Regents approve NAU College of Health and Human Services

The Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously approved an organizational realignment at Northern Arizona University that will create a new College of Health and Human Services.

The new college will combine NAU's current schools of Nursing and Health Professions.

President John Haeger and Provost Liz Grobsmith proposed the new college in February to respond to the need for more health-care professionals in the state and to enhance the university's participation in the developing academic medical complex in downtown Phoenix.

"This creates extraordinary opportunity for the university," Haeger said. "We are ready to become the institution for students who want a career in the health professions."

The realignment will disestablish the Consortium of Professional Schools, which currently houses Nursing and Health Professions, effective June 30. The remaining two schools in the consortium will change reporting structures.

The School of Hotel and Restaurant Management will report to the College of Business Administration, and the School of Forestry will report to the Office of the Provost for an interim period.

Grobsmith said search committees have now been appointed for an executive director of nursing and for a dean of the new college. The searches will be facilitated by the firm Isaacson Miller.

The regents also granted approval for NAU to implement a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies beginning in the fall.

They also approved a motion to allow NAU to accept up to 90 lower-division credit hours of transfer work from community colleges to apply toward a bachelor of science degree or a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis in either humanities or public management.

The university will provide a status report on the increased credit transfer at the two- and four-year mark.