Kent State’s regional campuses will have more independence and individual control by the end of the year.

“We are transferring some of the functions that were performed by the central regional administration to each of the campuses,” wrote Wanda Thomas, dean of Kent State Trumbull and executive dean for regional campuses, in an e-mail. “The regional campuses have grown considerably during the past few years, and they now have staff that can perform the functions once done by the central administration.”

In July 2008, President Lester Lefton and Provost Robert Frank began a process to alter regional campuses in terms of procedures and processes, following the resignation of Shirley Barton, former Kent State dean for executive regional campuses.

Gregory Andrews, dean of Kent State Tuscarawas, replaced Barton as executive dean for regional campuses.

“My role last year was to identify those procedures and processes and make recommendations to the provost on how those could be handled in a different way with an eye on providing more efficiency as well as more autonomy to the campuses in the decision-making process,” Andrews said.

Andrews said there were about 100 different processes identified right away that needed changes.

“There’s no one, two or three things that we can zero in on,” Andrews said. “It’s just a wide-ranging list of procedures that we felt and recommended could be handled more expeditiously.”

Thomas, who replaced Andrews July 15, said her duties as interim dean are to continue certain responsibilities, such as leading the implementation of policy changes for regional campuses until the reorganization is finalized.

Contact technology reporter Kristyn Soltis at [email protected].