A new academic reorganization policy will be used during the consolidation of the Colleges of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences.

The policy was recently approved by the Faculty Senate and ISU President Gregory Geoffroy.

Faculty Senate President Jack Girton said the time between the approval of the policy and Geoffroy’s announcement wasn’t “totally a coincidence.”

“It was no secret something like this was going to happen,” Girton said.

The policy went into effect as soon as Geoffroy approved it, said Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Faculty Senate secretary.

The newly adopted policy consists of three phases — discussion, planning and review. Girton said each phase is designed to involve a lot of review and discussion, so each of the affected academic units can have input.

“One small reorganization can affect many units,” said Prem Premkumar, chairman of the Faculty Development and Administrations Council.

Premkumar said reorganizations could happen for a number of reasons, such as when a field has undergone significant change or when budget issues require restructuring. However, he said reorganization doesn’t happen that often. According to the policy, reorganization begins with the discussion of a problem or opportunity that may include restructuring one or more units of the university. Girton said the decision for reorganization can come from anywhere, depending on the nature of the reorganization, but the decision for planning must come from an administrator.

The next phase, planning, involves input from both the Faculty Senate and all faculty affected by the reorganization. The final step is review, in which the Faculty Senate, Geoffroy or Provost Ben Allen can reject the proposed reorganization and have it be revised, or approve the plan.

Girton said Geoffroy and the faculty have to agree on how the restructuring will be carried out.

“[The policy] helps provide an outside perspective,” Zanish-Belcher said.

Premkumar said before this policy was adopted, none of the university departments had an official framework from which to start. The new policy will now provide the framework, as well as a faculty voice in reorganizing departments.

“There are no implementation details,” he said. “It just outlines the process.”