In one of the most far-reaching academic changes in recent history, Samford University’s board of trustees executive committee gave preliminary approval Feb. 26 to a new College of Health Sciences, effective with the 2013–14 academic year.
The new college, when fully developed, will include the existing Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing and McWhorter School of Pharmacy, as well as two new units: a School of Health-Related Professions and a School of Community and Public Health.
The department of kinesiology and nutrition science, currently housed in the Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education and Professional Studies, will move to the new college as part of the School of Health-Related Professions.
In proposing the new academic unit, Samford President Andrew Westmoreland noted that it brings together three of the university’s strongest and most popular academic programs — nursing, kinesiology and pharmacy — and opens new doors for Samford to expand professional training in other health-related fields. Almost one-third of Samford’s undergraduate and graduate/professional program students already are studying in health-related fields, including pre-professional programs for medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy and veterinary medicine.
“Given Samford’s longstanding commitment to prepare students for meaningful lives of service to God and humankind, a College of Health Sciences fits easily within our mission,” Westmoreland said. The proposed college will result in “a comprehensive academic unit that combines the resources, talents and energy of existing health-related programs within Samford in a manner that will best serve the university in the future.”
Samford Provost and Executive Vice President J. Bradley Creed also announced that Nena F. Sanders, the current nursing dean, will assume a new role as vice provost and will oversee planning for and implementation of the new College of Health Sciences. Sanders will continue as nursing dean, at least during the time of planning and implementation.
Sanders noted that the trend in higher education is to establish a College of Health Sciences to meet market demand for health care professionals and to maximize shared resources across schools and programs, among other objectives. The new college also can provide increased visibility for Samford as a “major educational entity that is playing a significant role in preparing health professionals for the future,” she added.
A new Center for Faith and Health also is proposed as part of the College, providing a model for “interprofessional practice, scholarship and service that focuses on faith, health, end of life and ethics,” Sanders said. The center would provide a framework for faith and health initiatives already in existence at Samford and new opportunities globally.
“Rapid changes within the marketplace today compel us to adapt in ways that we previously would have found difficult,” Westmoreland said. “Under even our most conservative projections, the additional enrollment encompassed by the College of Health Sciences will help in a significant way to provide a margin of financial stability for Samford.”
In addition to making steps toward the College of Health Sciences, trustees also gave preliminary approval to a $142 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The current budget is $141 million. Included in the new budget is a 3.9 percent increase in full-time undergraduate tuition. Undergraduate tuition for full-time students will be $12,764 per semester, compared to $12,285 in 2012–13. This is the lowest percentage increase in undergraduate tuition in more than 25 years.
Tuition in Samford’s undergraduate Evening College and Cumberland School of Law will not increase. Tuition in all other graduate and professional degree programs will increase 5 percent over 2012–13 rates.
In a series of reports, trustees also learned that the university’s endowment on Dec. 31, 2012, was $247.6 million and that final spring enrollment is 4,592, a slight decrease from spring 2012. Although undergraduate enrollment is up, there were decreases in two professional programs, law and pharmacy.
(SU)
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