Two weeks is the perfect amount of time to do a lot of things. Wimbledon, a long vacation, even a two-week seminar on something. The fortnight is a neat and tidy life span - 14 days, short and sweet.

One thing that is generally not streamlined to happen in two weeks, though, is a radically different reorganization of whole colleges, the likes of which hasn't been seen in 35 years. It's just a touch messy to give a two-week window for feedback before plans are finalized for Provost Lou Anna Simon's liberal arts shuffle.

Under Simon's proposal, the colleges of Communication Arts and Sciences, the Arts & Letters, and Human Ecology would be dissolved and reorganized into new colleges with new requirements and new names. No program would be eliminated, though it's important to remember that all proposed changes are just that - proposals.

Realignment is not an inherently bad idea, in fact, it could prove to be positive for the university in the long run. But when asking students and faculty to figuratively blindfold their course of study, move it to a new school and be forced to make all new friends, one can't really get a bead on the whole situation before March 5.

The ramifications of Simon's proposals are nothing short of enormous. The required classes would change, the integrated studies program - the super-fun IAHs, ISPs, IS-whatevers - would possibly change, jobs from affected colleges could be cut, acronyms would take over the world, dogs and cats would be living together - there would be mass hysteria.

A dramatization, yes, but the side effects of radically reorganizing MSU's liberal arts programs - everything that doesn't require a lot of math or science - could have such long-term capabilities that it's simply unfair to assume a balanced assessment of the proposal will be fashioned in a fortnight.

Moreover, student opinion in this proposal should be the driving force. Staff and faculty have seen this change looming on the horizon for some time now. Essentially, the only people caught relatively off guard by Simon's announcement were the students themselves.

The people - students - that this proposal directly affects have two weeks to understand how the change affects their life and then offer their support or criticism? Simon's consideration of student reaction is so alienating, the two-week feedback window creeps closer and closer to the border of science fiction.

What could precipitate such a realignment still needs to be fully disclosed, as well. "New alignments and synergies to move programs forward," as Simon put it, is as clear as the road ice on Grand River Avenue. Factor in that the School of Music and the Department of Theatre still need "additional discussion and thought," and the intrigue only builds. Two weeks to formalize the proposal, and Simon still is without a plan for two departments of the university?

Two weeks is the perfect amount of time for a lot of things. For the most dramatic overhaul MSU has seen since the university's name changed from Michigan State College, well, two weeks is just simply not enough.