Students of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences will have a chance Monday to voice their concerns over the college’s proposed merger with the College of Education.

A rally will be held on the steps of Beardshear Hall at 3 p.m. A variety of speakers, including students, faculty and alumni of the college, will be present.

“We’re trying to get as many speakers as possible to come,” said Mary Linnenbrink, rally coordinator and senior in family and consumer sciences education. “This is our one chance to have our voices heard.”

Linnenbrink said the rally is open to the public, as well as to students from all departments of FCS, alumni, faculty and staff of the college.

“We want to showcase the college [at the rally] and show how special we are to the community,” said Melissa Wilmarth, junior in family and consumer sciences education, who is helping to organize the rally.

Linnenbrink said the rally will show the administration how strongly students feel about the possibility of losing their college.

“Our official mission is to improve the human condition. FCS majors are personally connected to what they do, so when you are trying to take away their college, you are taking a piece of them,” she said.

Linnenbrink said she presented the idea of having a rally to the Family and Consumer Sciences Council because she feels the university is not listening to students’ concerns.

“The administration is putting a wall between them and everyone else,” she said. “As a council, we decided it would be a good way to have our voices heard.”

She said no students or alumni have been named to the college combination planning committee, which is made up mostly of administrators and a few faculty members.

Beverly Kruempel, adjunct assistant professor of family and consumer sciences education and studies, will be speaking at the rally. She said the rally needs to focus on students of the FCS college.

“They haven’t been involved in the process, and they need to ask when and how they will be involved,” she said.

Pam White, interim dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, will be delivering the welcome to the rally. She said she supports the students’ efforts, but wants them to know that students, alumni, faculty and staff have not been disregarded in this decision.

She said Ben Allen, vice president for academic affairs and provost, who made the recommendation to combine the two colleges as a way for the university to save money, has wanted all along to have student input.

White said the combining of the two colleges will only affect their administrative structures, not students.

“The reorganization will not affect any of the programs,” she said.

“No majors are being cut as a result of this decision.”