The College of Fine and Professional Arts is in middle of the process to receive a name change because of the reorganization of schools within the college.

The College of the Arts is currently the preferred title, according to Frank Susi Jr., associate dean of the College of Fine and Professional Arts.

“We want something reflective of the mission of this new unit,” he said, referring to the reorganized body.

Currently, the schools that would experience the name change are the School of Art, the School of Fashion Design and Merchandising, the School of Music and the School of Theatre and Dance.

Before the name can be changed, it has to go through several different councils and academic bodies. It was first approved by faculty members of the schools within the college. It was approved this week by the Educational Policies Council, which is a council within Faculty Senate, and it is now headed to the full Faculty Senate on March 13.

The reorganization that fueled the need for the name change has been a process of schools leaving for other colleges, said Tom Janson, professor in the School of Music and faculty representative to the EPC.

“When I came in the 1980s, the college included the airport and the School of Technology,” he said. “Now there are only art-based learning programs.”

Janson said the change would be ideally included in the course catalog for Fall 2007, if the proposal passes through both the Faculty Senate and the Board of Trustees.

If passed, the name change would not affect programs within the college, Janson said.

Contact academic affairs reporter Derek Lenehan at [email protected].