NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information on the proposal, contact Provost Douglas P. Ferraro at 895-3301.

UNLV's deans and department chairs received today a proposal for academic reorganization of the university.

Titled "Proposed Concepts for the Organization of UNLV Colleges and Schools: A Working Draft," the report is the work of a committee formed in 1995 to study the existing academic organization of the university. The document was distributed Thursday by the Provost's Office.

"The UNLV campus is being asked to consider the organization of its colleges and schools in the context of President Carol C. Harter's vision of the institution as a premier urban university," said Provost Douglas P. Ferraro. "Our intent is to mold UNLV into a university with student-centered and research foci that relate to the city and region while achieving excellence as a national university."

The reorganization document proposes three scenarios, each of which differs from the current organizational scheme of 11 colleges and two schools. The university community has been asked to give its input on the proposal to Ferraro, who will be making recommendations to President Harter for reorganizing the university's academic units this year.

"This is a very exciting initiative that should provide a major step forward in the academic quality of the university," Ferraro said. "Our hope is that the plan that ultimately emerges from this proposal will improve academic, administrative, and budgetary efficiency, all of which will help us achieve our goal of better serving UNLV students."