The Department of Education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will be phased out over the next two years, the University announced Tuesday. The exact date for the closing of the department has yet to be determined.

No current faculty positions are on the chopping block and students currently pursuing education degrees will be allowed to finish their programs, Senior Associate Dean of CALS Max Pfeffer said. The Cornell Cooperative Extension program will not be affected by these changes, according to the University.

“We are certainly making this decision with a great deal of pause and a great deal of regret because the professors of the department are very productive and are valued members of our college,” Pfeffer said. “We are trying to minimize the damage to our college by making sure that they are still involved.”

CALS administrators will consult with both education faculty, who will be relocated to new departments, and with members of those departments as the phasing-out process moves forward, Pfeffer said. 

“We haven’t predetermined where [the 11 department of education faculty] will go,” Pfeffer said. “We are going to begin tomorrow talking to all the faculty individually to learn more about their needs ... [and] interests to determine ... their new academic homes.”

Pfeffer said CALS plans to eliminate education programs gradually over the next two years, allowing current students to complete program requirements and earn their degrees.

“We are trying to make sure that all the students in the education program will be able to fulfill their program,” he said.

CALS currently offers an undergraduate minor in education and graduate programs in Adult and Extension Education and Learning, Teaching and Social Policy.

In the absence of the Department of Education, the University plans to create new means through which students can receive teaching accreditation — specifically in the areas of science, technology, mathematics, engineering and agricultural science, Pfeffer said, citing the potential for partnerships with other local universities that do have education programs and award teaching accreditation.

The decision to eliminate the Department of Education comes as CALS grapples with the need to fulfill its strategic plan objectives after much discussion amongst the Strategic Advisory Committee of faculty, staff and administrators.

Kathryn Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch dean of agriculture and life sciences, told the University that the department was cut because CALS did not have the resources “to ensure its pre-eminence.”

In a letter e-mailed to the CALS community Tuesday, Boor wrote, “The economic reality is such that we will need to continue to make diffficult and sometimes unpopular decisions in coming years.”

According to Pfeffer, the strategic plan — part of the University’s financial restructuring and the Reimagining Cornell initiative begun last year — was the basis for the decision.

The decision was, in part, intended to allow CALS to fulfill University-wide efforts hiring efforts of younger tenure-track professors to replace retiring faculty.

“What we’re trying to do is focus our resources more carefully so that we can engage in the faculty renewal initiative of the University in focused ways to hire new faculty,” he said.