Leaders at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany are planning to restructure the school's academic framework, which they say will better serve students and meet demands of the regional workforce.

A news release this week outlined plans for the satellite campus to transition from six academic schools to three colleges: College of Education, Arts and Human Services; College of Business, Communication and Technology; and College of Health, Nursing and Sciences.

If university-wide leaders approve the plan in June, as expected, it would replace the current structure: schools of Arts and Letters; Business; Education; Natural Sciences; Nursing; and Social Sciences, according to the IU Southeast website.

Michelle Williams, executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at the campus, said the changes come in response to community needs and as campus educators assessed IU Southeast's role as a regional public university.

IU Southeast's role as a regional public university.

She said the school has a responsibility and mission to make sure students are prepared to transition to higher education, if that's appropriate for them.

"Also, we know that it's our responsibility to help them be connected with and transition to the workplace with the skills that they need to be successful there," Williams said.

The announcement comes weeks after the state approved changes to eliminate or merge nearly 600 degree programs across public colleges and universities in Indiana. That followed legislation state lawmakers passed last year calling for changes to programs that don't meet certain enrollment thresholds.

A final recommendation list published April 1 by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education shows 38 under-threshold programs at IU Southeast impacted by the legislation, with 23 to be merged or consolidated and nine to be suspended or eliminated with "teach-out," which means enrolled students can complete their programs.

Williams said the move to a three-college model was not in response to the legislation. She said school leaders have been looking at the organization as a whole for the past few years, and trying to adapt and lean into their mission in the region. The academic program portfolio is one part of that, she said.

"But certainly, when the law came along, we said, 'Oh, we've got a much more accelerated timeline for accomplishing some of this work,'" she said.

Williams said the new "meta-majors" are designed to give students a "broad, career-clustered focus."

For instance, prospective students might be aware of specific occupations, like nursing or pharmacy, and the new structure can expose them to related disciplines.

"If you're interested in health, there's also medical lab science, there's also health and patient management," she said. "[We're] just trying to introduce students to the ecosystem of health so that they might explore and make sure that the thing that they know is an occupation, that they think they're interested in, is actually the right one for them."

Williams said she and others think there will be some changes in curriculum "that result from some of the synergy that's happening with different areas and different disciplines," and that some changes have already happened.

She also said she feels the changes will make students more marketable in the job force.

"Because what we're hearing from employers is students need to have that expertise and those specialized skills," she said. "But employers are oftentimes telling us that they need students to have other competencies as well."

She said they believe having adjacent fields work together will "enhance the marketability of students."

According to the release, the three-college structure comes after a four-month review by a staff- and faculty-led task force.

Administrators say there won't be reductions in the schools' workforce but that some roles will change.

Interim deans will lead each college beginning June 1, according to a letter to community stakeholders.

Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
Copyright 2026 LPM News