Northeastern University students were largely supportive of their administration’s decision to divide its College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college on campus, into three distinct colleges. Students enrolled in Northeastern’s CAS received an email last week informing them of the Faculty Senate’s decision to restructure the college into three separate categories: a College of Science, a College of Social Sciences and Humanities and a College of Arts, Media and Design. The Faculty Senate voted to approve the plan in October, after nearly 10 months of discussion and study as to how this would affect the university as a whole, though students were only just notified. Northeastern spokeswoman Renata Nyul said the decision will most likely go into effect in July 2010. ‘It is really more restructuring than anything else,’ Nyul said. She said the changes will also consolidate the College of Criminal Justice into a program offered in the new College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Over the past 12 years, Northeastern has restructured two other schools and colleges by integrating entire schools into another, making them a program within a school. The College of Nursing was moved into Bouv’eacute; College of Health Sciences in 1997, and in 2008 the School of Technological Entrepreneurship became part of the College of Business Administration. According to a Sept. 9 news@Northeastern article, university Provost Stephen Director said the Office of the Provost met with departments heads from the CAS over the summer to determine how interdisciplinary collaboration could become more cohesive in order to reach key research audiences. Director said in the article that the restructuring will ‘better align academic departments that share educational and research goals and approaches, giving them more power to advocate for resources.’ The changes have raised some concerns among students, parents and faculty about what dividing the college will mean for the university’s renowned co-op program. According to a Provost Office statement, the split is not expected to have an adverse effect on the co-op. ‘Assuming the restructuring creates new interdisciplinary degree programs, as we expect, we should see co-op opportunities grow for all students,’ the statement said. The Provost Office said it is working to create task forces to resolve both academic and logistical issues that come with the restructuring, including the integration of the new colleges into student recruiting and the staffing of new positions within each college. Students said they expect the split will increase individualized attention to the diverse fields of study currently encompassed by CAS. Christopher Slater, a third-year student at Northeastern, said he did not think the changes would be too drastic. ‘I think it will actually be more effective to divide the college rather than keeping it how it is,’ Slater, an architecture major, said. ‘Hopefully it will be more focused and we will receive more funding since the college will be recognized specifically for arts and design.’ Rochelly Fajardo, a second-year student, said she is glad the university decided to reorganize. ‘I am a biology major and it is a really popular major with a lot of people,’ Fajardo said. ‘It will be nice to have a school that only focuses on people who want to do some type of science.’ Fifth-year physical therapy student Chris Joyce also said he thought it would be beneficial for students interested in pursuing an education in CAS. ‘Smaller colleges allow for more individualized attention that will hopefully facilitate better learning in the classroom and through co-op placements,’ he said.