Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Steven Moser has extended the deadline for accepting Academic Reorganization plan proposals aimed to explore possibilities in the restructuring of The University of Southern Mississippi’s academic degree programs.

Moser said his decision to extend the deadline is “based upon feedback from staff and faculty and grounded in recommendations from the Academic Leadership Council.”

“The Plan for Academic Reorganization has been revised to reflect the deadline extension and now includes an expansion of Level 2 proposal types,” said Moser, who believes the deadline extension will provide faculty and staff with “time to more fully develop proposals.”

Moser said given the most recent recision by the governor in response to a shortfall in current state revenue collections, focus of the review of proposals may shift but will not change the timeline of the plan’s implementation within the next academic year.

In spite of reductions to state agency funding, Moser remains optimistic that the plan will cut costs.

“The newly announced budget reduction will shift campus conversations addressing realignment and reorganization to greater emphasis on costs savings,” he said.

Moser also said that the Request for Proposals is comprehensive.

“Therefore, [it is] prudent for all department and school faculty and staff to be involved in conversations that could lead to cost savings, as well as potential realignments or consolidations in academic programing.”

Some faculty are opposed to the administration’s attempts at restructuring the university. USM Department of History professor Douglas Chambers wrote that the plan was “full of blather” in a December letter to the Printz.