A new venue has been created for faculty to express concern about the future of liberal arts at MSU.

Provost Lou Anna Simon proposed the formation of a new Committee on College Reorganization of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Tuesday's Executive Committee of Academic Council meeting.

The formation of the committee is planned for the next couple of weeks, and the committee has until Oct. 1 to report back to the provost with thoughts on how college reorganization should proceed.

"The blueprint concept in the minds of some was the final plan of the house," Simon said. "I think it's responsive to both the process of concerns at this phase and provides an opportunity to relook at alternatives that were presented."

Stephen Esquith, professor and chairman of the Department of Philosophy, will lead the committee through discussions and serve as a special adviser to the provost.

Simon said Esquith had the leadership and experience to work through broad academic issues and lend his own faculty voice.

Esquith said he agreed to lead the group because this is an important time for MSU and sees this as an opportunity to work with his fellow colleagues.

"I'm very excited about it because the university attention is focused on these questions, and there's a lot of talent and experience and understanding about how the university should go forward, and the task for us is to try to focus it," he said.

Esquith said he anticipates a core committee that will meet regularly with a number of branches and subcommittees adding their opinions. He said he also plans to work with the Academic Governance system in forming the committee and relaying information to the MSU community.

The core committee likely would represent the colleges of Arts & Letters, Communication Arts and Sciences and Social Science, as well as the College of Natural Science. Under Simon's proposal, the Colleges of Arts & Letters and Communication Arts and Sciences would combine and the College of Human Ecology would be distributed throughout other areas of the university.

"It will be a modest size, as far as the core group, but I see a much larger set of bodies to deal with particular issues," he said. "I want it to be as open as possible."

Grover Hudson, linguistics professor and College of Arts & Letters Advisory Council chair, said his council has an interest in getting involved in the committee. He said the committee should help clear up confusion about the reorganization.

"This is an improvement over the way the process was going before," he said.

Prior to the establishment of the new Committee on College Reorganization of Liberal Arts and Sciences, opinions could be expressed through e-mail to newidea@msu.edu. Some feedback has been posted on the provost's Web site with the permission of the authors.

The Realizing the Vision blueprint was released to the MSU community Feb. 17.

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