THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010435
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Old Dominion University's Faculty Senate on Tuesday approved, without dissent, an administration plan to disband the geology department.
But no geology professor will be laid off, and ODU will continue offering bachelor's and master's degrees in the subject.
Under the plan, which will take effect in the fall, geology professors will be reassigned to other departments, such as math and oceanography, said provost Jo Ann Gora.
The university will save $75,000 a year by cutting the department's two clerical positions and dropping its operating budget for items such as printing, she said. In addition, a geology professor who is retiring this year, Carl F. Koch, will not be replaced.
The move also will ``expand the depth of other departments,'' Gora said. ``I think the departments will be enhanced by having faculty members whose orientation is slightly different.''
Gora said the action is part of a universitywide move to cut costs without hurting academics. The College of Business and Public Administration also has reorganized this semester, compressing eight departments into four, she said.
ODU is the second university in Virginia to announce a departmental closing this month. James Madison University is closing its physics department and might lay off some faculty members.
That move prompted the entire faculty at James Madison last week to approve a vote of no confidence in the president, Ronald E. Carrier.
At ODU, however, there has been little protest. ``It's definitely something we can live with,'' said G. Richard Whittecar, an associate professor of geological sciences who will be moved to oceanography.
That's because many had feared a worse fate: layoffs of all the professors. ``Had there been cuts, we would have been the (science) department targeted because of our lack of a Ph.D. program and small faculty size,'' geology chairman Joseph H. Rule said.
Unlike at JMU, where physics professors say they were blind-sided by the proposal, geology professors at ODU say they have had lengthy talks with administrators since last semester. ``This was thoroughly worked out in discussions,'' Whittecar said.
The geology department has nine full-time faculty members. It awards about 35 bachelor's degrees and five master's degrees each year, Rule said. Geology professors hope that number won't decline. ``Students are drawn to professors and programs, not to labels,'' Whittecar said. ``We are certainly working on ways to get the word out on this.''
Robert L. Ake, the chairman of the Faculty Senate, said, ``The senate didn't have much negative to say, except you could feel them presiding over a wake.
``They felt that it was unfortunate, but, at a time of retrenchment, that was the best bargain that the geological sciences professors could work out.'' by CNB