One college, five schools.
Milligan College revealed a major change in the school’s structure Friday, reorganizing its academic areas into five new schools.
“This positions us for growth,” said Milligan College President Bill Greer. “This will keep us be better organized within the programs we already have, and it will let our faculty work closer together within each school. It will also give us a logical place to plant new programs.”
Greer unveiled the plan to a packed auditorium.
All of the college’s academic major and minor programs and all of its graduate programs will be under one of the five newly created schools: the William B. Greene Jr. School of Business and Technology, the School of Social Sciences and Education, the School of Sciences and Allied Health, the School of Arts and Humanities, and the School of Bible and Ministry.
Greer said the transition to the new schools will take place over the next academic year and the new system will be in place for the fall 2015 school semester.
The new structure provides a number of advantages, Greer said, including significant administrative efficiencies. Faculty can be more focused on their respective academic disciplines, while the college still maintains broad-based, shared academic governance.
Emmanuel Christian Seminary, which college leaders hope to integrate into Milligan by fall 2015, will be an important part of Milligan’s new School of Bible and Ministry.
“We have been very deliberate in our efforts to honor the Emmanuel heritage and support its mission,” said Greer. “We’re excited about the future possibilities and the great advantages this integration and positioning will offer to students and alumni of both institutions, and ultimately better serve the Kingdom.”
According to Greer, each school will have its own associate dean, who will likely be selected from current staff at Milligan College.
“The dean and I will be going through and work with faculty to identify good candidates, but more than likely it will be internal people who will be occupying those spots,” said Greer.
Milligan junior and political science major Jeff Preptit says he is pleased with Milligan’s plan to consolidate its current programs into five schools.
“This will help us broaden our political science department,” said Preptit. “I hope this will help lead to the hiring of new professors in each academic area, broadening the wealth of knowledge we have here.”
The first school to be named is the William B. Greene Jr. School of Business. Greene is the current chairmen of BancTenn Corporation. At the age of 24, Greene became the president and CEO of the Carter County Bank, making him the youngest CEO in the United States.
“It means a lot to me to know I was able to financially give back to a smaller private school that will have a major positive impact in this region,” said Greene.
Greene says that over the many years that he has been a banker he has became tired of hearing the bad repetition that many bankers have gained.
“One of the things we will do at Milligan is produce a graduate and under graduate student who will understand the ethical qualities of what it means to be in business,” said Greene. “We will give graduate programs that help main street America and not Wall Street America.”
Greer noted that the school’s 150th anniversary will fall in 2016, saying “it is fitting that we look ahead to the next era and position Milligan for continued strength and future growth.”