced them with eight new schools led by directors, the Chronicle previously reported. Fashion and Film and Television became their own schools.

McBride said that the latest restructuring would save the college money but that she did not yet have a dollar amount to share. 

“I’m sorry to talk about it sort of in the abstract,” she said. “It’s just not quite there yet to where I can really give it to you in all the details.”

In an interview at the student-faculty volleyball match later, McBride said that the duties of two existing dean positions will be folded into the Office of the Provost. 

Currently, Jeanne Petrolle is acting dean of faculty affairs, a position McBride held before becoming interim provost, and Steven Corey is dean of academic operations and programming. 

“For our size of school, we want to make sure we have the right size of staff,” McBride said.

The college will hold public candidate forums for faculty who apply for the new dean positions in May after the semester ends and will announce the new deans in early June. 

“The dean role, as it’s moving forward, is much closer in its operational responsibility to what the directors are currently doing than it is to the work of the deans that we had when we had ten thousand students.” Bakkum said. “Dean in 2026 is not equivalent to dean in 2022.”

Programs within the School of Design will be split across three schools. Math and science faculty will move to the School of Communication and Culture. The School of Communication and Culture will have the largest number of credits under it, primarily because of the presence of the core, Bakkum said.

The graphic design and interior architecture programs will remain in the School of Design, sharing a dean with the schools of Fashion and Visual Arts. 

The animation and computer graphics program, as well as the game and interactive media design program will move to the School of Film and Television. The school will remain the largest school at the college with the most students, Bakkum said.

Faculty Senate President Karla Fuller, a professor in the School of Film and Television, said the decision to place the programs within her school presents both creative and professional opportunities for students. 

“Contemporary media industries increasingly overlap across film, animation, gaming, virtual production and interactive storytelling,” she said. “Bringing these programs together encourages innovation, collaboration and cross-disciplinary learning that reflects the realities of today’s entertainment and media landscape.” 

In an email to faculty after the Senate meeting, McBride said the restructuring will have no impact on students.

“Our students will have the same classes, majors and minors,” she said. “In fact, students may not notice these managerial changes. We trust in our collective ability to adopt this leaner administrative structure while prioritizing a seamless student experience.”

But Christopher Shaw, associate director of the School of Design, told the Chronicle that he is worried the changes could create confusion for students and ultimately impact enrollment.

“I am not fully confident that this is going to be the strongest way for us to go forward,” said Shaw, associate professor in mathematics. “I get that they have a budget they have to try and close, and if they can save a couple hundred thousand dollars by taking some salaries away, then I recognize why they feel like they have to do it.”

This story has been updated.

Copy edited by Katie Peters