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Graduate Schools Change Names and Focus

Reflecting their new focus on graduate and undergraduate education, two of Simmons’s graduate schools recently changed names. The Graduate School for Health Studies is now the School for Health Studies and the Graduate School of Management is now the School of Management.

The name change is part of an organizational shift – or realignment – affecting the undergraduate college and the schools of management and health studies. The realignment combines the formerly separate undergraduate and graduate faculties in management, nursing, and nutrition, eliminating redundancy and offering faculty and students a greater breadth of teaching and learning opportunities than was possible before.

"The realignment offers faculty the opportunity to teach both graduate and undergraduate courses, but this does not mean that graduate and undergraduate courses will be combined; they will remain separate. Students will benefit by having more faculty to choose from and a stronger curriculum," said President Daniel S. Cheever, Jr.

The changes began last year with the combination of the undergraduate and graduate nursing and nutrition faculties into the School for Health Studies. Realignment was completed this year when the School of Management combined its faculty with undergraduate management professors.

From a historical view, realignment marks a turning point for Simmons. When the College was founded, the focus was on teaching undergraduate students a specific set of professional skills. As a result, Simmons had a variety of schools in the undergraduate college, including business administration, publication, social science, and education. These schools were disbanded in the 1970s as Simmons focused on strengthening its liberal arts programs for undergraduates.

While not affected by realignment, the Graduate School of Social Work also changed its name to the School of Social Work – the original name of the school. The Graduate School of Library and Information Science will retain its name since the school focuses exclusively on graduate education.