The colleges formerly known as the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography and the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences have merged to form the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center. The university released a statement in late June explaining that the main goals of the merger were to help students understand the importance of interdisciplinary studies and form deeper bonds between the studies of research and communication.
Andrea Nevins, the interim dean of the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research center, said that President Hanbury was greatly inspired by the ways art and science can complement each other in a person and professional sense.
“He spoke about Guy Harvey, who is an oceanographer with a Ph.D [and a] well established artist, and the way these two careers have blended into each other. He pointed to Guy Harvey as sort of the epitome of this comingling of the arts and the sciences for the better of the two in a person’s professional past. That, really, is the primary inspiration between merging the two,” Nevins said.
Aileen Miyuki Farrar, an assistant professor and associate chair of the Department of Humanities and Politics and the director of the Humanities Center explained that she also believes blending the arts and sciences can help students become more well rounded.
“The way that I always talk about it with my students is that the sciences prepare us for knowledge that is considered objective and known, but the humanities prepare us for the ambiguities and uncertainties of the unknown and how to interpret multiple possibilities.” Farrar said. She believes that having both of these types of critical thinking taught side by side will help students prepare to tackle any issues they may be dealing with, whether that is in an educational, professional, or personal setting.
The merging of the colleges creates new opportunities for students. Both Farrar and Nevins noted that the college was already looking into new and exciting educational ventures for students.
“In my department, we are already looking into creating a medical humanities major. This is something that would involve interdisciplinary opportunities for students to have some science and humanities background.” Farrar said, noting that this major would be an especially interesting opportunity for students considering going to medical school.
Nevins said that they were not only looking into possibly adding new areas of study, but integrating collaborative teaching and research into the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences.
“Collaborative studies already happens to some extent, but that is often via our Honors College, which has a couple courses that are co-taught. However, it’s not always possible or easy to have faculty necessarily dedicate themselves to an entire course in order to provide students with multidisciplinary experience. What are some of the alternatives? Maybe it’s a guest lecturing series, where faculty are going from class to class. Maybe it’s partially co-taught, maybe one faculty member teaches for one segment of the semester and co-teaches with a colleague. That is something that students would certainly benefit from and can look out for,” Nevins said.
She elaborated that while it also may be hard to match up faculty for collaborative work, the college is already looking at creative solutions to help make the process easier. The idea they’ve come up with is a fun and fresh way to connect faculty: academic speed dating.
“It’s sort of like regular speed dating, however the focus is sharing your current academic research interests. A part of what happens, especially because our college is so big and has so many faculty, is that faculty don’t necessarily know everyone. This will be an effort just for faculty to get to know each other, and to get to know the scope of what everyone is doing. We’re still in the stages of planning it, and it’s going to be virtual, of course. I am looking forward to discovering what we can discover about ourselves through that speed dating event,” Nevins explained.
Both Nevins and Farrar felt this was a great chance for NSU to support their students and give them new opportunities in a competitive field.
However, some students are dubious of any incoming changes. Gates Mariotti is a junior environmental science major with minors in theatre and marine biology. He feels that the merge of the two colleges has the possibility of making them both suffer because one discipline may outweigh the other. Even so, he remains curious to see what changes Halmos College of Arts and Sciences will bring to his education at NSU.
“While I don’t think that the merge was in the best interest of both colleges, I hope I’m wrong.” Mariotti said.
Adrian Ditore, a sophomore, marine biology major said while he felt somewhat left in the dark about the formation of Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, he is interested in learning more about why the colleges merged and what that will mean for himself and other students.
“I was told by one of my marine biology professors that the change was happening or that it had already happened, but there wasn’t any information given to me otherwise. I was looking at the website for information and it said that they would be doing more collaborative work, but I couldn’t actually find any more information on that either,” said Ditore.
While the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences is still just beginning to explore research and collaboration opportunities between disciplines, staff and faculty are excited to see what the future holds for both themselves and students.
“Speaking from a faculty’s perspective, I think that there has been a lot of excitement and interest in having interdisciplinary studies here at Nova Southeastern University, and so bringing the arts and sciences and humanities back together is a timely and opportunistic thing to do. Bringing things together for students helps to make more visible the university’s intent to give to students this comprehensive preparation, not just for their professional goals, but for their personal ambitions as well,” Farrar said.
