Since the inception 52 years ago of the College of Technology, now transformed into the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, numerous degree programs, majors, minors, departments, and schools have been created, phased out, merged, or modified, all of which has led to the present organizational state of the college. I believe the time is right for the college to reorganize once more to be effectively aligned and continue our Purdue Moves transformation.
Our reorganization can have several benefits: it can strengthen faculty collaboration, facilitate greater curriculum integration and innovation, solve existing organizational challenges, improve the opportunity for growth and success among lower-enrollment programs, respond to advances and the spread of Digital Age technologies, and take advantage of the opportunities that are emerging as a result of the college’s transformation.
Some of the academic programs created over the years are not well-aligned with the core disciplines of their existing departments, often because the programs were broader or more interdisciplinary in nature and did not fit squarely into the traditional units that had been formed decades before. Approximately seven years ago, the Department of Technology Leadership & Innovation (TLI) was created through the merger of the Departments of Industrial Technology and Organizational Leadership & Supervision. This merger combined programs that had little in common, such as industrial engineering technology, organizational leadership, and engineering-technology teacher education.
Meanwhile, the Departments of Computer and Information Technology (CIT) and Computer Graphics Technology (CGT), created about 30 years ago with very distinct missions, have grown closer together as computing and digital technologies have evolved. With this comes the opportunity to create a powerful and prestigious single academic unit that builds on the best of the college’s two computing departments.
Finally, the Purdue Moves initiative propelled the college to embrace integrated and transdisciplinary learning and to create our first competency-based degree program, transdisciplinary studies in technology (TST). The initiative continues to serve as the catalyst for the transformation of undergraduate learning experiences in all academic units.
The faculty in CIT, CGT, TLI and TST are considering a resource-neutral reorganization (no loss or gain of positions) involving three chief components:
- Reorganize the Department of Computer and Information Technology and the Department of Computer Graphics Technology into a single school — tentatively named the School of Computing & Information Technology.
- Create a new School (name to be determined) to house several components that are multidisciplinary in nature, including the college’s competency-based transdisciplinary studies in technology program.
- Phase out the Department of Technology Leadership & Innovation and align its programs in existing schools in the college and/or the new School.
This resource-neutral reorganization better aligns existing programs and offers several benefits, and I thank the faculty and academic units for considering and pursuing this opportunity. More details about the reorganization will soon emerge.
