Lindenwood will merge current academic schools into larger academic colleges to encourage collaboration.

The office of the provost made the announcement in an email Wednesday afternoon to faculty and staff. 

“Effective July 1, we will restructure our program alignments to bring together like-minded areas of our academic offerings and foster collaboration amongst talented faculty and students,” Mark Arant, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said in the email.

Two current schools — the School of Humanities, and the School of Arts, Media and Communications — will merge under the leadership of Kathi Vosevich, the current dean of the School of Humanities.

The Schools of Sciences and the School of Health Sciences, two other current schools, will form a new college with Cynthia Shroeder as the dean. Shroeder, who is the current dean of health sciences, was a finalist in the search for a provost last year. 

The School of Education and the Plaster School of Business and Entrepreneurship will become colleges and adopt the college moniker.

The email stated the faculty and staff of the new colleges will determine the new names and determine the future department alignments. 

In addition to the email, Arant announced the changes at a virtual town hall with the faculty in the afternoon.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more information.