Carleton University
Senate
Senate Academic Planning Committee
January 16, 2006
To:
From:
Senate
Brian Mortimer, Clerk of Senate
Secretary to SAPC
RE: Dissolution of the College of Natural Sciences
At its meeting of January 16, 2006, the Senate Academic Planning Committee (SAPC) agreed
with the recommendation of the Faculty Of Science to dissolve the College of Natural Sciences.
Consequently, the following motion is put before Senate for its consideration.
MOTION: Senate recommends to the Board of Governors that the College of Natural Sciences,
as an academic unit, be dissolved effective May 1, 2006, and that responsibility for its academic
programs be assumed by the departments and institutes presently comprising the College,
The rest of this document gives the background and details of this proposal as presented to
SAPC.
The College of Natural Sciences was established on May 1, 1998 in response to the following
motion of Senate adopted at its meeting of December 5, 1997:
The Senate directs the Faculty of Science to consolidate the programs in
Experimental Sciences under a single administrative structure in order to reduce
costs and increase strategic flexibility.
As a result of the formation of the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) in May 1998, departmental
offices in the Experimental Sciences units in existence at the time were closed and the number of
office support staff reduced; remaining staff were centralized into what is currently the CNS
Office (in Herzberg Bldg) and the CNS Stores (in Steacie Bldg). Since its inception, the College
of Natural Sciences has primarily served as an administrative structure providing centralized
office administrative support to academic units in the Experimental Sciences and Science Stores
support. In addition, the CNS currently administers the first-year Seminar in Science course
(NSCI 1000, Undergraduate Calendar p. 381) and the undergraduate Computational Sciences
programs (Undergraduate Calendar pp. 109-110, 267).
Currently, the College of Natural Sciences comprises the following independent academic units:
Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Physics, Biochemistry, Environmental Science and
Integrated Science. The Chairs and Directors of these academic units report directly to the Dean
of Science. The Director of the CNS reports to the Dean of Science.
Over the past seven years, it has become increasingly apparent that the lack of departmental
offices in the aforementioned academic units (owing to the formation of the College in 1998) is
not serving our students nor our faculty and staff well. In particular, this lost of departmental
offices has seriously eroded departmental identity and did not provide students with natural
“disciplinary homes” that they could affiliate with and where they could receive academic advice
and direction in a timely and effective manner. Moreover, the lost of departmental offices has
consequently constrained faculty-student interactions and academic advising, and inhibited the
development of a strong sense of academic community between students, faculty and staff at the
departmental level. Providing learning opportunities and related academic services that enhance
student success and fostering collegial and interactive learning and work environments are
amongst the current strategic goals of the Faculty of Science. The Faculty of Science strongly
believes that these goals can be achieved more effectively by increasing support for Science
faculty and students through the concurrent dissolution of the College of Natural Sciences and
the creation and staffing of departmental offices for those academic units currently in the
College.
The Faculty of Science therefore proposes that the College of Natural Sciences be dissolved, that
the current CNS staff be re-assigned to newly-created departmental offices, and that the resulting
administrative structure of the Faculty of Science be as follows:
School of Computer Science
School of Mathematics and Statistics
Department of Biology
Department of Chemistry
Department of Earth Sciences
Department of Physics
Institute of Biochemistry
Institute of Environmental Science
Integrated Science Institute
The proposed dissolution of the College of Natural Sciences is an administrative initiative, with
little impact on the nature of responsibilities for the delivery of our B.Sc. programs. As a result
of the proposed dissolution of the CNS, the position of the Director of the College would not
longer exist. CNS Stores would be re-named Science Stores, which would report directly to the
Administrative Officer for the Faculty of Science. The first-year Seminar in Science course
would become the administrative responsibility of the Dean of Science. The individual
Computational Sciences programs (in Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry and Geophysics,
respectively) would continue to be offered, and “repatriated” administratively, by the individual
departments/institute concerned, but listed under the individual disciplinary B.Sc. programs in
the Undergraduate Calendar (instead of being listed under the College of Natural Sciences, as is
presently the case).
The Dean of Science is presently developing a comprehensive proposal, to be submitted to the
President this month. This proposal is the outcome of extensive consultations with Science
Chairs and Directors, CNS support staff, and Human Resources. The proposal will outline the
arguments for the proposed dissolution of the College of Natural Sciences, a time course for the
dissolution and the formation of new departmental offices, a support staff allocation and re-
assignment plan, and a budget for additional modest resources required to create and open
functional departmental offices by summer 2006.
At its meeting of October 17, 2005, the College of Natural Sciences Council adopted
unanimously the following motion:
The College of Natural Sciences Council recommends to Science Faculty Board that the
College of Natural Sciences, as an academic unit, be dissolved and, as a consequence,
that offices serving the natural sciences departments and institutes be established and
staffed through a consultative process during the course of academic year 2005-06.
At its meeting of October 25, 2005, the Faculty of Science adopted unanimously the following
motion:
The Science Faculty Board recommends to Senate that the College of Natural
Sciences, as an academic unit, be dissolved and, as a consequence, that
responsibility for its academic programs be assumed by the departments and
institutes presently comprising the College, and that offices serving the latter
departments and institutes be established and staffed by the end of academic year
2005-06, subject to sufficient funding.