Rebrands and Mergers: Change is not that new
By Victoria Hansen
hansenv@findlay.edu
Combining the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and the College of Business may go down as a bold move in University of Findlay history. However, UF has a storied history of college name changes and mergers.
“We have combined, we’ve split, we’ve rearranged, we’ve started new,” said Dr. Diana Montague, professor of media and communication. Montague spent the past two years researching UF history for her book “Rooted in the Past, Reaching Toward the Future: University of Findlay’s Growth Beyond Findlay College 1983-2019.”
“We’ve had divisions, areas, departments, schools, centers, and over the years. Depending on where the interest was, where the funding was, where the students were, and where the majors were, made a difference in how we organized ourselves,” Montague said.
Under UF president Kenneth E. Zirkle from 1983-2003, UF embraced various niche programs.
“The president back then said, ‘What can we have here that others don’t have?’ Then they started to design those, we brought people in for those. And that was part of the catalyst of how do we organize these,” Montague said.
At the time, UF’s programs were spread across seven academic divisions and two centers. After budgetary issues, President Zirkle reorganized all programs into four colleges: the College of Graduate and Extended Studies (home of the master’s programs and Weekend College), the College of Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Professional Studies (hosting the business and education programs).
“Is that funky, or what?” Montague said. “That college, the College of Professional Studies, was around for five years, and then they split it; College of Business, College of Education.”
These colleges split in 1999 due to the wildly different natures of the two programs, and have stayed separate since.
Four years later, UF moved all of the healthcare majors from the College of Sciences to a new College of Health Professions. Around the same time, UF started its pharmacy school, which was elevated into its own college in 2009, creating the sixth and final college.
In 2018, the College of Liberal Arts was rebranded to the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, its current name.
“The general public did not understand all the different majors that were in our college, and many didn’t understand that liberal arts did not mean liberal political thinking,” Montague said. “We went through this big thing. So, how do we tell the world who we are? And so we went through a lot of different iterations, and that’s what we settled on.”
The University also considered the name “College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities,” but was not fond of the acronym “CASH.”
As UF looks ahead to the next changes in its structure, Montague is hopeful for its success.
“I think it’s a good opportunity. I really do,” she said. “I just think there’s so much that CAHSS and marketing can do. I really would like to see more opportunities with that.”
Since the new college’s name is subject to change, Montague has some ideas.
“My suggestion is the College of Rhetoric, Arts, and Business.” However, when she brought it up at the meeting, few were excited to be a part of CRAB.
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