The Kent State Provost Office requested the digital sciences academic program to be moved under the College of Communication and Information (CCI), which would make it CCI’s 29th undergraduate program, according to Kent State’s website. 

Todd Diacon, provost and senior vice president of Academic Affairs  said the decision is not final yet, and will have to go through a process of approval before it can be implemented into the college.

“There’s a curriculum, academic program approval process that is through the Faculty Senate. We’ll draw up a proposal to move digital sciences into … (CCI) and submit that,” Diacon said. “The educational policy commission will vote on it and then if they approve it, it goes to the full-faculty senate. If the full-faculty senate approves it, then I think it also appears before the (Kent State) Board of Trustees. Where we are right now is drawing up the proposal for faculty approval.” 

The reason for the request to move digital sciences into an academic college is because it wasn’t under a specific academic college and reported to the provost office directly, which Diacon said is unusual.

“The provost’s office is in charge of so many areas on campus that we’re just not equipped to make decisions on ‘who should be teaching that course or this course, how often should we offer this course, should we stop offering this course and create a different course,’” Diacon said.

Diacon said these are decisions that are better made by faculty and and academic college administrators. 

The first step was asking all academic colleges to submit a proposal as to why it wanted to bring digital sciences into its college.

Three colleges submitted a proposal: the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, the College of Business and Administration and (CCI), Diacon said.

Each proposal went under review by Diacon, Vice President for Kent State System Integration Nathaniel Ritchey and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.

Each unanimously favored CCI’s proposal, Diacon said.

“The next step is for us to write a new, more formal proposal to get digital sciences into CCI,” Diacon said. “If all goes well and approval goes well, it should happen within the next few months.”

Lydia Taylor is an administration reporter, contact her at [email protected].