MSU Provost Lou Anna Simon will reveal her long-awaited "blueprint" for MSU's liberal arts and sciences reconstruction at noon today on her Web site.

Simon declined to comment on any specific actions suggested in her draft, but said she plans to make herself accessible to many campus groups for questions after the document's unveiling.

Committees began working on recommendations for the proposal in November, which is aimed at improving MSU's liberal arts through individual programs, departments, classes and faculty. Simon said the final document also will save the university "a bit of money," but asserted that its intent is to improve excellence.

"Yes, we've got financial problems, but we're not about only saving money here, of course," MSU President M. Peter McPherson said at Tuesday's Faculty Council meeting. "We have to continue to rethink, innovate - despite the problems.

"It can't be all about money."

Both Simon and McPherson made constant reassurances to the council that the money didn't drive the proposal. In fact, Simon said, the liberal arts reorganization would be an issue even if MSU did not face financial plight.

"The liberal arts discussion was a discussion on how to think about an agenda on improving quality," she said.

Simon said university segments have a March 1 deadline to deal with the budget cuts individually to make up for the shortfall of about $20 million the university already faces. If community members have questions or suggestions on Simon's blueprint, they have until March 5 to address them.

She will take spring break as an opportunity to create concrete proposals to send through the university's approval process.

"I'm trying to be engaging in the community beforehand," she said. "I want comments back before I make my final proposals."

Simon's draft is not, in itself, a proposal for action, but more of a formal recommendation to the university community. Before any proposal can take effect, it must pass through the Academic Governance system.

"By being more public about it - which we've tried to do - people get confused about what is actually a proposal and what is not," she said, adding that some might pass through quickly. "Some things will come to closure over spring semester."

Faculty and staff who might be affected by Simon's recommendations anticipate the release of information.

"I'll be very interested," said Stephen Schneider, an associate professor in the MSU Department of Physiology. "Whatever the report says tomorrow will lay to rest the rumors that are inevitable with lack of information."

Simon said she also hopes the release of her report will quell the rumors that have circled MSU's campus.

"I may have made an error in trying to be so transparent about this process, because it causes so much confusion," she said.

But Alice Whiren, a professor in the MSU Department of Family and Child Ecology, said she's expecting both positive and negative effects from Simon's report.

"With every inherent change, there is both risk and opportunity and this will be the same - there will be both enhancements and limitations," she said. "Change in itself involves a great deal of energy."

Economics Professor Charles Ballard said Simon's blueprint most likely will be steered by budget concerns and cuts.

"It's simply impossible to absorb $70 million (total cuts) without services reduced," he said. "You can always trim some fat in any organization, but you can't trim that much fat.

"Now we are losing bone and some muscle."

To view the Provost's blueprint, visit msu.edu/unit/provost.

Amy Bartner can be reached at bartner2@msu.edu.

Meghan Gilbert can be reached at gilbe109@msu.edu.