The Roanoke Times
Roanoke College announced Thursday that it will launch a new academic structure, effective in fall 2025, that will organize its 100-plus areas of study in 16 separate departments into four schools that have been designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among our departments, promote greater educational breadth for our students, and facilitate increased cooperation with external partners.
The school's legacy, according to a news release, has been to provide its students with the kind of well-rounded, interdisciplinary education that is a hallmark of the liberal arts experience. But as today's students prepare to enter a 21st century world burdened by audacious problems and complicated by rapidly changing technology, the college's educational vision is expanding to ensure that it isn't just another liberal arts college, but a destination for students who desire the capacity to question the status quo, lead innovation and spark change within their communities, according to the release.
The four new schools and the disciplines they will house include:
- School of Business, Economics, and Analytics: actuarial science, business administration, economics, economics/finance, finance, marketing, MBA, sport management.
- School of Communication, Culture, and the Arts: art, art history, communication studies, creative writing, French, history, literary studies, religious studies, screen studies, Spanish, theater.
- School of Education, Government, and Society: criminal justice, education licensure, education studies, health/physical education, human services studies, international relations, M.Ed., philosophy, political science, public policy, sociology.
- School of Health, Science, and Sustainability: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, data science, disability studies, engineering science, environmental studies, health and exercise science, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, psychology, public health studies.
The college's two new cannabis studies programs, cannabis science and cannabis social justice and policy, are open to traditional undergraduates but are administratively housed in RC-RV, the college's new unit devoted to community connections and access for a wide variety of learners, according to the release.
The new academic structure is the result of nearly two years of work that began with community-wide town halls, then progressed with a 12-person Restructuring Task Force that conducted extensive research and solicited ideas and feedback from faculty, students and staff, according to the release. The new structure was endorsed by the faculty and the Roanoke College Board of Trustees in April 2023.
"Our exciting educational vision is deeply connected to what learners will need to thrive in the 21st century," college President Frank Shushok Jr. said. "This isn't just a new academic structure; it comes out of a conviction that learners of today and tomorrow must be exposed to multiple forms of knowledge, the skill to work with individuals from many different backgrounds, and the capacity to pivot and adapt as the world changes rapidly around them."
Prospective students will still apply to Roanoke College as a whole and will be able to declare majors, minors or concentrations in multiple schools. If they choose, they will also be able to change easily from a program in one school to a program in a different school.
Essential features of the school's liberal arts experience, including inquiry and honors curricula, experiential learning opportunities and May term courses, will be not only preserved, but infused into each school as Maroon Connections, according to the release.
Although the schools structure will not go into effect until the 2025-26 academic year, the college appointed the inaugural deans who will lead the four schools.
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