The College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Education will merge into one college to save administrative costs, marking the first time two colleges have been combined at the university.

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy made the announcement Monday. He said the decision was driven by years of budget cuts, specifically last fall’s 2.5 percent across-the-board cut in state funding.

Provost Ben Allen, who spearheaded a task force that examined the structure of academic units to find ways to save money, said the combination will save the university an estimated $500,000 to $700,000 a year.

The savings will largely come from elimination of a dean and duplicated staff.

Geoffroy said he anticipated between eight and 15 positions will be cut, although those people could be transferred into other university positions.

“We don’t know yet how many people will be affected,” Allen said. “We do know we have one less dean [and] we would also say there’s no need for duplicative administrative tasks.”

Allen said he will put together a transition team that will work during the coming months to complete the merger. The group will, among other tasks, select a name for the new college, set up a dean search and determine policies for the new college. Allen said he expects the consolidation will be complete by July 1, 2005.

No academic programs or majors will be cut, and students within the colleges will not be directly affected, he said. Combination of the two colleges was selected out of many possibilities because of the similarities in their programs, Allen said.

“There are already synergies that exist between the two colleges, particularly in the areas of elementary education and early childhood development,” said Pam White, interim dean for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

She said programs in health and human performance and food science and human nutrition, as well as leadership programs, also compliment each other.

Walter Gmelch, dean of the College of Education, said it is not uncommon for family and consumer science and education colleges to combine. He said the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Virginia Tech have also recently seen mergers of the two colleges.

“We’re both about human development and transforming lives,” Gmelch said. “There’ s a real common vision, a common purpose that we both have.”

Both White and Gmelch said there would be several benefits to a larger college.

“We’ll be the fourth-largest college at the university, which provides us a little more influence and flexibility, so in that sense, I think we’re better positioned,” Gmelch said.

White said the merger would save faculty time, as there would be more members to take turns representing the college on committees. She also said money saved from the merger would go back into the college to allow programs to be built and expanded.

White said a challenge would be maintaining the identity of each of the colleges.

“We want to make sure that the identity of [each college] is maintained and it is still very recognizable within the university, within the state, nationally and internationally,” she said. “We want to make sure any changes we make don’t change the flavor of that.”

Allen said the dean search for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, which began with the resignation of Carol Meeks on June 30, 2003, has been terminated. Allen said he is in the process of informing potential candidates of the decision. White said she will extend her stay as interim dean of the college until June 30, 2005.

Allen said it is likely the transition team will suggest a national search for a new dean, which both Gmelch and White could compete for.

Neither White nor Gmelch said they had decided whether to pursue the position.

“I think both Pam White and I need to let the process continue and let the transition team set up a process where the new dean will be determined, [and] whether it be one of us or an outside person, we don’t know,” Gmelch said.