Board of Trustees Set to Review Cooperative Program; Fate of Relations with Mount St. Vincent Uncertain
Nick Marricco
Issue date: 9/20/06 Section: News
Manhattan College and the College of Mount St. Vincent are prepared to review their cooperative academic program this fall, citing concerns over purpose and efficiency. The news may be the death knell of a program in existence since 1964.
On September 21, the Boards of Trustees of Manhattan College and the Mount will meet and examine the case. If they decide that the cooperative program is inefficient or obsolete, the change could occur within the next year and a half.
At this point, however, the fate of the program is uncertain. Brother Thomas Scanlan, President of Manhattan College, declined an interview but offered a brief statement. "Our relationship with the Mount is being examined," he said. "To call it a 'potential split' is an overstatement."
Last spring Dr. Neil Thorburn, former Interim President of Ancilla College in Donaldson, Indiana, conducted an investigation of the cooperative program. The Boards had turned to Thorburn as an objective voice, and also because he brings the experience of having run similar cooperative programs.
Based on his report and on other information gathered over the summer, the Boards decided to review the case further.
If the Boards decide to end the program, Manhattan College and Mount students will inevitably be affected. The departments of Biology, Chemistry, Modern Foreign Languages, Mathematics and Computer Science, Psychology, and Sociology are all shared through the program. The Communications department is almost entirely Mount-based. In addition the English, Fine Arts, Special Education and Religious Studies departments are involved with the cooperative program to some degree.
Students majoring in these areas, as well as faculty, will likely experience the greatest changes.
Dr. Weldon Jackson, Provost of Manhattan College, explained briefly what may be in store. "The current program outlines educational opportunities that may be affected by the decision of the Board," he said. Certain educational aspects may have to be "reinvented" to make up for what is lost with the end of the program.
On September 21, the Boards of Trustees of Manhattan College and the Mount will meet and examine the case. If they decide that the cooperative program is inefficient or obsolete, the change could occur within the next year and a half.
At this point, however, the fate of the program is uncertain. Brother Thomas Scanlan, President of Manhattan College, declined an interview but offered a brief statement. "Our relationship with the Mount is being examined," he said. "To call it a 'potential split' is an overstatement."
Last spring Dr. Neil Thorburn, former Interim President of Ancilla College in Donaldson, Indiana, conducted an investigation of the cooperative program. The Boards had turned to Thorburn as an objective voice, and also because he brings the experience of having run similar cooperative programs.
Based on his report and on other information gathered over the summer, the Boards decided to review the case further.
If the Boards decide to end the program, Manhattan College and Mount students will inevitably be affected. The departments of Biology, Chemistry, Modern Foreign Languages, Mathematics and Computer Science, Psychology, and Sociology are all shared through the program. The Communications department is almost entirely Mount-based. In addition the English, Fine Arts, Special Education and Religious Studies departments are involved with the cooperative program to some degree.
Students majoring in these areas, as well as faculty, will likely experience the greatest changes.
Dr. Weldon Jackson, Provost of Manhattan College, explained briefly what may be in store. "The current program outlines educational opportunities that may be affected by the decision of the Board," he said. Certain educational aspects may have to be "reinvented" to make up for what is lost with the end of the program.