Houshmand restructures administration as first order of business

In an effort to consolidate departments and conserve money during budget season, Interim President Dr. Ali Houshmand’s first order of business was to rearrange the jobs and titles of several faculty members.

Houshmand sent an e-mail to the campus detailing his personnel decisions and how they will effect the university. According to the e-mail and Media and Public Relations Director Joe Cardona, the changes will have no direct impact on the budget for the university.

“While we have made many important changes during the past several years, a realignment of some divisions and reassignment of some duties will create a more efficient administrative structure,” Houshmand said in the e-mail. “These changes will not increase the overall salary budget for the university. The reassignments will be subject to review and approval by the new president.”

Houshmand combined University’s Ethics Liaison Officer, Human Resources, Equity and Diversity and Employee and Labor Relations. Robert Zazzalli, previously Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, will oversee all of these departments.

“It is about efficiency, and what departments work best with others. There are different alignments of the university that two departments would be better working closely than if they were apart,” Cardona said.

Previously, Public Safety and Athletics, which were previously under the oversight of Student Affairs, will now report directly to the office of the president.

Former Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Carmen Jordan-Cox has “requested to return to the classroom,” according to the e-mail.

In her place, Dean of Students Richard Jones will oversee the office of Student Life (previously Student Affairs). The rest of the semester will serve as a transition period for the department, and Jordan-Cox will begin teaching in the fall.

“What happens is there is an expansion and a contraction of divisions. In the expansion mode, a few years back, public safety and athletics were added,” Cardona said. “And now we are looking at how we are going to look at the university today, but also tomorrow and moving into the future, and you have to look at what makes sense to be where they are.”

The Division of Administration and Finance has been divided into three departments: general counsel, Division of Operations and Facilities and the Division of Finance.

“Employee relations was under administration and finance, but what does facilities have to do with human resources? By creating a division of employee and labor relations, you took all of the offices from two and brought them into one division,” Cardona said.

Rick Hale, Vice President for Administration and Finance, has been acting general counsel on an unofficial basis for about one year, since the position has been empty.

He serves as a head legal-counsel for the university, a position Rowan created in order to have legal aid on campus rather than using the attorney general’s office in Trenton. Barbara Kleva, who retired last year, previously held the general position.

This general counsel on campus is in addition to the outside law firm hired by the Board of Trustees for $50,000 in October.

Cardona said this allows Hale to focus on the legal aspect of partnerships such as the one which created Cooper Medical School.

Michael Harris, previous Vice President of Facilities Operations, will now be the Vice President of Operations and Facilities, which will now include Events, Conferencing and Scheduling, Environmental Health and Safety (previously Public Safety) and Procurement Services.

Dr. Thomas Gallia, Vice President of University Relations and President’s Chief of Staff, will now also oversee media and public relations as well as university publications (previously run from the president’s office) and university events.

These changes will be in full effect by next semester, but the transition period for these departments has already begun.

Cardona said former President Donald Farish has little to do with the changes, and is instead focusing on transitioning out of his position, attending different functions and gatherings, and finishing projects he had been working on for the BOT.

“Whenever there is a change in leadership, an opportunity to make other changes and realignments occurs. With Farish, he wasn’t really involved in that piece, because he was looking at ‘okay well my term is going to end’, but when there is a change in leadership there is an opportunity to be more efficient,” Cardona said. “It’s a lot of change, and if we do it right, you wont even notice the change.”