"In terms of programs and services next year and over time, I hope that students will feel that their needs are even better-met," Spears said of the restructuring.
The campus life section will oversee residential life, dining, student activities, judicial affairs, Greek life and outdoor programs, Spears said, while student support services will encompass undergraduate deans, the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, academic skills, accessibility services and career services. The administrative section known as divisional operations will include finances, strategic planning and other infrastructure that supports the other two divisions, she said.
Under the new structure, there will only be eight departments directly reporting to the Dean of the College, Spears said. This is a contraction for the office, as under the current organization of the Dean of the College's Office, 12 separate departments directly report to the Dean of the College.
Of the eight positions that will directly report to the Dean of the College under the new structure, five currently exist director of athletics, director of health services, director of Safety and Security, executive assistant to the Dean of the College and special assistant to the Dean of the College. The director of Safety and Security currently does not directly report to the Dean of the College, but will under the new structure. The two assistants to the Dean of the College currently provide administrative support, but do not lead departments.
Three new positions associate dean of campus life, associate dean of student support services and director of administration will report to the Dean of the College.
Eight positions under the current structure of the office will no longer report to the Dean of the College once the reorganization process is complete. The positions include the dean of residential life, dean of student life, director of the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, director of undergraduate students, director of Undergraduate Judicial Affairs and three associate deans.
"The titles won't be there," Spears said. "It's possible that some of those people will end up in other positions, but at this point I can't say how that will roll out in a definitive way."
Not all of these positions will necessarily be affected by layoffs, because some will report to one of the two new associate deans, Spears explained in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. The number of positions that will be eliminated does not directly correlate with the change in which positions report directly to the Dean of the College, Spears said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"Some of the positions are collapsing into other positions, reducing the number of people while maintaining the function, but within a different structure," Spears said.
Spears explained that currently OPAL and undergraduate deans directly report to the Dean of the College, while academic skills and accessibility services report to an associate dean, and career services reports to another associate dean. Following the reorganization, all of these departments will report to a single associate dean the associate dean of student support services who will then report to the Dean of the College.
This reorganization will allow for a "more coherent" and "more integrated system for students" that will deliver programs and services to students more quickly, Spears said.
"This reorganization of the Dean of the College division was appropriate and, I think, necessary regardless of budget cuts," Spears said.
With the new organization of the Dean of the College's Office, "a student doesn't have to run around campus and spend four to five hours trying to get something done that we might be able to accomplish in 15 minutes if our system were really integrated more fully," Spears said.
Students will not feel any short-term change with the restructuring of her office because they will "continue to go to the same resources for contact," Spears said.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman announced in an e-mail on Thursday that his position at the College had been eliminated due to budget cuts. Spears said that other positions "similar" to the dean of residential life will be eliminated.
In order to fill the positions of the two new associate deans, Spears said she is hoping to file an internal posting "within the next week." The two associate dean positions will be available to those who are laid off in the reorganization process. The reorganization of the structures within the Dean of the College's Office will cut costs for the department, Spears said.
"The shift to campus life and student services as conceptual framework doesn't make [the reorganization] cost-saving, but when you change the structure and the positions that report to the Dean of the College, that's where there's cost savings," Spears said. "Simply by eliminating some positions eliminating literally more positions than you are creating you save money."
Spears declined to disclose which members of her division will be laid off in the restructuring process. She explained that she will hold a Dean of the College division meeting on Friday so that the division "has a sense of the organization."
The reorganization of the department incorporated advice following an external review conducted by three specialists from outside the College, Spears said.
"While their findings and observations certainly informed decision-making, we also applied some of our own critical analysis to what works at Dartmouth and what are the issues at Dartmouth," Spears said.
