{"id":182666,"date":"2026-02-27T07:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:52:09","slug":"ischool-dean-talks-consolidation-new-plans-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182666\/","title":{"rendered":"iSchool Dean talks consolidation, new plans \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

UT President Jim Davis announced the University will consolidate three programs including the School of Information into a single interdisciplinary unit within the College of Natural Sciences in a Feb. 19 email<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new School of Computing will open in fall 2026, combining the iSchool with the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, according to Davis\u2019s announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The iSchool, which has existed as a standalone school since 1948, has offered undergraduate degrees in informatics since 2021. Informatics is a multi-faceted degree that \u201cexplores the intersection of people, information and technology\u201d and includes concentrations like user experience design and health informatics. The iSchool also houses graduate and doctoral programs in information studies and a school librarian certificate.<\/p>\n

Ken Fleischmann, interim dean of the iSchool, said that the consolidation will help students to diversify their studies and bring further opportunities to the school. Fleischmann was appointed interim dean Feb. 1 and will remain in that position until the fall, when he will become chair of the new computing school under CNS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soo Young Rieh, the previous interim dean, left the position because her term was up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never been more important for work in our field to gain in prominence and also to build closer ties and collaboration with fields like computer science, statistics and data sciences,\u201d Fleischmann said.<\/p>\n

The consolidation of the schools, announced in November <\/a>and officially approved at the UT System Board of Regents meeting <\/a>Feb. 19, will increase access to the other programs\u2019 classes for students in each respective major Fleischmann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to tear down those walls,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cWe need to be thinking about the impacts that technologies have on society as we\u2019re building the technologies, because otherwise, it\u2019ll be too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleischmann said most things within the new school are still up in the air, including tuition changes and newly available programs. He said that despite fears around the changes, he believes they will be wholly beneficial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChange brings uncertainty, and that can be a little bit hard for anyone to deal with in any situation,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cBut on the other hand, not having any change for many years wouldn\u2019t be great either. I think change can be hard, but also, change is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

The iSchool\u2019s primary building, located two blocks south from the main campus at 16th and Guadalupe streets, also faces an uncertain future. Fleischmann said the University has expressed interest in bringing all the iSchool\u2019s faculty and staff onto the main campus.<\/p>\n

Fleischmann said overall, he is excited for the collaborations and research opportunities the change will bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited about what we\u2019ll be able to accomplish together,\u201d Fleischmann said. \u201cThey appreciate what we have to bring to the table, as well as we appreciate what they bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UT President Jim Davis announced the University will consolidate three programs including the School of Information into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-182666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}